Ballet’s Leading Ladies: Nikiya, the tragic heroine

In a dancing career that spanned three decades, Ballet Manila artistic director Lisa Macuja-Elizalde had the good fortune to portray the most fascinating lead characters to have ever graced the stage. This Women’s Month, we feature a series recalling Lisa’s notes on these iconic female figures – from Don Quixote’s feisty heroine Kitri to Swan Lake’s challenging dual roles of Odette and Odile – paired with choice photos from the Ballet Manila Archives collection.

Photos by Ocs Alvarez

One of the last performances as Nikiya, from Swan Song Series 2013. “Being a romantic at heart, I am attracted to the tragic story of La Bayadere. It is the tale of Nikiya, a lovely Indian woman of lowly birth who is committed to a lifetime of service in the temple of the High Brahmin as a bayadere or water bearer. As romantic tragedies go, she falls in love with a renowned warrior, Solor, who in turn is already engaged to the Maharajah’s daughter, Princess Gamzatti.”

Ballet Manila’s first staging of the full-length La Bayadere with Maxim Chaschegorov as Solor, 2004. “Poor Nikiya is ‘the other woman’ trapped in a spiraling conflict: the scheming High Brahmin desires her; the powerful Maharajah and his daughter want her out of the way; her cherished Solor loves her but acknowledges that they can never be wed. The audience is taken to a journey back in time, when societies were separated by castes and when death was sometimes the noblest way out of an impossible situation.

Nikiya’s solo, 2004. “Personally, my favorite choreographic part is ‘Nikiya’s Lament’ – the long solo in Act 2 after Solor and Gamzatti’s wedding. This is where she dances with a basket of flowers that, unknown to her, contains the venomous snake that will ultimately take her life.”

Kingdom of the Shades scene, 2006. “Nikiya’s heaviest dancing happens in the last act of the ballet. She dies in the first part of the story and is transported to the next world where one of the most beautiful choreographies in classical ballet takes place. It is a demanding showpiece that highlights the corps de ballet’s control and discipline because all the dancing is done in slow motion. The scene is preceded by the broken hearted Solor smoking opium to dull the pain of losing Nikiya and in his dazed state, dances with 32 images of her.”

Maxim Chaschegorov guests again as Solor, 2006. “There is another exotic choreography known as the ‘Scarf Dance’ where the bayadere dances with a scarf that is held by the prince. It takes a lot of balance and control because the ballerina must give the illusion that she is dancing with the scarf and that the scarf is controlling her every movement.”

Reunited in the afterlife with Solor (Rudy De Dios), Swan Song Series 2013. Lyrical and dramatic, Nikiya demands a deep understanding of love and sacrifice. When she throws away the anti-venom potion that could save her life, choosing to die instead of living without Solor, the audience should understand why.