The Poison Review

Am in New York after having a great time visiting Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire. Managed to catch the performance of “La Bayadere” at American Ballet Theatre last night.  This was a double treat.  The first was that the performance featured Diana Vishneva as Nikiya. Vishneva is one of the great ballerinas in dance, and has the most marvelously supple back on the planet.  Second, “La Bayadere” has more toxicology than any other ballet in the repertoire.  Not only does the title heroine die in Act I from the bite of a deadly snake hidden in a basket, but she reappears in Act II, which consists entirely of an opium-induced hallucination.

The clip above shows Vishneva in the snakebite scene.