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AlexeI Ratmansky
Choreographer & Artistic Director, Bolshoi Ballet (Russia)

Russian-born Alexei Ratmansky trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, was a principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet (1993-95) and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Canada (1995-97) before joining the Royal Danish Ballet as a soloist in 1997. There, he was promoted to principal dancer in 2000, but returned to Russia in January 2004 to assume the venerable position of Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet at the young age of 35 years, succeeding Boris Akimov.

He has participated in the Choreographer’s Workshop at the Royal Danish Ballet (1999) and the New York Choreographic Institute at New York City Ballet (2002). In 1998, he choreographed Poem of Ecstasy, Middle Duet, and The Fairy’s Kiss for the Kirov Ballet. In 2001, he created Turandot’s Dream and a new version of The Nutcracker for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. In 2002, he staged a new version of Cinderella for the Kirov Ballet, followed by The Firebird for the Royal Swedish Ballet. In 2003, he premiered Le Carnival des Anumaux for the San Francisco Ballet. His Charms of the Mannerism, Dreams about Japan, and Leah have been performed around the world by Moscow Dance Theatre, featuring Nina Ananiashvili of the Bolshoi and American Ballet Theater. His works for the Bolshoi are the versions of Shostakovich’s banned Stalin-era ballets: The Bright Stream that has been highly praised in Russia (2003), in Paris, where the Bright Stream was performed in January 2004, and in London in August 2006 and 2007, and The Bolt (2005). Rodion Shchedrin's Anna Karenina brings its success through Europe - Royal Danish Ballet, 2004; Lithuanian National Opera, 2005; Finnish National Ballet, 2006.  In 2006, Ratmansky staged Russian Seasons for New-York City Ballet and Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi. Le Corsaire with Alexei’s new choreography became the latest premiere of the Bolshoi, June 2007.

As a dancer, Ratmansky has performed leading roles such as Basil in Don Quixote, Price Siegfried in Swan Lake, Albrecht in Giselle, James in La Sylphide. He worked with such choreographers as Morice Bejart, John Neumeier, Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian. He was awarded First Prize at the Ukrainian Ballet Competition in 1998, the Nijinsky Prize at the Moscow Diaghilev Competition in 1992. As a choreographer he was twice awarded the Golden Mask National Theatre prize (for The Dreams of Japan in 1999 and for The Bright Stream in 2004) and received Benois De La Dance Award for his choreography for full-length Anna Karenina, created for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2004. Alexei Ratmansky was made Knight of Dannebrog in 2002 for his contribution to the Danish Arts. In 2007, he was awarded National Dance Awards Critics' Circle prize for his production of Shostakovich's The Bright Stream which had been shown in London during the Bolshoi Ballet tour in 2006.