Last month Alexei Ratmansky, the departing artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, seemed on the verge of becoming resident choreographer of the New York City Ballet. Very few people in New York, however, had then seen more than three or four of his works.
By a fluke of programming, the weeks since then have brought to New York no fewer than three Ratmansky one-act ballets: “Pierrot Lunaire,” danced by Diana Vishneva and colleagues at City Center, and “Bizet Variations” and “Dreams About Japan,” danced by Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (His “Russian Seasons” was in City Ballet’s repertory until Feb. 23, and the company will present the premiere of another work in May.) So New York dancegoers now know Mr. Ratmansky better.
Or do they? He turns out to be a different person with each ballet. Fascinatingly so. In the Georgian company’s second program, the contrast between his two works was especially marked. (The program also included George Balanchine’s “Duo Concertant” and Yuri Possokhov’s “Sagalobeli.”)
The strange thing is that “Bizet Variations,” new this year and also in the company’s first program, may be his least original work so far. Vasil Akhmeteli plays the man who attracts the ballet’s junior two women away from their partners, and Ms. Ananiashvili plays the woman who attracts all three men. None of this, however accomplished and attractive, is as interesting as the drama going on in the music.
Ms. Ananiashvili’s association with Mr. Ratmansky began long before he had become one of the hottest choreographic properties in ballet. He created “Dreams About Japan” for her and six other stars of the Bolshoi in 1998. The earliest Ratmansky ballet that most of us have seen, performed to strongly percussion-led music composed by L. Eto, N. Yamaguchi and A. Tosha of the Kodo drum group, the piece vividly demonstrates his originality.
What’s terrific about “Dreams About Japan,” which uses mainly Japanese costumes and features of Japanese movement, is its sheer vigor. In six scenes Japanese characters burst onto the stage, full of rages, griefs, determinations; the women are more individual and driven than the men. Those women walk on their heels and dance on point, and each style has its own percussive vitality. In the most memorable episode Ms. Ananiashvili is a rejected maiden who is transformed into a vengeful Fire Snake, hopping on point and winding her flame scarf in changing patterns. She plays the role with marvelous glee, and its force shows us aspects of her we’ve never seen before.
As in some of Mr. Ratmansky’s later works, there are occasional repetitions of gestures and virtuoso jumps and turns that look a bit obvious, especially within the unpredictable subtlety of his composition as a whole. But set “Dreams About Japan” beside “Russian Seasons” and “Pierrot Lunaire,” and you will find more and more signs of Mr. Ratmansky’s range, energy and imagination.
