On the eve of its 75th anniversary, American Ballet Theatre will finally appear on an Australian stage for the first time. So an introduction is in order – but three quarters of a century’s worth of artistic achievements, personalities and internal dramas can hardly be covered in one article. ABT has a rich -- at times tumultuous – history. Plenty of outsized personalities, seminal creative figures and stellar dancers have been associated with the company through the decades.
Directed by Kevin McKenzie since 1992, it’s the company where Mikhail Barsyshnikov planted his American roots after his 1974 defection (and which he directed during the 1980s – more on that later). It’s where Antony Tudor found a home base in America and created many of his most significant and enduring ballets. Its headliners have included Natalia Makarova, Carla Fracci, Alicia Alonso, Nora Kaye, Igor Youskevitch, Erik Bruhn, Ivan Nagy and Julio Bocca, to name just a few of its legendary performers.
Based in New York, ABT from the start has toured extensively, both nationally and across the globe, while maintaining its strong presence on the New York dance scene, as a contrasting counterpart to New York City Ballet (founded in1948) in terms of repertory and identity. From the start, ABT took the “theatre” in its name seriously, leaning towards ballets with identifiable characters and dramatic emphasis. In the early years, Tudor, Agnes DeMille and Jerome Robbins made regular contributions to its repertory and helped shape its artistic profile. It’s also where Balanchine created Theme and Variations in 1947. The classics were there early on – Giselle was a mainstay of ABT’s repertory throughout the 1940s and ‘50s, as was the second act of Swan Lake.
Today, ABT focuses heavily on full-length productions of the familiar 19th-century classics as well as 20th- (and 21st-) century narrative dramatic works by Ashton, Macmillan, Cranko – and, more recently, Alexei Ratmansky, who has been ABT’s Artist in Residence since 2009. Landing one of the leading creative figures in ballet (who is committed to creating new works annually for ABT, even as he continues his freelance career) was quite a coup. The arrangement has been so mutually rewarding that in 2011 Ratmansky extended his initial five-year contract for an extra ten years – so ABT can count on being the beneficiary of his flourishing creativity through 2023. …
This is an extract from a feature article by New York correspondent Susan Reiter in the August/September issue of Dance Australia magazine. Buy the magazine to see the full story, or subscribe here http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/toolbar/subscribe, or download our app: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/dance-australia/id867961321?mt=8 .