Ananiashvili may have headed last week's season at the Wells, but it was choreographer Alexei Ratmansky who turned out to be its most interesting item. Ratmansky (recently appointed director of the Bolshoi) is an example of the new post-glasnost breed of Russian artists. While none of his works could have been made by a pure-bred Bolshoi, they retain a consciousness of their own daring that belies their formal, western sophistication.
In Charms of Mannerism (1997), Ratmansky assumes the role of postmodern ironist. Four dancers are drilled through finicky sequences, in which classical steps are tooled for modern detail and speed. Decorating the surface is a flummery of 18th-century mime, whose fluttering hand gestures and loaded glances have all been skewed for contemporary effect.
As an encounter between flip modernity and gilded baroque, Charms has moments of both poise and wit, but the London cast prevented us from seeing how good it really is. The two men, with their coarse feet and flagging arabesques, were the stylistic equivalent of yokels in ruffles, and while the women were more decorously competent, Inna Petrovna mugged most of the jokes to death.
The company looked much better in Dreams About Japan (1998), in which the ritual energies of kodo drum music (played wonderfully by an all-Russian band) knit together a series of kabuki-inspired dances about love and sorcery. Ratmansky's stamina is unblinking in this piece - yet while he shamelessly plays to his dancers' strengths (lots of Moscow energy and heroics), he is far from coarse. His choreography has a rhythmic subtlety and he draws his characters with a deft delicacy of observation. Even if Ratmasky's Japan is only a tourist's view, Dreams proves that he's a quick student with a big range. His fans just have to hope that his potential doesn't get crushed under the juggernaut task of running the Bolshoi.
