13-26 May 2006. In La Bayadre, choreography by Natalia Makarova from Petipa. 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 that is probably why it can still thrill us today, 120 years after its St Petersburg premiere, while dozens of other ballets with equally exotic settings, trundling plots and undistinguished music have been long forgotten. It is the choreography, and the opportunities it provides for great performances, that make the ballet live.