Alexei Ratmansky appointed Associate Artist with Dutch National Ballet

[Birdy]

https://www.operaballet.nl/en/news/alexei-ratmansky-appointed-associate-artist-dutch-national-ballet

[Bruce Wall]

This is great news.  Between DNB and NYCB Ratmansky will have his balletic core well covered.  Both institutions are very lucky to have him IMHO.  

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2024 by Bruce Wall

[bridiem]

Envy.

[Mary]

Well, he's getting closer...

[Scheherezade]

7 minutes ago, Mary said:

Well, he's getting closer...

 

As the RB is backing further away.

[San Perregrino]

13 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

 

As the RB is backing further away.

TTBOMK there are no jobs going at the RB for the time being so best to go where the work is. The future may open up opportunities.

Edited November 21, 2024 by San Perregrino

[Tattin]

At least he's back in Europe; & that's good news for those of us who live in this continent.

[Blossom]

Excited to see what he will bring to Amsterdam. It's such an easy journey there and the Opera House is very affordable.

[Birdy]

I believe he is still under contract with New York City Ballet as well, so that is a big choreographic commitment.

[Bruce Wall]

1 hour ago, Birdy said:

I believe he is still under contract with New York City Ballet as well, so that is a big choreographic commitment.

 

Don't think NYCB is planning on seeing him depart any time soon.  He is now very much a fixture.  Peck is - especially after the Tony and Oscar nods - a very busy man himself - a bit like Balanchine had been.  

 

[Emeralds]

Very appropriate  I think, and wonderful news. Congratulations to Alexei Ratmansky and to Het Nationale Ballet! 

 

I guess he will fly across from his job at NYCB from time to time to choreograph. He was always very impressive at being able to fly everywhere to oversee revivals or do choreography. If he can make it to Australia to create a Cinderella while working at ABT, Amsterdam will be no problem. One doesn't have to live in the same country to be an artistic associate. 

 

Can't wait to see what he creates at Dutch National Ballet! How exciting!

[Emeralds]

4 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

 

As the RB is backing further away.

Sad but true. They don't even seem to be making an effort to revive 24 Preludes which was created on them. Not sure why nice ballets (Preludes, Yugen) get mothballed while so many flawed ones  get aired again 2 years later. 

 

Am hoping that maybe ENB or BRB will make our dreams come true by commissioning a ballet from him. The last person to stage a Ratmansky creation (small one- his pas de deux to Valse Triste) in Britain was Natalia Osipova! 

Edited November 21, 2024 by Emeralds

[alison]

Actually, attempts have been made to revive/revise 24 Preludes.

[oncnp]

1 hour ago, alison said:

Actually, attempts have been made to revive/revise 24 Preludes.

 

A further announcement to the 2019/20 ballet season is the return of Frederick Ashton’s Monotones I and II which replaces Alexei Ratmansky’s Preludes in June 2020. This is due to last minute changes in Ratmansky’s commitments with American Ballet Theater. 

 

News for The Royal Ballet’s 2019/20 Season

[Paco]

It's becoming a bit caricatural on this forum.... any news, any thread, shortly evolves into some Royal Ballet- bashing. Here the topic is Ratmansky's appointment in Amsterdam, nevertheless just two or three posts later it starts to be a RB-bashing thread. Another one...

 

I am sure that if I launch a thread about apple trees in Normandy it will soon evolve into a RB-bashing thread... "What a shame, KOH didn't even commission a ballet about apple trees..."

Edited November 21, 2024 by Paco

[bridiem]

6 hours ago, Paco said:

It's becoming a bit caricatural on this forum.... any news, any thread, shortly evolves into some Royal Ballet- bashing. Here the topic is Ratmansky's appointment in Amsterdam, nevertheless just two or three posts later it starts to be a RB-bashing thread. Another one...

 

I am sure that if I launch a thread about apple trees in Normandy it will soon evolve into a RB-bashing thread... "What a shame, KOH didn't even commission a ballet about apple trees..."

 

To the extent that this is true (and I apologise for diverting this thread), it must reflect a pretty high level of unhappiness and frustration about the programming at the RB.

Edited November 22, 2024 by bridiem

[MAB]

I wouldn't term disquiet over repertoire choices 'RB-bashing', would bland acceptance be preferable?

[FionaM]

Returning to Ratmansky himself …

 

The Dutch press is wondering if this is a pre-cursor to becoming Artistic Director.

 

Personally that would surprise me, as I thought the criteria to replace Ted Brandsen included speaking Dutch.  

 

Also IIRC Ratmansky left his role as AD of Bolshoi because he wanted to spend more time on choreography and less on management.  (Or was there another reason 🧐 )

 

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/11/21/wereldberoemde-choreograaf-ratmansky-associate-artist-bij-het-nationale-ballet-a4874019?t=1732271290

Edited November 22, 2024 by FionaM

[Emeralds]

The problem with forbidding any mention of RB, @Paco, unfortunately, is that after offering congratulations there is not a lot left to say! 

 

Alexei Ratmansky hasn't got a new ballet lined up for Het Nationale Ballet yet, and the nature of these appointments and Mr Ratmansky's popularity is that there might not be one for some time.

 

So we just meander off to chatting about how nice it would be if his creation for a British company, any British company, could be revived. So far RB is the only British company that has managed to commission a Ratmansky creation (premiered in 2013).

 

The ballet, 24 Preludes (set to an orchestration of Chopin's collection of thr preludes of the same name) was very good. An announced revival for 2020 was cancelled in 2019 owing to lack of time and then Covid delayed things further. Fair enough. But apart from Tombeaux (by Bintley) the other postponements have now been staged, and there is currently no new revival date proposed.

 

Even if they said "sometime after 2024 but before 2027" that would still be good. That's why it's telling me, @alison, they're no longer interested in  trying to stage it. That may not be the intention but that's the message coming across to me. Which is a pity as RB has plenty of new principals and first soloists who would be excellent in the ballet, taking over from Cojocaru, Yanowsky, Benjamin, Pennefather and Hristov - Lamb, McRae,  Kaneko and Hamilton are the only members of the original  two casts still dancing with the company. 

 

@FionaM I'd say he's too busy for the next 6 years to contemplate becoming an Artistic Director anywhere. I think he's also pretty settled in New York with his family. Of course, he and his family could make a change at any time. Just seems unlikely though. 

Edited November 22, 2024 by Emeralds

[Shade]

Wasn’t Prodigal Son also dealt the COVID blow and has yet to be programmed?

[Sim]

13 minutes ago, Shade said:

Wasn’t Prodigal Son also dealt the COVID blow and has yet to be programmed?

If you mean by the RB, it is coming in the Spring of 2025 as part of the Balanchine Triple together with Symphony in C and Serenade.

[alison]

Live Fire Exercise hasn't (yet) been programmed either.

[Scheherezade]

16 hours ago, Paco said:

It's becoming a bit caricatural on this forum.... any news, any thread, shortly evolves into some Royal Ballet- bashing.

 

4 hours ago, MAB said:

 

I wouldn't term disquiet over repertoire choices 'RB-bashing', would bland acceptance be preferable?

 

Not RB-bashing at all. Quite the contrary since the performances, at whatever level and whatever the oeuvre, are almost universally acclaimed. The disquiet - and this is by no means felt by everyone who posts - is directed squarely at the choice of repertoire which, surely, is not dissimilar to the views expressed by you, Paco, with regard to the pre-Martinez repertoire at POB. Just saying ….

 

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

apart from Tombeaux (by Bintley) the other postponements have now been staged

And how I wish Tombeaux would

be staged. And soon. Plus what about those promised “heritage” works said to have been scheduled for the Linbury?

[MAB]

14 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

And how I wish Tombeaux would

be staged.

 

I'd like to see Young Apollo too.  How about a Bintley retrospective?

[Scheherezade]

1 minute ago, MAB said:

 

I'd like to see Young Apollo too.  How about a Bintley retrospective?

Lovely. But sadly unlikely. 

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

 

I'd like to see Young Apollo too.  How about a Bintley retrospective?

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE BRB to programme a Bintley retrospective.  
 

Full lengths:  Hobsons, Madding Crowd, Cyrano.

 

Shorter works:  Carmina, Tombeaux, Galantries, Brahms Handel Variations, Penguin Cafe to name but a few…

[Shade]

3 hours ago, Sim said:

If you mean by the RB, it is coming in the Spring of 2025 as part of the Balanchine Triple together with Symphony in C and Serenade.

Great I will be buying tickets - are there many performances?

[Sim]

18 minutes ago, Shade said:

Great I will be buying tickets - are there many performances?

28th, 29th, 30th, 31st March, all at 7:30

2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th April, all at 7:30

 

So for those who prefer matinees, there aren't any. 

 

[David Huddleston]

5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

The problem with forbidding any mention of RB, @Paco, unfortunately, is that after offering congratulations there is not a lot left to say! 

 

Alexei Ratmansky hasn't got a new ballet lined up for Het Nationale Ballet yet, and the nature of these appointments and Mr Ratmansky's popularity is that there might not be one for some time.

 

So we just meander off to chatting about how nice it would be if his creation for a British company, any British company, could be revived. So far RB is the only British company that has managed to commission a Ratmansky creation (premiered in 2013).

 

The ballet, 24 Preludes (set to an orchestration of Chopin's collection of thr preludes of the same name) was very good. An announced revival for 2020 was cancelled in 2019 owing to lack of time and then Covid delayed things further. Fair enough. But apart from Tombeaux (by Bintley) the other postponements have now been staged, and there is currently no new revival date proposed.

 

Even if they said "sometime after 2024 but before 2027" that would still be good. That's why it's telling me, @alison, they're no longer interested in  trying to stage it. That may not be the intention but that's the message coming across to me. Which is a pity as RB has plenty of new principals and first soloists who would be excellent in the ballet, taking over from Cojocaru, Yanowsky, Benjamin, Pennefather and Hristov - Lamb, McRae,  Kaneko and Hamilton are the only members of the original  two casts still dancing with the company. 

 

@FionaM I'd say he's too busy for the next 6 years to contemplate becoming an Artistic Director anywhere. I think he's also pretty settled in New York with his family. Of course, he and his family could make a change at any time. Just seems unlikely though. 

 In Marina Harss biography of Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv, it didn't sound like his experience at the RB was that positive when creating 24 Preludes on the company.

[JaneHartley]

7 minutes ago, David Huddleston said:

 In Marina Harss biography of Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv, it didn't sound like his experience at the RB was that positive when creating 24 Preludes on the company.

having not read it, can you expand on this?

[Emeralds]

38 minutes ago, David Huddleston said:

 In Marina Harss biography of Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv, it didn't sound like his experience at the RB was that positive when creating 24 Preludes on the company.

Thanks for that, David-: that's unfortunate though. Mara Galeazzi told me he was  lovely to work with and she was impressed that he was so nice. I don’t have the book (yet)- I hope he didn't mean the dancers and was referring to other aspects? 

[MAB]

One of the male dancers created problems, not Ms Harss' opinion, apparently it is recorded on film.

[David Huddleston]

49 minutes ago, JaneHartley said:

having not read it, can you expand on this?

There was time pressure as work started in December in the middle of a Nutcracker season. Dancers were worn out from a busy schedule and were working alot with more contemporary choreographers with a different style of creation. The book suggests a lack of affinity and inspiration between Alexei and the dancers.