{"id":3745,"date":"2012-10-10T11:11:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T15:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/?p=3745"},"modified":"2013-02-12T12:12:04","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T17:12:04","slug":"choreography-by-ratmansky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/choreography-by-ratmansky.htm","title":{"rendered":"Choreography by Ratmansky"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Ballet Theatre<\/a>
\nChoreography by Alexei Ratmansky
\nGuggenheim Works & Process<\/a>
\nSeptember 30, 2012<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1986, renowned choreographer Alexei Ratmansky graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, having never heard the names Rudolf Nureyev or Mikhail Baryshnikov, and having never seen the choreography of George Balanchine.\u00a0 To comply with the policies of the Soviet Union, the Bolshoi did not discuss these men and their works.\u00a0 Ratmansky graduated during a tumultuous era, as the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse, and the VCR and video tape were coming into personal use, introducing him to a whole new world of choreography and dancing.<\/p>\n

While being interviewed by former Artistic Director of the Royal Winnepeg Ballet, John Meehan, at Guggenheim\u2019s Works and Process last weekend, Ratmansky described the era as being very disorienting to students who had come up with only strict classical training.\u00a0 Their understanding of choreography mostly revolved around the works of Marius Petipa and Yury Grigorovich.\u00a0 As the outside world began to filter in to Russia, and as Ratmansky left Russia, he originally found himself resisting the new influence, in his mind and his body.\u00a0 This was typical of most dancers who were his contemporaries, trained in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Ratmansky danced for Meehan and the Royal Winnepeg Ballet in the early 1990s.\u00a0 Meehan remembered him as being a romantic dancer noted for his very soft landings.\u00a0 A short film showed Ratmansky in performance during that era, and it illustrated the extraordinary quality of his landings.\u00a0 Ratmansky told the audience that this quality came as a result of being made to do petit allegro at an adagio tempo \u00ad (\u201cIt was killing!\u201d) \u00ad and battement tendu at 32 counts going out and 32 counts coming in.<\/p>\n

He said that the Bolshoi always wanted their dancers to \u201ccolor\u201d the movement.\u00a0 After leaving the Bolshoi, when Ratmansky began to learn new choreography, he was encouraged to just do the steps.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t act.\u00a0 Be more simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began choreographing for himself, on his own body, then had to learn how to choreograph on other dancers, beginning with his wife Tatiana.\u00a0 One of his first big jobs was a commission from the Kirov to choreograph their Nutcracker.\u00a0 He was on a one month deadline.\u00a0 \u201cEvery big work is crazy and intense with very little time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Soviet Union collapsed, people turned their attention away from works of the Soviet era, including The Bright Stream.\u00a0 Fifteen years later, the public began to feel nostalgic for the old works.\u00a0 Ratmansky loved the Shostakovich score and thought that the time could be right to stage a new version of The Bright Stream.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

Veronika Part and Stella Abrera danced Zina and the Ballerina, a touching and heartwarming excerpt from Ratmansky\u2019s The Bright Stream, in which two old friends who attended ballet school together are reunited.\u00a0 Every small detail in the movement displays the warmth between the women, especially in the moment when they reach out to lift each other\u2019s chins so that they can see into each other\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

Even before the premiere of Ratmansky\u2019s The Bright Stream, the Bolshoi Ballet, who did not accept young Ratmansky as a dancer, asked him to take over the entire company.\u00a0 He was 34 at the time.\u00a0 He took up the challenge and found himself in charge of 220 dancers and 20 coaches, some of whom were legends in the ballet world.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

At the time that he took over, the Bolshoi was still very conservative, holding dancers in higher esteem than choreographers.\u00a0 So Ratmansky brought in new ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp and Christopher Wheeldon among others.\u00a0 In the course of his five year tenure, he introduced thirteen new ballets.\u00a0 There were 250 performances per year on two different stages.\u00a0 He hired new dancers fresh from the school to learn the new repertoire, as the older ones didn\u2019t always \u201cget it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even after five years of working with the Bolshoi, he still felt that the resistance to new works and new choreographers remained very strong in Russia.\u00a0 So he left and came to New York to pursue his choreography.\u00a0 American Ballet Theatre invited him to be their Artist in Residence.\u00a0 He just signed a long term contract with the company, and he enjoys the support he receives and the freedom to create abstract and narrative ballets.\u00a0 He reflected fondly on the company\u2019s history of embracing Russian emigres.<\/p>\n

We saw a short excerpt of the scene from the Nutcracker that bridges between the battle scene and the Land of Snow.\u00a0 I\u2019d seen ABT\u2019s new Nutcracker in the middle of a blizzard in 2010, but I\u2019d forgotten how much I\u2019d loved it until I saw this charming section in which Drosselmeyer\u2019s nephew transforms into the Prince.\u00a0 In Ratmansky\u2019s version, two adult dancers enter upstage and mirror some of the movement of the children, who are imagining their future selves.\u00a0 It struck me that in the gestures of the adults, we see traces of the children they once were.\u00a0 As in most Ratmansky ballets, there is always the presence of light hearted humor along with the warmth.\u00a0 I especially loved the excitement of the children as the first snowflakes start to fall.<\/p>\n

Ballet Mistress Nancy Raffa and principal dancer David Hallberg joined Mr. Meehan to speak of their experiences in working with Ratmansky.\u00a0 Ms. Raffa said that Ratmansky always comes to the studio well prepared with a clear vision and a little black book in which he has worked through the details of his choreography.\u00a0 Mr. Hallberg said that Ratmansky doesn\u2019t move forward until one section is perfected.\u00a0 They will work on eight counts for “what feels like two weeks”.\u00a0 About Ratmansky\u2019s Nutcracker, Mr. Hallberg talked about the nervousness that he and Gillian Murphy experienced the first time that they danced it on stage.\u00a0 \u201cHe completely blew what we thought we knew about Nutcracker out of the window.\u201d\u00a0 Hallberg\u2019s words resonated with me and that\u2019s part of the reason why I was so stunned by some of the backlash that the new Nutcracker received.\u00a0 I loved Ratmansky\u2019s telling of the story from the very beginning, precisely because he brought a new and wonderful perspective to it.<\/p>\n

Ratmansky\u2019s new ballet, Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 will premiere Thursday, October 18, 2012 at New York City Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Ballet Theatre Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky Guggenheim Works & Process September 30, 2012 In 1986, renowned choreographer Alexei Ratmansky graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, having never heard the names Rudolf Nureyev or Mikhail Baryshnikov, and having never seen … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[135,134,139,188,439],"class_list":["post-3745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-karen","tag-alexei-ratmansky","tag-american-ballet-theatre","tag-guggenheim-museum-works-and-process","tag-john-meehan","tag-the-bright-stream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3745"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3780,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions\/3780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}