Paquita

Following his acclaimed Winter 2024 ballet Solitude, NYCB Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky choreographs his eighth ballet for the Company, set to music by Léon Minkus.

Alexei Ratmansky’s Paquita incorporates two sections of Marius Petipa’s Paquita (1881): the Minkus Pas de Trois, George Balanchine’s restaging of Petipa’s pas de trois from the first act, which was created in 1948 for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and restaged for NYCB in 1951, and the Grand Pas from the third act.

Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier for the Paris Opera Ballet in April 1846 to a score by Édouard Deldevez, Paquita was restaged by Petipa one year later for St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet, which also marked the first work that the French-born ballet master staged in Russia.  In 1881, Petipa revived the ballet and added new pieces of music composed by Ludwig Minkus, including some additional music for the pas de trois in the first act and the grand pas in the last act. 

In 2014, Ratmansky, in collaboration with historian Doug Fullington, choreographed a reconstruction of Paquita for the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich, working from the Stepanov notations created by Mariinsky Theater regisseur Nicholas Sergeyev held at the Harvard Theatre Collection at Houghton Library, which provided a detailed record of how the ballet was performed in the early 20th century, during Petipa’s lifetime. Ratmansky also used 1890s drawings of the Grand Pas principal couple by Mariinsky Ballet premier danseur Pavel Gerdt, who originated the leading role of Lucien in the 1881 revival, from the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow.

For NYCB, Ratmansky has created a new work that is unique to the Company, using the extensive research he did for the 2014 reconstruction as a starting point, while incorporating details from Alexandra Danilova’s staging of the Grand Pas for Cincinnati Ballet in the early 1980s, as well as Ratmansky’s own contributions. The costume design is by Jérôme Kaplan, who has designed several ballets for Ratmansky, including the 2014 reconstruction of Paquita, as well as his full-length productions of Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Coppélia, and the lighting design is by Mark Stanley. 

 “Paquita is a jewel of a ballet, full of intricate steps, refined musicality, and gentle humor. Petipa’s choreographic universe has a Ballerina at its center; he makes her shine but also challenges her.  Technically and artistically that makes him akin to Balanchine, and that’s where the idea of combining Mr. B’s Minkus Pas de Trois, a reworking of Petipa’s Act I pas de trois, with Petipa’s Act III Grand Pas came from.  I am very excited to see how these two worlds divided by the artistic revolution of the early twentieth century coexist today.” —Alexei Ratmansky

27 Minutes