It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
      If this be error and upon me proved,
      I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

~ Shakespeare, Sonnet cxvi

Nikiya's entrance (Svetlana in La Bayadère)



I think the reason why I love Svetlana Zakharova as a ballerina and find her dancing so entrancing and unique, above everything else, above her exquisite musicality, poetry, delicateness, gorgeous lines and tender beauty, is that she is regal. She exudes an aristocratic air in almost all her performances, in the best way imaginable. Seeing her dance on-stage is one of the most thriling experiences for me. Her Odette is pure poetry and music, her Odille intoxicating magic, her Giselle moves me to tears whilst her Nikiya literally takes my breath away. It is incredibly beautiful to be so absorbed in an artform, as it is one of the rare moments in daily life when one's aesthetic experience transcends ordinary consciousness to a higher, purer realm. (See also my old post Princess Odette of My Heart, on Svetlana's Swan Lake.)

In one of her 2003 interviews, when asked what she personally saw as her qualities which distinguished her from other dancers, she gave this answer after much hesitation (a truly modest ballerina and a perfectionist!):

"There's one thing which I usually do when I am onstage—I just open myself. I open up my heart. Every time when I am on stage, I keep telling myself, 'You have to give your heart and your soul to the audience!' And this is usually what I do when I am performing. I open up what I have in my heart. This is the exact opposite of what I do in my real life! I am always trying to hide my private life as much as possible."

And this is perhaps how she is able to move her audiences to tears, to make one hold his breath, and how she falls in love with every ballet that she dances—by opening up her heart.




This is my favourite variation of Nikiya in La Bayadère, where she performs the saddest, most heartbreaking dance at the princess's wedding to Solor, the man who swore eternal love to her in front of the sacred fire of the temple. Svetlana's painfully beautiful interpretation, together with the haunting music, make this my favourite rendition of Nikiya's death scene.


*Darcey Bussell. Temple Destruction Scene, La Bayadere, Gamzatti's Act III Variation*

Also, I love the music and this solo of Princess Gamzatti. For me it is the counterpart of Nikiya's heartbreaking "death scene" variation. Whilst Svetlana is my favourite Nikiya, Darcey is my favourite Gamzatti, especially in this variation. In addition to Darcey's brilliant, effortless speed and precision, which adds something extraordinary to her beautifully musical movements in this slow and poetic adage (as if she was floating on air), I think what first attracted me in her rendition is the soft but clear demi-plié following her double pirouettes...


Nikiya (Svetlana) is dancing on the wedding of the man who swore eternal love to her in front of the sacred fire, to the princess of the kingdom. Imagine her heartbreak, sadness, humiliation and helplessness, being a mere temple dancer! Whereas Gamzatti, albeit a precious princess, also has her misfortune—she is married to (and in love with) a man whose only incentive to be with her is for her status and money, for what she has instead of who she is, and eventually she even dies from this cursed union. I find both dances to be highly entrancing and moving. Many classical ballets do touch upon the fundamental problems of human emotions and difficulties—their simplicity as well as complexity...

Darcey's brilliance lies in her speed and precision, and Svetlana (my favourite ballerina) is not unlike Maria Callas in that she has the ability to truly become the characters she's dancing - her musicality and poetry break my heart. Both of them are very lyrical in La Bayadere, in their own different ways.

Hands of Svetlana Zakharova, in La Fille du Pharaon.