Dance Dept.: Newcomer : The New Yorker

Baryshnikov’s party was probably, in some measure, an effort to make everybody happy again. He invited just about every prominent figure in New York’s ballet world. Dancers from both N.Y.C.B. and A.B.T. were there, looking sleek and declining hors d’oeuvres. Board members, in their suits, sat at little tables. A.B.T.’s artistic director was present. N.Y.C.B.’s was not. Nevertheless, the crowd was highly interdenominational.

In a toast, Baryshnikov congratulated Peter Martins for “bravely inviting Alexei” to work in New York in the first place. As for hurt feelings in Russia, he mentioned that Ratmansky would be fulfilling assignments there next year. In other words, Ratmansky had not thrown in his lot with any country or company; he was simply a citizen of the global village. “There’s a new political reality in this world,” Baryshnikov said. “It’s wonderful that an artist of Alexei’s calibre can travel from one country to another—an opportunity that I didn’t have in my prime time.” He didn’t add that when he terminated his relationship with the Soviet Union he had to run for his life, with the K.G.B. shouting after him, but everyone in the room knew it.

After the toast, the pianist Koji Attwood gave a brief solo concert, ending with his arrangement of “Recuerdos de la Alhambra,” written for classical guitar by the Spanish master Francisco Tárrega. This is a beautiful and melancholy piece, and, as Attwood played, New York’s western horizon, broadly visible from the windows of the dance studio where the party was being held, seemed to hear it. A great pink sun sank majestically into the river. Recuerdos means “memories,” and Ratmansky, staring into his wineglass, may have had memories of his own. The world, however interconnected now, is still a collection of different places, and a man can be in only one of them at a time.

via www.newyorker.com