Ratmansky Sets War-Torn Love Triangle to Prokofiev: Interview
June 1 (Bloomberg) — During a final rehearsal of his new ballet, “On the Dnieper,” Alexei Ratmansky took center stage amidst the set’s cherry blossoms and wooden fences. The choreographer carefully watched his lithe principal dancers — Marcelo Gomes, Veronika Part and Paloma Herrera — become entangled in an emotionally convoluted yet elegant pas de trois.
The centerpiece of American Ballet Theatre’s weeklong “All-Prokofiev Celebration,” the newly choreographed ballet (by ABT’s newly appointed Artist in Residence) will have its world premiere tonight at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.
Ratmansky’s method is highly collaborative.
“I’ll ask the dancer, ‘What would you do as this character in this situation? How would you finish this lift? What is more comfortable?’” He smiles. “Sometimes I have no more steps in my head, so I ask them for more.” In the case of “On the Dnieper,” he says, “Marcelo is very inspiring.”
Prokofiev’s score was commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet and received its premiere there in 1932. It tells the story of a soldier named Sergei (Gomes) who returns to his small Ukrainian village after World War I. He soon discovers that he’s less in love with his fiancee, Natalia (Part) than with the other local beauty, Olga (Herrera). She’s otherwise engaged, too, and complications ensue.
‘Wonderful Tunes’
“There are some wonderful tunes and melodies with nice, syncopated rhythms that call for dance,” said Ratmansky, 40, wearing a tight black shirt and sporting a diamond earring. “And it’s interesting to hear ideas Prokofiev would later use in ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘Cinderella.’”
Music is always the trigger for Ratmansky, who was born in St. Petersburg and studied the classics before becoming a dance student at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. “When I realized that movement would bring something more complex and interesting to my experience of music,” he said, “I thought choreography was something that would interest me.”
The Bolshoi rejected him for its dance company in 1986, but hired him in 2004 as artistic director (a post he recently left), after having been a principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.
ABT principal Nina Ananiashvili gave him his first major ballet commission in 1998, “Dreams of Japan.” Since then, he’s created some 40 works for companies worldwide, including “The Bright Stream” and “Concerto DSCH.”
More From Less
“It’s hard for me to watch the pieces I did at the beginning because I feel they are not complex enough, not shaped,” he said. “I’m learning to develop the structure and themes, as a composer takes a theme and varies it. Using less material and getting more out of it — that’s what I’m doing with dance.”
Ratmansky sees his style, known for vibrancy and emotional punch, as the sum of all his influences, from classical to Diaghilev-era experiments, Balanchine to Forsythe.
“I like using all the classical academic steps because some of them are quite spectacular and not used a lot nowadays,” Ratmansky said. “And I like the idea of being international. I’m considered very Western in Russia, and the opposite here. Maybe I do it on purpose.”
A busy dance-maker, his “Little Humped Back Horse” had a premiere at theMaryinsky in March. In the new, 40-minute piece for Ballet Theatre — which shares the program with Kudelka’s “Desir” and Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” — Ratmansky’s gift for storytelling and characterization are on full display.
“This is a story of confrontation and broken hearts,” he said. “There are some emotional moments in the score, but much of the music has no big peaks or downs. It can still be quite abstract. Because I use some mime, some expressive dancing, and then pure dance sections, it’s a delicate balance. I never know what the audience’s impression will be.”
How does Ratmansky account for his current success?
“Luck,” he humbly declared, “and a combination of the Russian school, inexperience, and my Western experience.”