Photo Flash: Houston Ballet Caps Season with Stanton Welch's LA BAYADERE

From June 8 - 18, 2017, Houston Ballet caps its season with Stanton Welch's La Bayadère ("The Temple Dancer"), a historic classic set in royal India of the past. La Bayadère is a dramatic ballet of eternal love, mystery, fate, vengeance and justice, featuring spectacular scenery and costumes by the acclaimEd English designer Peter Farmer. This lavish production recounts the story of Nikiya, a temple dancer, her lover Solor, and the vengeance that keeps them apart - at least in this life.

Check out photos from the show below!

La Bayadère's third act, the famous Kingdom of the Shades section, showcases 24 female dancers in white tutus, executing 38 synchronized and seamless arabesques while descending onto the stage, and is one of the purest forms of ballet-blanc, or white tutu ballet. "The Kingdom of the Shades is a challenging segment because it requires such control and precision from the corps de ballet women," said Mr. Welch. "There are few works in the classical repertoire that require more precision from the corps de ballet." The Kingdom of the Shades is so popular it is often performed on its own. Houston Ballet first performed The Kingdom of the Shades scene, staged by Ben Stevenson OBE after Marius Petipa, in March 1994 and revived it in 1998.

For more information, visit houstonballet.org.

Photo credit: Amitava Sarkar

Connor Walsh and Yuriko Kajiya
Karina Gonzalez
Connor Walsh and Karina Gonzalez
Connor Walsh
Connor Walsh
Chun Wai Chan
Artists of Houston Ballet
Connor Walsh and Karina Gonzalez
Connor Walsh and Karina Gonzalez
Connor Walsh and Yuriko Kajiya