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About
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a Russian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. As of April 2014 he is the artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Bolshoi Ballet
Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg and trained under Pyotr Pestov and Alexandra Markeyeva at the Bolshoi Ballet School. He graduated in 1986. He then danced in Kiev and was a principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Royal Danish 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. 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.
After his directorship at the Bolshoi, Ratmansky agreed to become the first artist in residence for the American Ballet Theatre in 2008 after negotiations with the New York City Ballet failed over the position of resident choreographer. 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.
In 2011, his choreography of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet was premiered by the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. Its performance in London earned Ratmansky the praise from New York Times reviewer Alastair Macaulay of being "the most gifted choreographer specializing in classical ballet today."
In 2014, Ratmansky took his career in a new direction when he reconstructed Marius Petipa's final revival of Paquita from the Sergeyev Collection. The reconstruction was premièred in Munich in December 2014, performed by the Bavarian State Ballet. In March 2015, he mounted his second Petipa reconstruction for American Ballet Theatre - The Sleeping Beauty, which premièred in Orange County and was later staged at the Teatro alla Scala. Ratmansky is currently reconstructing the Petipa/Ivanov 1895 staging of Swan Lake, which was premièred in Zurich in February 2016.