10 Years of Ratmansky at ABT
Though produced as a co-commission with San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater’s program notes “The Seasons” as Alexei Ratmansky’s “declaration of love, expression of gratitude, and gift to the company that has been [his] home for the last decade,” and the ballet’s ebullient energy lives up to the choreographer’s descriptor.
“The Seasons” © Andrea Mohin/New York Times
While I did not see the ballet’s premier, I was able to see both casts as part of the Ratmansky Trio program, also featuring “On the Dnieper,” which he choreographed for ABT in 2009, and “Songs of Bukovina,” a 2017 creation. Marina Harss’ New York Times profile of Ratnamsky, published the day before ABT’s opening gala, quotes artistic director Kevin McKenzie on the contrast between this season’s rehearsals for “On the Dnieper” and its debut as one of Ratmansky’s first works with the company. “Through working with him, the dancers have come to know themselves and what they’re capable of,” McKenzie said, on the way deep relationships between dancer and choreographer have impacted his work. “The ballet can come to life in a way it never could have before,” a sentiment substantiated by this week’s performances.
Ratmansky is known for his penchant for using original notation for reconstructing ballets: so far, he has brought to life Petipa originals including “Le Corsaire,” “Paquita,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake,” “Harlequinade,” and “La Bayadère.” Alexander Glazunov originally wrote the score for “The Seasons” for Marius Petipa, and the Imperial Ballet premiered Petipa’s choreography in 1900. Though no choreographic notation exists, Ratmansky’s choice to preserve Petipa’s layout for the ballet (including his cast of characters—“Spirit of Corn,” “Zephyr,” “Frost,” and “Hail” are all original featured roles) provided no shortage of material from which to work.
A lot is packed into 40 minutes, much of it with great success. However, the costumes lacked continuity between characters and seasons (I struggled particularly with the Rose and Swallow costumes alongside the Zephyr in “Spring”), and felt simplistic for a ballet of such grand scale. Lighting and scenery (each season had a single solid backdrop) felt similarly overlooked, too, and, for a few brief moments, it felt as if the choreography was trying to compensate for this deficit. If that was Ratmansky’s mission, he largely succeeded. Isabella Boylston navigates the challenges of the “Spirit of Corn” with grace and ease, and Stella Abrera infused an appropriate warmth to the same role. Catherine Hurlin, both as Hail and Bacchante, proved the value of intimate, long-term collaboration with Ratmansky—as the original Young Clara in his 2010 “Nutcracker,” she has been working with Ratmansky almost as long as he has been at ABT, and she looked right at home in his choreography. Integrating pint-sized students (from ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis school) as Poppies alongside company members in “Summer” similarly reinforced not only the future of Ratmansky’s relationship with ABT, but the cohesion that has developed in the company during Ratmansky’s tenure.
I look forward to revisiting this ballet upon its return: once the steps have had a chance to percolate, it is a ballet that should prove enduring at Ballet Theater. “The Seasons” is set apart not only by Ratmansky’s obvious love of ABT, but by the company’s love for him—the clear symbiosis between company and choreographer has allowed each to push the other into a new era at Ballet Theater.
