Biographie

Choreographer, Romeo and Juliet

Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow.

His performing career included positions as Principal Dancer with National Ballet of Ukraine, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and The Royal Danish Ballet. He has choreographed ballets for Mariinsky Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Kiev City Ballet and State Ballet of Georgia, as well as for Nina Ananiashvili, Diana Vishneva and Mikhail Baryshnikov. His 1998 work, Dreams of Japan, earned a prestigious Golden Mask Award by the Theatre Union of Russia. In 2005, he was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for his choreography of Anna Karenina for The Royal Danish Ballet. He was made Knight of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2001. He won his second Prix Benois de la Danse for Shostakovich Trilogy in 2014.

Alexei was named Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet in janvier 2004. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he choreographed full-length productions of The Bright Stream (2003) and The Bolt (2005) and re-staged Le Corsaire (2007) and the Soviet-era Flames of Paris (2008). Under Ratmansky’s direction, Bolshoi Ballet was named “Best Foreign Company” in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics’ Circle in London, and he received a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for The Bright Stream in 2006 and Shostakovich Trilogy in 2020. In 2007, he won a Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for Bolshoi Ballet. In 2009, Alexei choreographed new dances for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Aida. Alexei joined American Ballet Theatre as Artist in Residence in janvier 2009. In juin 2023, Alexei will be leaving American Ballet Theatre and in août 2023 will be joining New York City Ballet as Artist in Residence.

For American Ballet Theatre, Alexei choreographed On the Dnieper (2009), Seven Sonatas (2009), Waltz Masquerade, a ballet honoring Nina Ananiashvili’s final season (2009), The Nutcracker (2010), Dumbarton (2011), Firebird and Symphony #9 (2012), Chamber Symphony, Piano Concerto #1 and The Tempest (2013), The Sleeping Beauty (2015), Serenade after Plato’s Symposium (2016), Songs of Bukovina (2017), Whipped Cream (2017), Harlequinade (2018), The Seasons (2019), Of Love and Rage (2020) and Bernstein in a Bubble (2021).

Alexei was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for 2013.