India’s Himalayan foothills, c. 1905
Nikiya is the kindhearted village water carrier, a young orphan whose low social status makes her an outcast in the village. Colonel Fitzpatrick is a British officer who has lost his wife and daughter to smallpox and is now beginning a new life in India. Their stories converge amid the majestic peaks and bustling streets of India’s Himalayan foothills, and carry us to a heartwarming conclusion.
Choreographed by Katherine Okie to the music of Ludwig Minkus, Nikiya’s Mountain was first performed in 2016.
Choreographer’s Note – The idea for this ballet came to me during the two weeks I spent in the Himalayan foothills in 2016. Living in a tiny mountain cottage with a few cousins who had just completed six years teaching in an Indian school, I absorbed the landscape around me – the terraced fields, the plunging valleys with the distinctive warble of Indian taxi horns wafting up from below, the bustling streets of the Bazaar winding along the edge of the mountain, the crowded shops specializing in everything from handmade shoes to eggs, the distant snow-capped peaks (including Mount Everest, just visible when the sky cleared). The sights of India, the sounds of India, and most of all, the wonderful people I met there, all coalesced in my imagination to create the heartwarming story that is Nikiya’s Mountain. I love this ballet, and I hope you will too.
—–Katherine Okie
Westover Ballet 