'La Bayadère': The chemistry behind Renata Shakirova and Kimin Kim

For the second time, Mariinsky Ballet principal dancers Kimin Kim and Renata Shakirova return to Manila as guest artists of Ballet Manila, this time as Solor and Nikiya in La Bayadère. The world-renowned South Korean ballet star and Shakirova, one of the Mariinsky’s leading ballerinas, will perform on 14 August at 8 p.m. and 15 and 16 August at 5 p.m. at Aliw Theater. Their previous Manila appearance was in Ballet Manila’s 2025 production of Don Quixote.

They will play Solor and Nikiya in La Bayadère, a classical ballet created in 1877 by choreographer Marius Petipa and composer Ludwig Minkus for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. Set in India, it follows temple dancer Nikiya and warrior Solor, whose love is threatened by jealousy, power and betrayal. The ballet is best known for its iconic “Kingdom of the Shades” scene.

A partnership built over years

But while La Bayadère brings a new story to their Manila partnership, the chemistry between Kim and Shakirova is anything but new.

The two have danced together for nearly two decades, building a partnership based on trust, instinct and an almost intuitive understanding of each other’s movements.

For Kim, the secret is remarkably simple: He watches Shakirova.

“I just need to focus on her eyes because her eyes say everything,” he said during a recent press conference. “Even when I’m not trying to move, especially when I’m just standing close to her, my body just moves smoothly and organically.”

That ease comes from years of working together across different productions and stages. Kim described himself as “a really, really lucky dancer” to have Shakirova as a partner.

“You know, onstage, there are no two dancers. There is only a couple,” he said. “For me, that’s really important.”

For Kim, the distinction is crucial. A dancer can correct a mistake that belongs to the self, but partnering introduces another layer of responsibility.

“When I make my own mistakes, with my own technique, I can fix them. But when I make mistakes with my partner, I cannot. It’s really hard,” he said. “I get really stressed because, for me, the partner is more important.”

With Shakirova, however, that pressure has evolved into trust.

“That’s why I say I’m a really lucky dancer because dancing together is really easy,” Kim said. “The music, the technique, everything — she has everything.”

“We move as one”

Shakirova sees their connection from the other side of the partnership. For her, dancing with Kim means knowing that two performers can become a single unit onstage.

“It’s a big honor to have a partner like Kimin,” she said. “When we are together, we are just one. We move as one.”

That unity becomes particularly important in a ballet as emotionally heightened as La Bayadère. The story may be presented through highly codified classical ballet, but Shakirova says the emotions experienced onstage can feel intensified by the very act of performing together.

“There is so much drama, so much happening onstage,” she said. “Every moment is magnified.”

She repeated the thought for emphasis: “Every moment is magnified. Everything is felt much more strongly.”

For Shakirova, that heightened feeling is part of what makes the partnership meaningful.

“I think it coordinates our feelings, especially when dancing,” she said. “You feel every moment, and right there, everything is just magnified — the feelings.”

A shared language

Their chemistry, however, is not something that appeared overnight. Shakirova recalls learning from Kim when she was still very young and credits their years together with shaping the subtleties of how she approaches performance.

“He means so much to me because I think when I was very young, he was teaching me so much,” she said.

“When we first started dancing together, I learned so much from him. I got so much from him — all of these subtleties and nuances in the performances.”

That history now makes their work feel almost instinctive.

“So now it is so much easier for me because I have learned so much from him,” Shakirova said. “Everything is easier, and everything is just normal.”

And perhaps that is the most revealing thing about their partnership: What audiences see as extraordinary chemistry has, for the dancers themselves, become second nature.

Onstage, they do not have to convince an audience that they understand each other. Years of dancing together have already done that work.

For La Bayadère, that shared language becomes part of the attraction — two dancers who have spent years learning how to listen to each other without words, now bringing that connection to Nikiya and Solor.

Ballet Manila presents La Bayadère on 14 August at 8 p.m. and 15 and 16 August at 5 p.m. at Aliw Theater.