Ratmansky, Alexei
Alexei Ratmansky, 1968–, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He studied with Bolshoi Ballet school (1978–86), and in the mid-1990s moved first to Canada, where he danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and then to Denmark and the Royal Danish Ballet, where he was a principal dancer and began to choreograph. In 2004 he became the Bolshoi's artistic director. There he introduced new ballets by Russian choreographers and a number of works from the West, e.g., by Twyla Tharp, and revived and rechoreographed several 1930s Soviet ballets, the best known is of which The Bright Stream (2003). In 2009 he joined New York's American Ballet Theatre as artist-in-residence. Ratmansky is known for his extreme musicality, his use of the classical vocabulary of steps and movements, his revival of story ballet, and his creation of a renewed modernist ballet. His recent dances include Russian Seasons (2007), Concerto DSCH (2008), and Dumbarton (2011).