Ratmansky Departing ABT

[AB'sMom]

Didn’t he flirt with NYCB before signing a contract with ABT? If I remember correctly he went with ABT because they wouldn’t require him to choreograph exclusively for them. It sounds like this contract with NYCB is the same. It says one new work a year for them, but nothing about exclusivity.

[abatt]

2 minutes ago, AB'sMom said:

Didn’t he flirt with NYCB before signing a contract with ABT? If I remember correctly he went with ABT because they wouldn’t require him to choreograph exclusively for them. It sounds like this contract with NYCB is the same. It says one new work a year for them, but nothing about exclusivity.

Yes, he did.  Peter Marins offered him the position before ABT, but as I recall he did not want to commit the amount of time that Martins was requiring.   

Edited January 5, 2023 by abatt

[Marta]

Wonderful news that Ratmansky is going to NYCB!!!  

[abatt]

I had not focused on this before, but I guess NYCB's 75th Anniversary is coming up.  I hope they have lots of Balanchine and Robbins planned.

[ABT Fan]

Wow. In the article he says he needed a change and there was the danger of knowing the dancers too well, they’d know what to expect of him. But, he’s been choreographing at NYCB during his entire time with ABT and for longer, in fact, so he would know the City ballet dancers even better than ABT’s. Hmmm.

[Marta]

14 minutes ago, ABT Fan said:

Wow. In the article he says he needed a change and there was the danger of knowing the dancers too well, they’d know what to expect of him. But, he’s been choreographing at NYCB during his entire time with ABT and for longer, in fact, so he would know the City ballet dancers even better than ABT’s. Hmmm.

However, hasn't he made more ballets for ABT than for CB?

[matilda]

Maybe this means NYCB can replace the Martins Swan Lake with Ratmansky's. 

[abatt]

9 minutes ago, matilda said:

Maybe this means NYCB can replace the Martins Swan Lake with Ratmansky's. 

Yes, that is what I was thinking too.

[NinaFan]

Just saw NYCB e-mail about Ratmansky.  Wonderful News!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ratmansky Named Artist in Residence

Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition premiered in 2014 and will be on stage this spring.

From everyone at New York City Ballet, we hope you are enjoying a happy and safe new year.

New York City Ballet is excited to announce the appointment of Alexei Ratmansky as the Company's Artist in Residence, beginning August, 2023. Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest living choreographers, Ratmansky joins the Company's artistic leadership alongside Jonathan Stafford, Wendy Whelan, and Justin Peck. 

Ratmansky has created six acclaimed works for NYCB: Russian Seasons (2006), Concerto DSCH (2008), Namouna, A Grand Divertissement (2010), Pictures at an Exhibition (2014), Odessa (2017), and Voices (2020). Ratmansky's newest work for NYCB will premiere during the 2024 Winter Season as part of NYCB's 75th Anniversary Season. 

Please join us in celebrating this historic appointment and we invite you to read more about the announcement in The New York Times here.

Edited January 5, 2023 by NinaFan
Guess I should have posted this in NYCB thread, but can't move it.

[California]

34 minutes ago, matilda said:

Maybe this means NYCB can replace the Martins Swan Lake with Ratmansky's. 

As others noted when we wondered if ABT might acquire the Ratmansky reconstruction, it seems likely that Miami has exclusive North American rights for at least a few years! But it would be great if they brought it to the Kennedy Center or Lincoln Center someday!

Is NYCB a Giselle kind of company? I saw Joseph Gordon do the second act PdD at Vail a few years ago, but I don't see the entire company doing it! 

I have to think NYCB is hoping for more new work, not reconstructions seen elsewhere.

[volcanohunter]

It's fair to say that NYCB is a longstanding dream for Ratmansky. In a recent Zoom interview for the London Ballet Circle he mentioned first encountering Balanchine's choreography while working at Royal Winnipeg Ballet, loving it and loving what Balanchine classes did to elongate his naturally muscular body. He wanted to dance with NYCB and auditioned twice, but unsuccessfully. After he left the Bolshoi directorship he was offered a resident choreographer position at NYCB that he considered too restrictive at the time, so he chose ABT. But it's been noted many times that the ballets he made for NYCB during this period proved to be more enduring than the works he produced for ABT.

[vipa]

This should be very interesting. I always thought Ratmansky did some of his best work for NYCB. With both Justin Peck and Ratmansky on board, will there be fewer new works by other choreographers at NYCB? This is a question not a complaint!

[abatt]

Is Justin Peck also an Artist in Residence?  

 

added- I just found a recent playbill and Peck is listed as "Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor"

So do Peck and Ratmansky have equal status as resident choreographers?

Edited January 5, 2023 by abatt

[Drew]

2 hours ago, California said:

 

Is NYCB a Giselle kind of company?

I have to think NYCB is hoping for more new work, not reconstructions seen elsewhere.

I hope the answer  to the first question remains NO.  (Perhaps you meant it rhetorically anyway....)

And I hope your second remark is indeed the case--I imagine it is!

[fondoffouettes]

3 hours ago, abatt said:

Is Justin Peck also an Artist in Residence?  

 

added- I just found a recent playbill and Peck is listed as "Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor"

So do Peck and Ratmansky have equal status as resident choreographers?

This Playbill article mentions that Wheeldon started as NYCB's artist in residence for a season and then became resident choreographer the following year. Based on Martins' comments, I'm wondering whether "resident choreographer" was conceived as a longer-term post than "artist in residence."

https://playbill.com/article/choreographer-christopher-wheeldon-to-leave-new-york-city-ballet

I'm not sure whether the roles are functionally different. I wonder if Peck's contract requires him to contribute more new works than Ratmansky's. Does Peck average more like two works a year?

 

[Ballerina860]

On 12/22/2022 at 2:53 PM, bingham said:

       I'm probably in minority here but  it looks like except for the Seasons and Seven Sonatas , none of his ABT  commissions  has been very well received to be revive.. Instead of a resident choreographer, ABT would be better off hiring an additional coach of Irina Kolpakova quality. Just my opinion.

Completely agree. It was awful.

[onxmyxtoes]

It was published on the company's 990 financial report that Ratmansky's annual salary was close to $300k. This could have paid for a few coaches!

[vipa]

12 hours ago, onxmyxtoes said:

It was published on the company's 990 financial report that Ratmansky's annual salary was close to $300k. This could have paid for a few coaches!

I've often wondered about coaching at ABT. It seems Kolpakova is the main coach for the principals in the classical full lengths. Susan Jones seems to still be there for the corps.  John Gardner, Amanda McKerrow, Nancy Raffa and Carlo Lopez are each listed as a Director of Repertoire. What exactly does that mean at ABT? Do they each have a slice of the rep to teach and coach?

[Helene]

McKerrow and Gardner are now the most well known Tudor experts for staging.  I wonder if there's a breakdown of the rep at ABT, like NYCB had for the Robbins rep, where specific Assistant Ballet Masters focused on his works from when he was still with the company.

[Royal Blue]

Hopefully, this turn of events somehow benefits everyone involved. Absolutely adore New York City Ballet, but I also love ABT. If I were wealthy and influential, my motto respecting anything untoward happening to either company would be "Not under my freaking watch!"

Voices has an experimental score, and I want to get a better feel for the ballet this season. The rest of Ratmansky's work for New York City Ballet has been exemplary. While I am not nearly as familiar with his output for ABT, I consider Serenade after Plato's Symposium to be among the most important and moving ballets I have ever seen.
 

[bingham]

Pharaoh’s Daughter is finally premiering in St Petersburg at end of March without A Ratmansky ‘s staging. It will be staged by Tony Candelore.  Any information on this choreographer?

[doug]

I say this on no authority, but my guess is that most of the ballet is Ratmansky's staging (which was based on source material as much as possible) and that Candeloro came in to finish it up or get it on stage. 

I'll add that I'm shocked that someone from the West chose to do this and that the Mariinsky allowed it (allowed it not because of the war but because Candeloro is not Russian).

[volcanohunter]

Under the circumstances, the Mariinsky may consider it more important to demonstrate that it has not been isolated internationally--war, anti-LGBT laws and Gergiev notwithstanding--and that an EU citizen is willing to work for the company. And I guess Toni Candeloro has decided that it's okay to work for a theater than has erased Ratmansky’s and Ilya Jivoy's names from their ballets, and is willing to appropriate the work done by Ratmansky, which is truly shocking.

Edited March 5, 2023 by volcanohunter