Contemporary traditionalist

Alexei Ratmansky has never stayed put for long.  He found his feet at the Bolshoi Ballet and leapt between the Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. As a dancer, choreographer, and artistic mastermind, Ratmansky garnered much attention. At just 35 years old, in 2004, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet, resurrecting the famed company to grand new heights. After a three-and-a-half-year reign, he stepped down from the Bolshoi Ballet and is now Artist in Resident at the American Ballet Theatre.

Ratmansky’s first work for the Bolshoi Ballet was a homage to one of Moscow’s most important choreographers of the 1930s and 1940s, Léonide Massine. “Massine used the three main aspects of dance in the theatre,” Ratmansky says, “classical ballet steps; folk and character dancing; and mime and grotesque … all combined. I can’t think of a contemporary choreographer who did the same.” Ratmansky’s intention was to honour the legacy of the Ballets Russes, presenting a total of three Massine masterworks during his tenure: Le Tricorne, Gaité Parisienne and Les Présages.

This year Ratmansky will bring some Bolshoi flavour to The Australian Ballet for Concord. He will stage an new interpretation of Massine’s meta-ballet, Scuola di ballo, set in a ballet studio. Not only is Ratmansky a great admirer of Massine, his own choreography echoes Massine’s love of characterisation and humour. Ratmansky is a classicist at heart, but his decision to stage Scuola di ballo is typical of his hunger to re-energise the tradition of ballet.

Scuola di ballo premieres as part of the  Concord programme in Melbourne and Sydney