Feldman Model La Bayadere Houston’s ballet, La Bayadere choreographed by Stanton Welch is a type of world class dance with professional dancers. The beautiful yet plain lighting of the theater gives the audience a perception of how well the performance is presented. The theater is quite spacious and is very suitable for a world class theater performance. The overall look of the theater itself gives off a professional look to it and is quite impressive to the audience.
Upon entering, the audience can see a beautiful painted background that represents a palace on water with a scene of the Taj Mahal. The music is based on classical ballet music and grows louder and whenever danger is represented in the scene. For example, the transition of the very beginning than to the scene of the tiger grows much louder. In the opening scene of La Bayadere, the lights are on Solor who kills the man-eating tiger that has been causing danger to the village that is nearby. There is a performer wearing red and jumps up and down and the viewer can tell that it portrays the man-eating tiger. Also, there is red fire burning from the centerpiece on the stage. Later on, Nikiya comes out and gracefully thanks Solor in the form of beautiful ballet dancing. Moreover, the viewer can tell the profound chemistry between both Nikiya and Solor. In the beginning, there were about twenty people crouching down, but the audience had their eyes on the main performer in the scene which was the tiger.
The use of body parts in motion in that particular scene are highly energetic and spontaneous movements. There are a surplus amount of strong movements in the legs due to the action of jumping. The viewer can tell that leg strength and conditioning are viable in order for the performer to jump skillfully and gracefully. The use of space contains large movements almost everywhere on the stage. Moreover, the use of direction is completely spontaneous. The viewer cannot tell whether the performer will go to one side of the stage or to the front or back. The amount of energy in this performance is very strong with smooth movements. The free flow of energy makes the overall performance very elegant, yet strong and dynamic.
The choreographer’s intention of the dance is to present the audience with a beautiful, cultural, colorful, and romantic story in the form of ballet. He wanted to show the beauty of ballet along with the cultural romantic story of La Bayadere. The use of colorful costumes exemplified the beauty of the cultural and elaborated on the dance of ballet as well. The costumes were not too sensual but also exemplified the love connection between Solor and Nikiya. The movements that are choreographed definitely show the elegant structure and the way the choreographer wanted to elaborate on the “big picture”. The choreographer wanted to form the overall picture as beautiful, elegant, and romantic in detail. Overall, the choreographer succeeded in his intentions. The overall picture of the ballet made the viewer determine the choreographer’s intention of his “big picture”. The structure and form of the ballet altogether creates beauty in the eyes of the audience and made the intentions of the choreographer a huge success. The length of the ballet was very appropriate because it gives the story of ballet a chance to fully go into detail about how the performers in the ballet feels by their elegant movements. La Bayadere gives the viewer an astounding feeling of amazement and admiration towards the elegance and beauty in the ballet and the particular scene of Solor killing the tiger.