An international statesman for the Hindu community is urging Medway Council to withdraw a scheduled ballet claiming it trivialises Eastern religion and traditions.

Dancers from a Walderslade ballet academy are due to perform the classic La Bayadere at the Brook Theatre in Chatham over three days next March.

But Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, has branded the adaptation as caricaturing Eastern heritage and accused the council of being "highly irresponsible" in booking the event which he feels ridicules entire communities.

The ballet, also known as The Temple Dancer or The Temple Maiden, staged by professional companies has sparked controversy across the world.

It is due to be performed by the Bluebell School of Dance and Performing Arts on March 25, 26 and 27 with tickets costing up to £13.

Rajan Zed suggested the Mayor of Medway Cllr Jan Aldous and the council send staff on "cultural sensitivity training so that such inappropriate stuff did not slip through in the future".

In a statement made in Nevada in the States, he asked the authority to apologise for showing a lack of maturity in backing a ballet which showed a "flawed mishmash of orientalist stereotypes, dehumanisin cultural portrayal and misrepresentation, offensive and degrading elements, needless appropriation of cultural motifs, essentialism, shallow exoticism etc"

La Bayadere was first presented in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1877 and has toured major international opera and ballet venues.

Paul Cowell, Medway Council’s head of culture and libraries, said: “The ethos of Medway’s theatres is to promote inclusion and diversity. This performance is being organised by a local community organisation and we are currently discussing the matter with them.”

The Bluebell School of Dance was founded in 1977 by Suzanne Burnham-Jones who was trained by Russian ballerina Lydia Kyasht. It has four venues in the Chatham area and about 180 pupils specialising in Russian ballet but also teaching tap, modern, contemporary and street. It also has a theatre school coaching singing, dancing and acting.

The dance school was approached for comment.

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