NYCB: Ratmansky’s new Paquita - The New York Times review

I knew Alexei Ratmansky was creating a new work for the New York City Ballet as a part of the Innovators and Icons triple bill. Then I was intrigued by this The New York Times article published on 4th February, a couple of days before its world premiere, that Ratmansky was reinterpreting Paquita.

The article stated, “Ratmansky has paired two pieces of Marius Petipa’s 1881 ballet classic “Paquita”: George Balanchine’s 1951 restaging of a first-act Pas de Trois, followed by Ratmansky’s own restaging of thegrandiose last act (the Grand Pas Classique). So: Petipa through the lens of Balanchine, then Petipa through the lens of Ratmansky, both further refracted through these young dancers and their ways of inhabiting the steps.”

After it was performed on 6th February at Lincoln Center, the newspaper carried an positive review about Paquita (subscription required) in the following day. It looks like this.

Screenshot of The New York Times review on my iPad

Clean, modern and opulent. It does look like the New York City Ballet type indeed.

The New York Times review says, “In this homage to Petipa and Balanchine, the founding choreographer of City Ballet, Ratmansky mines the history and steps of his treasured ancestors to find a fresh way of presenting the dancing body. It’s bold. It moves with an elegant ferociousness. And it’s almost spooky. Throughout, something that Balanchine used to say vibrates in the bodies of a generation of dancers he never laid eyes on: “We all live in the same time forever. There is no future and there is no past.”

I hope the company makes it available online!

Update on 23rd February: I have just read a review on Fjord Review titled, “Paquita Bananas.” The author, Faye Arthurs, says, “I love and admire Ratmansky’s penchants for scholarship and reflection so much. Much more, I confess, than I loved this new “Paquita.” ”