REVIEW : "La Bayadere" Olga Smirnova / Victor Caixeta 2024

The Dutch National Ballet's principals are stunningly beautiful and bring us the true spirit of ballet. In July 2024 in Tokyo, I am delighted to have had the opportunity to see their remarkable and classical "La Bayadère."

The main role of Nikiya, performed by Olga Smirnova—the reason I bought this ticket—was amazingly magnificent and carried the story with composure. Her flawless arm movement (port de bras) was ethereally beautiful and showed us all the emotions of the character visibly with her Vaganova-trained, graceful figure. Love, grief, and forgiveness—Olga made us clearly aware of Nikiya's emotions, especially her mournful solo, which evoked tears.

Victor Caixeta, who performed Solor, was also stunning and showed us the passion of the character. His Solor was full of vitality and expressed the young, luminous Caixeta as he is. Despite the sudden cast change from Kimin Kim, there were a little bit of unrefined moments, but Caixeta enchanted the audience with his charm and talent. Every posture described beauty and bewitched us with his promised future as a great ballet dancer.

I hope we, the Japanese audience, will have another great opportunity to see their wonderful stage again.