Works & Process at the Guggenheim Announces American Ballet Theatre's WHIPPED CREAM

On Sunday and Monday, April 30 and May 1, 2017 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents performance highlights and discussion on American Ballet Theatre's newest production, Whipped Cream by Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky in collaboration with pop surrealist Mark Ryden. Ratmansky and moderator John Meehan will discuss the new work and ABT dancers will perform excerpts prior to the New York premiere.

Whipped Cream will have its New York premiere with American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House on May 22, 2017.

Delightfully whimsical, this new full-length production springs from the imagination of American Ballet Theatre Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky and pop surrealist Mark Ryden. Based on the 1924 Viennese ballet Schlagobers (Whipped Cream) with music by Richard Strauss, Whipped Cream follows a young boy who overindulges at a Viennese pastry shop and falls into a delirium.

Tickets & Venue

$40, $35 Guggenheim members and Friends of Works & Process. $10 Student Rush Tickets available one hour prior to each performance if space allows (for students under 25 with valid ID).

Box Office (212) 423-3575, (M-F, 1-5pm) or online at worksandprocess.org.

Peter B. Lewis Theater

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Avenue, New York

Alexei Ratmansky was born in St. Petersburg and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. His performing career included positions as principal dancer with Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. He has choreographed ballets for the Mariinsky Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Kiev Ballet and the State Ballet of Georgia, as well as Nina Ananiashvili, Diana Vishneva and Mikhail Baryshnikov. His 1998 work, Dreams of Japan, earned a prestigious Golden Mask Award by The Theatre Union of Russia. In 2005, he was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize for his choreography of Anna Karenina for the Royal Danish Ballet. He was made Knight of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2001. He won his second Benois de la Danse for Shostakovich Trilogy in 2014.

Ratmansky was named artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in January 2004. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he choreographed full-length productions of The Bright Stream (2003) and

The Bolt (2005) and re-staged Le Corsaire (2007) and the Soviet-era Flames of Paris (2008). Under Ratmansky's direction, the Bolshoi Ballet was named "Best Foreign Company" in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics' Circle in London, and he received a Critics' Circle National Dance Award for The Bright Stream in 2006. In 2007, he won aGolden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2009, Ratmansky choreographed new dances for the Metropolitan Opera's production of Aida. Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre as Artist in Residence in January 2009.

For American Ballet Theatre, Ratmansky choreographed On the Dnieper (2009), Seven Sonatas (2009), Waltz Masquerade, a ballet honoring Nina Ananiashvili's final season (2009), The Nutcracker (2010), Dumbarton (2011), Firebird and Symphony #9 (2012), Chamber Symphony, Piano Concerto #1 and The Tempest (2013), The Sleeping Beauty (2015) and Serenade After Plato's Symposium (2016). He will create an all-new production of the ballet Whipped Cream for ABT in 2017.

Ratmansky was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for 2013.

John Meehan is an Australian ballet director, choreographer, professor, and retired ballet dancer. Meehan joined the Australian Ballet in 1970 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1974, creating roles in several works, including Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow. He danced also with American Ballet Theatre from 1977 to 1980 and later was a guest artist with National Ballet of Canada and the New York City Ballet. Meehan's choreography is in the repertoire of the Australian Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Washington Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Hong Kong Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Meehan was subsequently appointed as the artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet between 1990 and 1993 and the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company from 1997 to 2006. He was the artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet between July 2006 to 2009 before accepting a teaching position at Vassar College where he now chairs the Vassar Dance Department. Meehan has served twice as the President of the Jury at the Prix de Lausanne and is regularly invited as a judge for the Youth America Grand Prix and the USA International Ballet Competition.

American Ballet Theatre is recognized as one of the great dance companies in the world. Few ballet companies equal ABT for its combination of size, scope and outreach. Since its founding in 1940, ABT annually tours the United States, performing for more than 300,000 people and has made more than 30 international tours to 50 countries as perhaps the most representative American ballet company. In 2006, ABT was recognized as America's National Ballet Company by an act of Congress.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim
For over 31 years and in over 400 productions, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Each performance takes place in the Guggenheim's intimate Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Described bythe New York Times as "an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process," Works & Process is produced by founder Mary Sharp Cronson. worksandprocess.org.