Elizabeth Wisenberg, Michelle Willems and Wei Chen in Pas de trois, Swan Lake

Elizabeth Wisenberg, Michelle Willems and Wei Chen in PDT. Swan Lake, music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, reconstruction by Alexei Ratmansky, costumes by Jérôme Kaplan. Shot on 23.6.2018 in Zurich Opera House (Opernhaus Zürich).

 

Wei Chen, a native of the USA, trained at the Boston Ballet School, Margo Marshall’s School of Ballet, Walnut Hill School and the Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. With the Royal Ballet of Flanders he danced numerous leading roles. He joined Ballett Zürich for the 2012/13 season.

Alexei Ratmansky reconstruction — Ratmansky, one of the most important choreographers of our time, has reconstructed this three-act version by Petipa/Ivanov for Ballett Zürich in 2016. The former Ballet Director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre is now “Artist in Residence” with the American Ballet Theatre, and works with the world’s most prestigious ballet companies. With the aid of the Stepanov notation – a system of ballet codification developed in the late 19th century, Ratmansky has resurrected the work in its original form, thus offering an exciting view of a lost ballet tradition.

Photos by Jack Devant Ballet Photography with kind permission of the Opernhaus Zürich, special thanks to Viktorina Kapitonova and Chea Nila.