Music by Ludwig Minkus
Choreography after Marius Petipa
Staged by Elena Kunikova
Costumes and Décor by Mike Gonzales
Lighting by Kip Marsh

Paquita is a superb example of the French style as it was exported to Saint Petersburg in the late 19th Century. Paquita was originally a ballet-pantomine in 2 acts, choreographed by Joseph Mazillier, to music by Ernest Deldevez. The story had a Spanish theme, with Carlotta Grisi (creator of Giselle) as a young woman kidnapped by gypsies, who saves a young and handsome officer from certain death. Premiering at the Paris Opera in 1846, the ballet was produced a year later in Russia by Marius Petipa. Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus, the composer of his two most recent successes (Don Quixote and La Bayadère) to write additional music in order to add a brilliant “divertissement” to Mazillier’s Paquita. Petipa choreographed for this a Pas de Trois and a Grand Pas de Deux in his characteristic style. These soon became the bravura highlights of the evening-to the point that they are the only fragments of Paquita that have been preserved. The dancers display a range of choreographic fireworks, which exploit the virtuoso possibilities of academic classical dance, enriched by the unexpected combinations of steps.

Ballerina and Cavalier
Varvara Laptopova (Takaomi Yoshino)
with
Jacques d'Aniels (Joshua Thake)

Recorded at the Joyce Theater in NYC in December 2022.