New York City Ballet’s Winter 2025 Season at Lincoln Center is full of the usual opinions: edgy neoclassical ballets by Company founder George Balanchine, theatri cal dances by Jerome Robbins, cool contemporary ballets including a new work by resident choreographer and artistic advisor Justin Peck and then something Unexpectedly: PaquitaNYCB-resident artist Alexei Ratmansky resides for the company’s latest work.
It should be clear that Ratmansky’s new work is not actually a new work. It’s very old. Paquita Originally founded by Joseph Mazilier for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1846 and by Marius Petipa in 1847 for the St. Petersburg Empire Ballet , and then recovered in 1881 by Petipa. Dance Suite Paquita-this Pas de Trois From the first act and Big pas From Act 3.
For some world premieres, it’s better to go to the theater, no expectations, clean minds. But for this it helps to have some history and context, because Paquita Both are immersed.
original Paquitas
Mazilier’s 1846 Paquitain the Bulls Valley near Zaragoza, Spain, Edouard Deldevez’s score was a dramatic ballet. It is full of “exotic” Spanish and Romani characters dance and plays Lucien with the great Carlotta Grisi for Paquita and Lucien Petipa (Marius’ brother).
In 1947, Marius Petipa brought the delightful ballet to Russia. He spent several years in Spain (1844-1847), so he knew one or two things about Spanish dance. Although he admired Mazilier’s work very much, he changed some of the choreography. This time he danced Lucien and Yelena Andreyanova danced Paquita.
In 1881, Petipa resurrected ballet and added new parts – especially Pas de Trois and Big pas– Consisting of Léon Minkus. Ekaterina Vazem dances Paquita and Pavel Gerdt dances Lucien. The work was so popular that it remained on the tracks of the Mariinsky Theater until 1926. Then it disappeared quietly.
In the early 2000s, Paquita Resurfaced. Pierre Lacotte revived the Paris Opera Ballet in 2001. In 2014, Ratmansky created a deep research reconstruction Paquita For Munich’s Bayer-style Staatsballett. So this is not the first time Ratmansky has worked in ballet. This man knows what he is talking about.
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This new stage is interesting Paquita It is similar to a Russian nesting doll. Ratmansky’s 2025 version is Alexandra Danilova’s 1980s stage Big pas 1948 version for Cincinnati Ballet and Balanchine Pas de Trois For the Du Marquis de Cuevas, these are two versions of Petipa from 1881, and the interior is the tiny but solidity of the original Mazilier ballet characters.
This is how classical ballet works. It was handed down, redesigned and remade.
New Paquita
Ratmansky’s Paquita For NYCB, premiered on Thursday, February 6. As often seen in global premieres, the audience is filled with friends, colleagues and biggest fans of the company. Paquita Open Innovators and icons The nerve energy of the show is obvious.
Ratmansky Pas de Trois From the first act Minkus Pas de Trois, first. Entrée is Swift and Grand, three dancers (Erica Pereira, David Gabriel and Emma von Engk) proudly posing in Jérôme Kaplan’s Rich Berry color costume. Then a brief solo and duo begins, combining fast footwork, jumps and turns.
Gabriel’s Cabriole changes are so sophisticated that his feet cannot float high and then land with perfect control. The petite guy at von Enck is lightweight and precise. Balanchine’s moments are on Pereira and Von Enck’s curved wrists and gentle shoulders, and are respected but not imitated in the Russian Empire style. This work is very much a product of the time, so I mean 1881 and 1948. The Spanish and Romani nods were almost deprived. No more narrative. It’s pure entertainment and technically great.
Unconsciously, Minkus Pas de Trois It’s over, the stage is added with the dancers Big pas– First there is the ballet, then the soloist, then Pakita (here is Sarah Means). Kaplan’s beautiful outfits are black, white and gold (except for the black, white and red of Paquita). Minkus’ music is bright and fast, and the choreography matches it. While all of these six changes danced happily (especially Uniform Philean, Woodward, Indiana and Churn Chen), I was most impressed by the ballet. Their choreography is complex, highly demanding, and sometimes impossible to be fast. While unity is sometimes imperfect, once it enters their bodies, you will see it exciting.
The Soloist and Legion, while great, both just set the scene for the main attractions: Paquita. Lucien is there too, Chan dances with great strength and beauty, but it’s Paquita’s performance. Mearns is the queen of Adagio, the perfect match for lyrical, stretching. No one has an arch like Mearns—her breasts are gleaming and her neck is gently curved—Ratmansky always highlights this. The Paquita version of Mearns is not hot. It is quiet, soft, unique.
Paquita Far beyond the company’s cab. It is classical and rooted in the history that Balanchine hopes to leave behind. But this is a good thing. The world premiere may be fresh and tender – first breathing, still growing – but it’s clear that the piece is stretching the dancers and pulling them in a new direction.
Paquita It will be held again at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center on February 9 (and then in spring 2025).
