13-26 May 2006. In La Bayadre, choreography by Natalia Makarova from Petipa. The choreography of Bayadre is considered to be the first expression of the grand scale in dance. The subject of The Kingdom of the Shades is not really death, although everybody in it except the hero is dead. Its Elysian bliss, and its setting is eternity. The long, slow repeated-arabesque sequence creates the impression of a grand crescendo that seems to annihilate time. La Bayadre is a ritual, a poem about dancing and memory and time. According to well known dance critic Clive Barnes, if you dont like Bayadre, you dont like ballet, and in fact that is probably the reason why it can still thrill us today, 120 years after its St Petersburg premiere, when dozens of other ballets with equally exotic settings, trundling plots and undistinguished music are long forgotten. It is the choreography, and the opportunities it provides for great performances, that make the ballet live.