La Bayadère is being rewritten

Once every a few years, a specific full-length ballet kicks off a trend to inspire choreographers to rewrite and re-stage. It was Swan Lake for a while ago. A few years ago, it was Raymonda. Well, The Nutcracker is being refreshed more often than other ballets, with the most recent creations including English National Ballet and Ballett Basel.

The newest trend seems to be La Bayadère.

La Bayadère was created by Marius Petipa set to Ludwig Minks' score and premiered in 1877. Set in India somewhere in the past, the ballet tells entangled love and betrayal between Temple Dancer Nikiya, her lover young warrior Solor and her rival Gamzatti, a beautiful daughter of the powerful Rajah, with the High Brahmin the main antagonist.

Starting this month, December 2025, at least three rewritten versions of this 19th century ballet are coming up with significantly distinctive interpretations.

The first up is Les Ballets de Monte Carlo's Ma Bayadère by Jean-Christophe Maillot, which will premiere on 27th December 22025.

The company's webpage says, "this new creation is anchored in the daily life of a dance company for whom the dance studio will become the theatre of a darkly humorous and fierce human comedy. Ma Bayadère already promises to be one of the choreographer's most personal ballets, a true mise-en-abyme."

The Dutch National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) explicitly attempt to correct cultural appropriations of La Bayadère.

The Dutch National Ballet will premiere its new version in March 2026, with restaging by a group of creators led by Rachel Beaujean. The setting is still in India. But the Dutch company presents a Dutchman as an antagonist. The time scope is the era of Dutch East India Company. The heroine is Nikiya. Solor is a captain with a mixed heritage, who tries to break the traditional race and caste. Dutch Governor William Carel Hartsinck, who may and may not be a combined character of the High Brahmin and the Rajah, forces him to marry his daughter, Alida, who is probably Gamzatti character in the original.

This comes as a backdrop of a slew of apologies by the Dutch Monarch for past slavery, the most recently in Suriname.

BRB's Artistic Director Carlos Acosta will restage La Bayadère. He was concerned about cultural appropriation he has gone to change the title to The Maiden of Venice.

The Maiden of Venice is set in Renaissance Venice, Italy, instead of ancient India. Nikiya is called Nicoletta.

The original score by Minkus will be arranged by Gavin Sutherland. Set and costumes will be designed by Anna Fleischle and lighting by Lucy Carter.

BRB said in the press release in May 2025, “In recent times, the original narrative has become problematic, in both its themes and its recognised cultural appropriation. By moving the time and place from ancient India to Renaissance Venice, these sensitivities are removed in favour of the universal messages and richness of this precious work of art.”

We have to wait until February 2027 to watch Acosta's creation.

Onegin

In addition to La Bayadère, there will be at least one re-staging Onegin soon. Onegin was created by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet that premiered in 1965. The ballet was based on Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel Eugene Onegin, to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

San Francisco Ballet (SFB) and The Joffrey Ballet have co-commissioned Yuri Possokhov to create Eugene Onegin.

Possokhov, Resident Choreographer of SFB, bases his Eugene Onegin on the same Pushkin's novel. But Ilya Demutsky composes an original score for the new ballet.

The new Eugene Onegin will world premiere on 23rd January 2026 with SFB.