Guest dancer Guillaume Basso and OBT company dancer Taylor Lim dance the roles of Solor and Gamzatti.
La Bayadère, set in ancient India, tells the story of the bayadère (the temple dancer) Nikiya and the warrior Solor, who are in love with each other. The High Brahmin (high priest) is also in love with Nikiya and learns of her relationship with Solor.
Solor is arranged to marry Gamzatti, the daughter of the Rajah Dugmanta, but Nikiya, unaware of this arrangement, agrees to dance at the couple’s engagement celebration.
In his effort to have Solor killed and have Nikiya for himself, the jealous High Brahmin tells the Rajah that the warrior has already vowed eternal love to Nikiya over a sacred fire. But the High Brahmin’s plan backfires when the Rajah decides that Nikiya must die.
Gamzatti overheard the conversation, so she summons Nikiya to the palace to bribe her into giving up Solor. As their rivalry intensifies, Nikiya picks up a dagger in a fit of rage and attempts to kill Gamzatti. Gamzatti vows that the bayadère must die.
As Nikiya performs a somber dance at Solor’s engagement celebration, she receives a basket of flowers. Gamzatti concealed a venomous snake under the flowers, and the serpent bites her on the neck. The High Brahmin offers her the antidote to the poison if she will give up Solor, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved.
OBT trainee Evelyn Gohl and company dancer Jackie Iwamura rehearsing La Bayadère Act II.
The heartbroken Solor has a vision of Nikiya’s shade (spirit) among the star-lit mountain peaks of the Himalayas called. The lovers reconcile among the shades of other bayadères. When he wakes up, preparations for his wedding to Gamzatti are on the way, and the shade of Nikiya haunts Solor. When the High Brahmin joins the couple’s hands in marriage, the gods take revenge for Nikiya’s murder by destroying the temple. The shades of both Nikiya and Solor are reunited in death and eternal love.
Hear the story told by guest artist, Guillaume Basso (who dances the role of Solor)!
See La Bayadère (Excerpts from Act II) in the production of Spring Rep on April 12 and 13, 2025, at Edmonds Center for the Arts!