| Description |
This research places the history of the ballet La Bayadère within the context of European imperialist agendas in order to illuminate the ballet's complicity with colonialism and propaganda. Rather than isolate ballet performances from larger political forces, I situate La Bayadère at the epicenter of France, Britain, and Russia's nineteenthcentury domination of India and read these relationships of conflict through multiple productions: Pierre Gardel's 1810 opera Les Bayadères, Filippo Taglioni's 1830 operaballet Le Dieu et la bayadère, and Marius Petipa's 1877 ballet La Bayadère, as well as present-day interpretations of the production. Drawing on Edward Said's formulations of Orientalism, this paper reveals the social, political, and economic ramifications of ballet performances and the ways that they can accelerate histories of conflict and aggression. Ultimately, La Bayadère was used as an instrument of propaganda, one that purposefully misrepresented Indian culture and perpetuated ideas about Europe's colonial authority. Through close readings of multiple productions, I show how the tropes of simplified, sexualized, and dehumanized characters are portrayed to entrench European self-perceptions of racial supremacy and patriarchal domination. As the production continues to attract audiences and receive critical acclaim, I extrapolate from La Bayadère to argue that we must expand our lenses on other dance productions and ask if the historical and artistic value of such productions outweigh the imperialism and cultural appropriation from which they arose, and that they continue to promote. |
