Alexei Ratmansky

Artistic Director

Graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet School in 1986 (class of Pyotr Pestov).

Was a principal dancer with the National Opera of Ukraine, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (Canada) and the Danish Royal Ballet.

As a choreographer he has worked with the New York City Ballet (productions of Russian Seasons, Concerto DSCH and Namouna), the Opéra de Paris (Psyché), London’s Royal Ballet (24 Preludes), the Dutch National Ballet (Don Quixote after Petipa and Gorsky and Memories of a Dear Place), the San Francisco Ballet (Le Carnaval des animaux and From Foreign Lands), the Danish Royal Ballet (Turandot’s DreamThe Nutcracker, Anna Karenina and The Golden Cockerel), the Swedish Royal Ballet (The Firebird), the Australian Ballet (The Dance School), the National Ballet of Canada (Romeo and Juliet), the Miami City Ballet (Symphonic Dances) the National Opera of Ukraine (Le Baiser de la fée), the Opera of Georgia (Bizet Variations) and the International Ballet of Copenhagen (Flight to Budapest and Bolero). He has collaborated with numerous stars of the ballet world. For Mikhail Baryshnikov he staged Valse-Fantasie, for Nina Ananiashvili he staged the balletsCharms of MannerismDreams of Japan and Leah, for Diana Vishneva he staged Pierrot Lunaire and for Wendy Whelan he staged Fandango.

He has staged productions in Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Seattle, Philadelphia and Milan.

From 2004-2009 he was Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet of Russia (Moscow). 
Productions staged for the Bolshoi Theatre include The Bright Stream, The Bolt, Le Corsaire after Marius Petipa (together with Yuri Burlaka), Flames of Paris after motifs of the choreography of Vasily Vainonen, Lost Illusions, Jeu de cartes and Capriccio. For the Territory festival he staged the ballet Old Lady Falling Down with Bolshoi Theatre dancers.

Since 2009 he has been Artist in Residence with the American Ballet Theatre, where he has staged the ballets Shostakovich Trilogy (set to Symphony No 9, Chamber Symphony and Piano Concerto No 1), Dumbarton, Seven Sonatas, The Firebird, The Bright Stream and On the Dnieper.

He began to collaborate with the Mariinsky Theatre in 1998 on the initiative of Valery Gergiev and Makhar Vaziev. At the Mariinsky Theatre he has staged productions of the ballets Le Baiser de la fée, Le Poème de l’extase, Middle Duet, Cinderella, The Little Humpbacked Horse and Anna Karenina.

His awards include a Golden Mask, a Liberty Prizea Kiev Pectoral, a prize from the Lifar Competition, the Benois Prize, a Dance Magazine prize, a British critics’ prize, a Bessie prize and a Shostakovich Prize among others. Knight of the Order of the Danish Flag. Honoured Artist of Ukraine and winner of the Diaghilev Competition in Moscow.

Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky (b. August 27, 1968, Leningrad) is a choreographer and former ballet dancer. He is artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre and the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

Ratmansky's choreographic career first became notable with his staging of the ballet Dreams of Japan for the State Ballet of Georgia in 1998. Dreams and Charms of Mannerism, choreographed in 1997, were both created for Nina Ananiashvili. Dreams earned the Golden Mask Award from the Theatre Union of Russia.

Ratmansky is noted for restaging traditionally classical ballets for large companies. His first three-act story ballet was Cinderella, created for the Kirov Ballet in 2002. Ratmansky's 2003 staging of The Bright Stream (also translated as "The Limpid Stream") for the Bolshoi Ballet led to his appointment as artistic director of that company the following year. While there he also made a full-length production of The Bolt, in 2005, and re-staged Le Corsaire and the Flames of Paris, in 2007 and 2008. In 2011, his choreograpgy of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was premiered by the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. The Critics' Circle in London has named the Bolshoi "Best Foreign Company" under Ratmansky's direction, in 2005 and 2007, and he received its National Dance Award for The Bright Stream.

Ratmansky received the 2005 Prix Benois de la Danse for choreography for Anna Karenina, put on for the Royal Danish Ballet, and the 2007 Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for Jeu de Cartes choreographed for the Bolshoi Ballet. His ballets for the New York City Ballet include Russian Seasons and Concerto DSCH , and for the American Ballet Theatre, On the Dnieper and Seven Sonatas.

© wikipedia

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