Latest news with #Ratmansky
Los Angeles Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Swans, Gupta and ballet on makeshift stage: The Southern California dance superbloom
Los Angeles is neither a dance center nor a dance desert. We don't have much of a history of nourishing major ballet companies. We do have a plethora of smaller companies — modern, classical and international. You may have to look for it, but somewhere someone is always dancing hereabouts for you. I sampled three very different dance programs last weekend at three distinctive venues in three disparate cities and for three kinds of audiences. The range was enormous but the connections, illuminating. At the grand end of the scale, Miami City Ballet brought its recent production of 'Swan Lake' to Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa — beginning a run of varied versions of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet this summer. It will be Boston Ballet's turn at the Music Center this weekend. San Francisco Ballet gets in the act too, dancing excerpts at the Hollywood Bowl as part of this year's Los Angeles Philharmonic 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular.' On a Television City soundstage in the Fairfax district, American Contemporary Ballet, a quintessential L.A. dance company that explores unusual sites around town, is presenting George Balanchine's modernist classic 'Serenade,' along with a new work by the company's founder, choreographer Lincoln Jones. Meanwhile, on Saturday night, violinist Vijay Gupta and dancer Yamini Kalluri mingled Bach and Indian Kuchipudi dance tradition at the 99-seat Sierra Madre Playhouse. Miami City Ballet has attracted attention for mounting what is being called a historically informed 'Swan Lake' by the noted Bolshoi-trained choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. He has done his best to re-create the 1895 production at the Mariinsky Theater in Ratmansky's hometown of St. Petersburg. Historically informed performance, or HIP, is a loaded term, and 'Swan Lake' is a loaded ballet. HIP came about when the early music movement discovered that trying to re-create, say, the way a Handel opera might have sounded in the 18th century by using period instruments with what was believed to be period practice techniques proved deadly boring. Eventually, the movement realized that using the old instruments in sprightly, imaginative and contemporary ways instead made the music sound newly vital, and even more so when the staging was startlingly up to date. Ratmansky's reconstructed 'Swan Lake' does much the opposite with modern instruments and old-fashioned ballet, and it got off to a disorienting start Sunday night. Tchaikovsky's introduction was played glowingly by the Pacific Symphony in a darkened hall meant to prepare us to enter a different world. But the modern orchestra and distractingly bright audience phones only served to remind us that it is 2025. The orchestras of the late 19th century had lighter, more spirited-sounding instruments, a quality that matched the choreography of the time. But when Sunday's curtain rose to archaic scenery, costumes, choreography and acting, it felt, in this context, like wandering into a tacky antique shop. That said, Ratmansky has a lot to offer. Going back to 1895 can, in fact, signal newness. There is no definitive version of 'Swan Lake.' Tchaikovsky revised it after the first 1877 version but died before finishing what became the somewhat standard version in 1895. Even so, choreographers, dancers, producers and even composers have added their two cents' worth. The ballet can end in triumph or tragedy. Siegfried and his swan-bride Odette may, individually or together, live or drown. 'Swan Lake' has become so familiar that modern embellishments become just a lot more baggage. In this sense, Ratmansky's back-to-the-future compromise with modernity is an excellent starting place for rethinking not just an iconic ballet but ballet itself and the origins of its singular beauty. The two swan acts display an unfussy delicacy. Cameron Catazaro, a dashing and athletic Siegfried, and Samantha Hope Galler, a sweetly innocent Odette and vivacious Odile, might have been stick figures magically wondrous once in motion. Meaning was found in Siegfried's impetuous leap and the Black Swan's studied 32 fouettés. All else was distraction. That is precisely the next step Balanchine took 40 years later, in 1935, with his 'Serenade,' which uses Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings,' written just after he composed 'Swan Lake.' In Balanchine's first ballet since arriving in the U.S. in 1933, the Russian-Georgian choreographer wanted to create a new kind of ballet for a new world — no story, just breathtaking design. Although ACB made no mention of the fact, Balanchine moved to L.A. in 1938, three years after the American premiere of 'Serenade,' to a house just a few blocks up Fairfax Avenue from Television City. In the few years he spent in Hollywood, he played a significant role in making dance for the movies that entranced the world. ACB, though, did seem to have movies on its mind in the darkened soundstage with the dancers lit as though in a black-and-white film. But with the audience on bleachers very close to the makeshift stage, the musicians unseen behind the seats and the dancers up close, there was also a stark intimacy that exposed the exacting effort in re-creating the beauty of Balanchine's steps. The effect was of being in the moment and, at the same time, going into the future. 'Serenade' was preceded by the premiere of 'The Euterpides,' a short ballet with a score by Alma Deutscher. The 20-year-old British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor wrote her first opera, 'Cinderella,' which has been produced by Opera San José and elsewhere, at 10. 'The Euterpides' is her first ballet, and it offers its own brand of time travel. Each variation on a Viennese waltz tune for strings and piano represents one of the classical Greek muses. The score sounds as though it could have been written in Tchaikovsky's day, although Deutscher uses contemporary techniques to reveal each muse's character. 'Pneume,' the goddess of breath, gets an extra beat here and there, slightly skewing the rhythm. Jones relies on a dance vocabulary, evolved from Balanchine, for the five women, each of whom is a muse, as well as the male Mortal employed for a final pas de deux. History, here, ultimately overwhelms the new staging in a swank contemporary environment. Gupta makes the strongest conciliation between the then and the now in his brilliant 'When the Violin.' On the surface, he invites an intriguing cultural exchange by performing Bach's solo Violin Partita No. 2 and Sonata No. 3 with Kalluri exploring ways in which she can express mood or find rhythmic activity in selected movements. She wears modern dress and is so attuned to the music that the separation of cultures appears as readily bridgeable as that of historic periods. Well known in L.A., having joined the Phil in 2007 at age 19, Gupta has gone on to found Street Symphony, which serves homeless and incarcerated communities, and to become an inspirational TED talker. He is a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship and, since leaving the Phil, a regular performer around town in chamber programs and plays a Baroque violin in the L.A.-based music ensemble Tesserae. For 'When the Violin,' Gupta employs a modern instrument in a highly expressive contemporary style, holding notes and expanding time as though a sarabande might turn into a raga. He pauses to recite poetry, be it Sufi or Rilke. His tone is big, bold and gripping, especially in the wonderful acoustics of this small theater. The Bach pieces are tied together by composer Reena Esmail's affecting solo for 'When the Violin,' in which the worlds of Bach, Indian music and Kuchipudi dance all seem to come from the same deep sense of belonging together and belonging here and now. It took only a violinist and a dancer to show that no matter how enormous the range, the connections are, in such a dance, inevitable.
Los Angeles Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Miami City Ballet brings ‘Swan Lake' to Segerstrom
The origins of 'Swan Lake' are difficult to trace, though most audiences accept the story has roots in Russian and German folktales and most ballet companies base their productions on the 1895 revival of it. From June 20 to 22, Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa presents a particularly captivating version of it performed by Miami City Ballet. The ballet is choreographed by renowned dancemaker Alexei Ratmansky. He reconstructed this version of 'Swan Lake' using historical notations and archival material that dates back to that 1895 revival performed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov at Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, creating an 'historically informed' presentation of the iconic ballet. Miami City Ballet premiered this staging of 'Swan Lake' in 2022 under longtime artistic director Lourdes Lopez. 'Every major ballet company performs a version of 'Swan Lake' as it is truly considered the epitome of classical ballet,' Lopez said in a statement about the original run. 'Add Ratmansky's genius and being witness to the genuine love and dedication he put into restoring the ballet's original intent, we are simply honored and extremely excited for our audiences to experience the greatest of all classical ballets.' Ratmansky specializes in revising 19th- and early 20th-century ballet repertoire and Segerstrom Center has presented his versions of 'The Sleeping Beauty,' 'Whipped Cream' and 'Giselle' on its stage. 'Swan Lake' depicts themes of love, romance and betrayal while following the doomed love of Prince Siegfried and Princess Odette, as they thwart the evil Baron Von Rothbart, who has placed a curse on young women, making them swans by day and human by night. Ratmansky's version with the the Miami City Ballet premiered to much acclaim and executive director Juan José Escalante expressed his excitement about bringing the production to Costa Mesa in a statement. 'Miami City Ballet is honored to share Alexei Ratmansky's magnificent 'Swan Lake' with audiences beyond Florida for the first time since its creation in 2022,' said Escalante. 'This production has been a labor of love and performing it at the Segerstrom Center is a thrilling milestone for the company.' Founded in 1985 by Miami philanthropist Toby Lerner Ansin and headquartered in Miami Beach, Miami City Ballet is one of the country's most renowned dance companies, recognized for its artists' athleticism and vibrancy. The five performances this weekend will also feature support from Orange County's own Pacific Symphony, performing the music of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Lopez, who established herself as a cultural figure at the New York City Ballet, ends her 13-year tenure at Miami City Ballet at the end of the current season, making this limited performance even more essential. 'Over the past 13 seasons with the company, I have watched our dancers grow artistically and technically and it is a thrill to see them take on this challenging ballet,' said Lopez. Miami City Ballet's 'Swan Lake' runs at Segerstrom Center for the Arts at 600 Town Center Dr, Costa Mesa June 20 to June 22. Tickets, which start at $55.37, are available at
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
At City Ballet, Casting, Coaching and Dances Worth Watching
Looks can be deceiving, even in ballet. On paper, the spring season of New York City Ballet looked safe and dutiful, with no premieres, except the stage performance of a pandemic-era dance film and more recent contemporary works, some welcome (by Alexei Ratmansky), others not so much (everything else). But the season had a surprising sense of purpose, which came from casting, coaching and commendable repertoire. Suzanne Farrell, the former City Ballet star, worked with the dancers on four ballets. The 50th anniversary of the Ravel Festival made for a memorable trip back to 1975. And debuts were plentiful; more than that, they were meaningful choices, the kinds of roles that challenge dancers at the right time and give them the space to grow. Ratmansky didn't need to present a premiere. Two sides of his artistry were already on display. There was the buoyant, technical 'Paquita,' his spirited look at classicism in the 21st century; and 'Solitude,' a remarkable ballet illustrating the inner turmoil and outer tragedy of the war in Ukraine, with dancing shaped by and seeped in sorrow. It is even stronger now — quietly devastating with an icy spareness and, from the dancers, deep, grounded conviction. Its placement on a program between Caili Quan's 'Beneath the Tides' and Justin Peck's 'Mystic Familiar' seemed clueless, as if all of contemporary ballet is on an equal playing field. It's not. Other programs were dragged down by ballets that felt like needless filler — Peck's blandly lush 'Belles-Lettres' and Christopher Wheeldon's drippy 'After the Rain' pas de deux. The pas de deux made what should have been a strong program of ballets by Jerome Robbins and Ratmansky interminable. Ballet is an art, but its athletic demands can be cruel: Gilbert Bolden III, a new, much-valued principal dancer, tore his Achilles during a performance of 'Scotch Symphony.' His recovery will take months. But that show went on — Jules Mabie filled in for him — and the season, which included a farewell to the longtime principal Andrew Veyette, ended on a cheerful note with Balanchine's enchanting 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' made even more so by the debut of Mira Nadon, dancing with Peter Walker, in the second act divertissement. She moves like silk. Here are a few other standout ballets and performances. Kyle Abraham Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: Worlds Collide to Make a Big Ballet Bang
It's a test tube ballet: an experiment that at first glance might seem like pining for the past. But while Alexei Ratmansky's new production of 'Paquita' finds its footing from ballets of earlier centuries, it lands in the here and now as a daring proposal about legacy and lineage. What makes classical dancing modern? In this case, it's placing a conceptual lens on tradition. Mercifully, with tutus. This spectacular 'Paquita,' like Ratmansky's version of 'Swan Lake,' moves like the wind. But it is also distinct: a one-of-a-kind experience created for New York City Ballet, a one-of-a-kind company. Performed on Thursday at Lincoln Center, the ballet unites two sections of Marius Petipa's 1881 'Paquita': George Balanchine's 1951 'Minkus Pas de Trois' (staged by Marina Eglevsky) and Ratmansky's restaging of the Grand Pas Classique, the opulent final act of 'Paquita.' In this homage to Petipa and Balanchine, the founding choreographer of City Ballet, Ratmansky mines the history and steps of his treasured ancestors to find a fresh way of presenting the dancing body. It's bold. It moves with an elegant ferociousness. And it's almost spooky. Throughout, something that Balanchine used to say vibrates in the bodies of a generation of dancers he never laid eyes on: 'We all live in the same time forever. There is no future and there is no past.' In 2014, Ratmansky, with the assistance of Doug Fullington, reconstructed 'Paquita' for the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich using notations that recorded its movement and gestures. He also relied on drawings from the pas de deux in the 'Grand Pas' by Pavel Gerdt, the celebrated Russian dancer who performed in the 1881 production. For this 'Paquita,' Ratmansky didn't adhere as strictly to notations as he has in the past. He gave his dancers — nearly all women — the freedom to be themselves within the classical vernacular. Ratmansky's 'Paquita,' with costumes by Jérôme Kaplan, leads with Balanchine's 'Minkus Pas de Trois,' last performed by City Ballet in 1993, before moving onto the Grand Pas. In the Pas de Trois, Erica Pereira, Emma Von Enck and David Gabriel bound across the stage, arms linked, in light, lilting footwork, followed by variations. Like a showcase before the main event, they lay the groundwork of athleticism and finesse with youthful verve. Gabriel, suspended in air much of the time, was a flash of virtuosic clarity, while Pereira stepped up her game, both taking up space and stretching into her positions in ways that gave her technique breadth. Von Enck, with her usual filigreed accuracy, crackled and cascaded from balances to beats with decisive, smooth nonchalance. In this Balanchine work, they are dancers of today illuminating a bygone era — the women's black tights and all. The Grand Pas, a wonder of buoyancy and speed, airs a different kind of radiance. The dancers, in yellow and black — their tutus sprout a blend of both — enter in two rows of four before pairs flitter through openings, with principal dancers among them. They stretch into a long diagonal flanked by the lead ballerina, Sara Mearns, on one end as her partner, Chun Wai Chan, stands at the opposite end. Mearns and Chan's pas de deux is arresting, full of dips and backbends connected by supported turns. The other dancers move behind them, echoing Mearns in kaleidoscopic patterns that merge and mutate in the background like a frame in motion. There's so much to see on a stage that is never static, only alive. In his fiendishly difficult variation, Chan, with supreme elegance, maintains his grandeur without needing to fight for it. Mearns, throughout, blooms at her own luxurious pace. She had moments of hesitation, yet the placidity of her positions, the shape of her arching back and the glint of her hands framing her face and her body made her the anchor of 'Paquita.' Four other dancers are placed on their own singular pedestals, ballerinas, too, one and all: Olivia MacKinnon, Unity Phelan, Indiana Woodward and Emily Kikta. MacKinnon, in the unenviable position of dancing the first variation, was a picture of graceful grit — more finesse will come over time. Woodward is electric with feet that skim past each other like tiny blades, while Kikta, using all of her length, is a goddess en pointe, her long legs stretching behind with tranquil magnitude and authority. And Phelan, starting her variation with arms that rise overhead and float past her throat like a prayer, moves with such silken calm that she seems to be gliding, led by her willowy arms, by a breeze. When she balances, she keeps the breath going. This 'Paquita,' as it pushes through its vibrant finale, adds up to more than a dance; it's a philosophy of dancing that is both rigorously disciplined and never calculated. At City Ballet, Ratmansky is artist in residence, a job that seems to allow his intellect and imagination to grow with equal depth. The force of these women with their artfully messy buns (loved them) was of the moment and of the past: athletic, casual, American. While so many new ballets wash across the stage as a parade of feelings, Ratmansky's are full of meaning and ideas. In 'Solitude,' his first for the company as artist in residence, he presented a blisteringly visceral response to the war in Ukraine that gave dance a voice in matters of the world. 'Paquita' crystallizes something else. A dance can never be resurrected as it was. It changes with dancers, and with time, but its essence, through the will of a dancer to react consciously to every muscular moment, can generate rebirth. In 'Paquita' — it's difficult to grasp it all in one performance — dancers move with a sense of legacy as they instill an old world dignity to their Balanchine tenets of speed and abandon. This all lives inside of 'Paquita,' which gives it a way to assert itself in the 21st century — not as a relic but as a way, like Balanchine said, to live in the same time forever. This 'Paquita' is more than a reinvention. It's a reawakening and a reminder of why Balanchine started City Ballet: He turned a Russian tradition into an American experiment. I can't explain what 'In the Night' (1970), Jerome Robbins's meditation on three stages of love, set to Chopin, is doing on this program. At least Phelan was in it — an image of fire and ice, opposite Andrew Veyette. She was also in the program's closer, Balanchine's masterpiece 'Symphony in Three Movements' (1972), filling in at the last minute for an injured dancer. Set to Stravinsky, the propulsive and playful 'Symphony in Three Movements' has a connection to 'Paquita': a long diagonal line of women. The tone is different in the Balanchine — more forceful than poised — as is the direction of the line. Yet when pictured together, the bisecting lines from each ballet meet in an imaginary middle. Was it planned, this visual reverberation? In white leotards and tights, with their hair cinched in ponytails, the dancers of 'Symphony in Three Movements' are fierce, ballerina warriors; that was beneath the surface of 'Paquita,' too. At City Ballet, the women still rule.
