“When La Bayadère was created in 1877,” says the Australian choreographer Greg Horsman, “the British had been ruling India for hundreds of years. That’s not reflected at all in the traditional story of Bayadère.” Now it is. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet presents the Canadian premiere of Horsman’s La Bayadère, which reconceives the story to include the British Raj. Fear not, Petipa’s “Kingdom of the Shades,” a mesmerizing moonlit passage, remains unchanged. —L.J.

La Bayadère was featured in the September 21, 2019 issue of Air Mail. Read on