Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares in 'Diana and Acteon' Pas de deux

0:00 - Pas de deux
5:01 - Acteon variation
6:36 - Diana variation
8:51 - Coda

The origins of the Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux, a divertissement created for a 1935 version of La Esmeralda, lie in two earlier ballet productions. The first of these was Tsar Kandavl or Le Roi Candaule, premiered in 1868 by the Imperial Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg. Based on a story told by Herodotus in his Histories, this four-act ballet, choreographed by Marius Petipa to music by Cesare Pugni, included a pas de trois for dancers portraying Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity; Endymion, a beautiful shepherd, and a Satyr. This divertissement told of a poetic encounter in which Diana (or Selene, another name for the moon goddess) looked down upon the sleeping youth, descended to earth, kissed him, and fell in love. In a production mounted in the early twentieth century, Anna Pavlova was among those who danced Diana, and Vaslav Nijinsky appeared as the Satyr. In 1917, George Balanchine, then Balanchivadze, also danced the role of the Satyr, with Lydia Ivanova as Diana and Nicholas Efimov as Endymion.

In 1886, Petipa incorporated a new pas de deux, set to music by Riccardo Drigo, into his production of Pugni's La Esmeralda for the Mariinsky Ballet, as the Imperial Russian Ballet had come to be called. This pas de deux was based on the Greek myth of Artemis (predecessor to the Roman Diana), in her aspect of virgin goddess of the hunt, and Actaeon, a Theban hero. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Actaeon, out on a hunt, stumbled upon Artemis while she was bathing at a spring. Outraged and embarrassed that he had seen her naked, she punished him by destroying his power of speech and turning him into a stag, with antlers and a shaggy coat. In deer form, he was torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs, whipped into a raging fury by Artemis.

In 1935, Agrippina Vaganova staged a new production of La Esmeralda for the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, as the company and the city were then known. She created a new, bravura pas de deux for Diana and Actaeon, joining the names of the modest Roman goddess and the hapless Greek hunter. She included a few spectacular "stag leaps" for the male dancer, but she largely abandoned the well-known story of Actaeon in creating this divertissement and made instead a rapturous dance for two lovers, set to music by Pugni. Diana is seen as the beautiful goddess of the moon and the hunt, usually wearing a wispy red chiton and carrying a small golden bow; Actaeon is portrayed as a strong, handsome, mortal youth, clad in a short chiton or loincloth. At the premiere, Diana was danced by Galina Ulanova and Actaeon by Vaktang Chabukiani.

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