3 | The bayadère and an 18th century Dutch merchant
Between December 2022 to February 2023 I (Hanne) have several more Zoom conversations with Rachel Beaujean. Even though we do not know each other and have never met in person, these conversations are generous, interesting and stimulating. We look into the storyline of La Bayadère and the historical sources that may have contributed to its composition and its central character, the bayadère Nikiya.
During the high tide of European colonialism taking artistic inspiration from the Orient was fashionable. According to Edward Said the idea of the Orient was pivotal to the shaping of the Occident, that is how the West wanted to see itself. The discovery that most European languages were related and shared roots with Sanskrit contributed to an enhanced respect for Indian culture and its literary expressions. In the late 18th and in the 19th century Sanskrit plays, including Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, were translated for the first time into European languages to become a source of inspiration for European literary expressions, opera and ballet.
The term bayadère was coined by the Portuguese in the 17th century to refer to the phenomenon they witnessed in India of professional female dancers (Bor 2010, 15). The bayadère is usually equated with a devadasi, a female dancer dedicated to a temple deity, but she could also have been part of an itinerant troupe of musicians and dancers. The bayadère finds a place in travelogues, works by Christian missionaries and oriental erotica, producing a variety of characterizations many of which are less than flattering questioning, not only her art form, but also her character (Bor 2010, 15-19 and passim).
In his ballad Der Gott und die Bayadere (1797) Goethe portrays the bayadère as an Indian version of Mary Magdalene, a virtuous prostitute who offers her unselfish love to the God Mahadeva. The ballad becomes one of the sources for subsequent European operas and ballets, including Pepita’s and Minkus’ La Bayadère of 1877. India's singing and dancing girls become a standard topic in European travel writing and academic orientalist discourse (Bor 2013, 233). One of these travelogues is Reize in eenen Palanquin or Travels in a Palanquin written by the Dutch merchant and traveller Jacob Haafner. In this book published in 1808, Haafner describes his love for the devadasi Mamia with whom he had a relationship of several years until she died prematurely.
While the bayadère in the 19th century operas and ballets appears to have been a fantasy figure inspired by literary sources and travelogues, this is not entirely true. For in 1838 a group of devadasis from near Pondicherry in South India visits Europe. Their presence, dance and life style offers people a glimpse into the ‘real thing’. The performances of the devadasis expose European audiences to an entirely new artistic vocabulary. They receive mixed reviews in the French and British press (Bor 2010, 27-37). Yet the devadasis’ performances also invite comparison with the performances by Western ballerinas, in particular those of ballerina Marie Taglioni. Marie’s performances of the role of the temple dancer Nikiya in La Bayadère topped the bill. The comparison that the exposure to the devadasis’ performances provides gives rise to a discussion among art critics and authors about the definition of femininity and (female) beauty in the European artistic tradition (Bor 2013; Engelhardt 2014; McKenna Barry 2021; Medhuri 2020).
In response to my question as to what defines the bayadère in the ballet as ‘Indian’, Rachel demonstrates some movements on Zoom and then gives me access to the full video of the DNB’s 2016 production of La Bayadère. Watching the video-in-3-parts several times helps me to get a better feel of the storyline and its visual-musical execution. In the meantime Rachel consults Chat GTP asking it which elements in the ballet are considered disturbing and how these could be changed. Chat GTP responds that this requires ‘cultural sensitivity and education. This can involve consulting with experts in Indian culture and history to ensure that the portrayal of Indian customs and traditions in the ballet is accurate and respectful’ (email Rachel of 20 Feb 2023). Given my training in Indology and now delving into the history of the bayadère, could I (Hanne) be one such ‘expert’?
And then in April 2022, long overdue as the Embassy takes its time, we get the good news that our proposal has been rewarded — on the condition that we reduce the budget on our side with almost half. So we do…. because post-pandemic funding for new cultural productions is incredibly difficult to come by and this is a really interesting venture.
References
Bor, Joep (2010), ‘Mamia, Ammani and other Bayadères” Europe’s Portrayal of India’s Temple Dancers’, Soneji, Davesh (ed.), Bharata Natyam: A Reader, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 13-49.
Bor, Joep (2013). “‘On the Dancers or Devadasis’: Jacob Haafner’s Account of the Eighteenth-Century Indian Temple Dancers”, in Frank Kouwenhoven, Frank and James Kippen (eds), Music, Dance and the Art of Seduction, Delft: Eburon, 2013: 233-60.
Engelhardt, Molly. 2014. “The real Bayadère meets the ballerina on the Western stage.” Victorian Literature and Culture 42 (Cambridge University Press), 509-534.
McKenna Barry, Sarah (2021), “Examining the Real-Life Temple Dancers Who Inspired La Bayadère”, Dance Magazine [https://www.dancemagazine.com/la-bayadere-history/]
Medhuri, Avanthi (2020), “Interweaving dance archives: Devadasis, Bayadères, and Nautch girls of 1838”, Brandstetter, Gabrielle, Gerko Egert and Holger Hartung (Eds), Movements of Interweaving : Dance and Corporeality in Times of Travel and Migration, Routledge, pp. 299-320.