McMinnville, Oregon - Gallery Dance

The Don Quixote Ballet was first performed in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater, December 14, 1869. The original choreography was by Marius Petipa with music composed by Ludwig Minkus. Petipa's Don Quixote Ballet is highly praised for richness and technical perfection of the fantastic variety of dance steps, both in the academic passages and in the highly stylized "character" dances of folk origin.

Synopsis

The Ballet of Don Quixote is very different from the musical. The ballet is a charming story about two young lovers, Kitri and Basilio, an old knight who dreams of chivalry with his comic squire Sancho Panza. Kitri is forced by her innkeeper father to accept the offer of marriage to the rich suitor Gamache and turn away Basilio. Don arrives at the inn and believes he recognizes in Kitri his loved and idealized Lady Dulcinea. The young lovers escape and are followed by Gamache, her father, Don and his sidekick, Sancho. It is on this quest that Don encounters the windmill that he believes is a giant. Wounded in the combat, Don falls asleep and Dreams he is in Dulcinea's garden inhabited by Fantastic beings. When the dream fades away he is awakened to discover that the lovers are missing and Kitri's father and Gamache are still in hot pursuit. Basil pretends to kill himself and begs Kitri's father with his last breath to grant him his daughter's hand in marriage. With Don Quixote's insistence, the dying man's request as granted, he throws off the pretence and is happily united with his Kitri. The wedding scene ends with Don and Sancho leaving to continue their quest and adventures.