Alexei Ratmansky served as the Vail Dance Festival's Artist-in-Residence for its 20th season this year — his first time taking part in the festival under director Damian Woetzel — and closed it out with a new premiere on August 10 as part of "NOW: Premieres," the closing-night program of world premieres and new commissions at the outdoor Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. The festival ran July 31 through August 10 across Vail, Beaver Creek, and Avon, Colorado.
Ratmansky's new work is set to music by Raymond Scott, performed live by a band of festival musicians led by pianist Joel Wenhardt, and danced by American Ballet Theatre principals Chloe Misseldine and Takumi Miyake — appearing courtesy of ABT — alongside New York City Ballet's Ryan Tomash. The casting reflects Vail's usual format: principal dancers on loan from major companies, assembled for a single festival premiere rather than a full company production.
Why It's Worth Watching
Ratmansky arrives at Vail in the same year he's serving as Artist-in-Residence at New York City Ballet, where The Naked King premiered this past February — a reminder of how much of his current output is happening in short, high-visibility bursts across different institutions rather than through a single company's season. A one-off Vail premiere, built around dancers pulled from two rival companies for a single night, is exactly the kind of appearance that won't get restaged or filmed for wide release, so reviews and audience accounts from the festival itself are likely to be the lasting record of it.