Ratmansky

This chapter explores how the work of post-Soviet choreographer Alexei Ratmansky pursues what he calls “a brilliant development that wasn’t actually fulfilled.” With a paradoxical faith in historical continuity (given the Stalin-era “interruption”), this Russian émigré takes up not only where early Soviet ballet left off in the mid-1930s but even before, with Marius Petipa before twentieth-century gigantism got its hands on him. Whether through the relaxed posture, the dizzying but nonchalant steps, the crosshatched steps, or the corps in relation to the soloist, Ratmansky’s ballets bring out what an authoritarian system—of nation, ballet troupe, or ballet—represses. This applies to all his work: the original creations, adaptations, and historical reconstructions. The chapter treats a wide swath of his ballets, with particular attention to Swan Lake, Russian Seasons, and The Shostakovich Trilogy.