New York City Ballet’s Winter 2025 Season at Lincoln Center is full of the usual suspects: edgy neoclassical ballets by Company founder George Balanchine, theatrical dances by Jerome Robbins, cool contemporary ballets including a new work by resident choreographer and artistic advisor Justin Peck and then something unexpected: Paquita, NYCB Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky’s latest work for the Company.
To be clear, Ratmansky’s new work is not actually new. It is quite old. Paquita was first created by Joseph Mazilier for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1846, restaged by Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg in 1847, and then revived by Petipa in 1881. What Ratmansky is doing for his eighth dance for NYCB is staging a suite of dances from Paquita—the pas de trois from Act One and the Grand Pas from Act Three.
For some world premieres, it is best to come into the theater with no expectations, mind clean-slated. But for this one, it helps to come armed with some history and context, as Paquita is steeped in both.
The Original Paquitas
Mazilier’s 1846 Paquita, set to a score by Édouard Deldevez, was a melodramatic ballet set in The Valley of the Bulls near Saragossa, Spain, during the Napoleonic era. It was jam-packed with “exotic” Spanish and Romani character dances and starred the great Carlotta Grisi as Paquita and Lucien Petipa (brother to Marius) as Lucien.
In 1947, Marius Petipa brought the crowd-pleasing ballet to Russia. He’d spent a few years (1844-1847) in Spain, so he knew a thing or two about Spanish dance. While he greatly admired Mazilier’s work, he changed some of the choreography. This time he danced Lucien, and Yelena Andreyanova danced Paquita.
In 1881, Petipa revived the ballet and added new sections—most notably the pas de trois and Grand Pas–composed by Léon Minkus. Ekaterina Vazem danced Paquita and Pavel Gerdt danced Lucien. This production was so popular that it remained in the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertory until 1926. And then it quietly disappeared.
In the early 2000s, interest in Paquita resurfaced. Pierre Lacotte did a revival for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2001. In 2014, Ratmansky created a deeply-researched reconstruction of Paquita for the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. So this is not Ratmansky’s first time working on the ballet. The man knows what he’s talking about.
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What’s interesting about this new staging of Paquita is that it resembles Russian nesting dolls. Inside Ratmansky’s 2025 version is Alexandra Danilova’s 1980s staging of the Grand Pas for Cincinnati Ballet and Balanchine’s 1948 version of the pas de trois for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, and inside that is Petipa’s 1881 version of both, and inside that is the tiny but solid figure of Mazilier’s original ballet.
This is how classical ballet works when it works. It’s handed down, reworked and remade.
The New Paquita
Ratmansky’s Paquita for NYCB premiered on Thursday, February 6. As is often the case at world premieres, the audience was full of the Company’s friends, colleagues, and biggest fans. Paquita opened the Innovators & Icons program, and the nervous energy in the theater was palpable.
Ratmansky’s staging of Balanchine’s restaging of Petipa’s pas de trois from Act One, Minkus Pas de Trois, comes first. The entrée is swift and grand, the three dancers (Erica Pereira, David Gabriel and Emma Von Enck) proudly posing in rich berry-colored costumes by Jérôme Kaplan. Then the short solos and duets begin, all combining fast footwork, jumps and turns.
Gabriel’s cabriole changements were exquisite, his feet fluttering impossibly high and then landing with perfect control. Von Enck’s petite allegro was light and precise. Moments of Balanchine push through—in Pereira and Von Enck’s bent wrists and flirty shoulders, in Gabriel’s virtuosity, in the way the Russian Imperial style is honored but not imitated. The piece is very much a product of its time, and by that, I mean both 1881 and 1948. The nods to Spanish and Romani dance have been all but stripped away. There is no more narrative. It is pure entertainment and technically magnificent.
Before you know it, the Minkus Pas de Trois is over, and the stage refills with dancers for the Grand Pas–first the corps de ballet, then the soloists, then Paquita (here Sara Mearns). Kaplan’s beautiful costumes are black, white and gold (all except Paquita’s, which is black, white and red). Minkus’s music is bright and fast, and the choreography matches it. While the six variations were all danced wonderfully (especially by Unity Phelan, Indiana Woodward and Chun Wai Chan), it was the corps de ballet that impressed me most. Their choreography was intricate, highly demanding, at times impossibly fast. While the unison was sometimes imperfect, you can see how exhilarating it will be once it works its way into their bodies.
The soloists and the corps, while fantastic, are all just setting the scene for the main attraction: Paquita. Lucien is there, too, and Chan dances the role with great strength and beauty, but it is Paquita’s show. Mearns is a queen of adagio and a perfect match for the lyrical, stretching movements. No one arches like Mearns—her chest shining up, her neck gently arcing–and Ratmansky highlights this throughout. Mearns’ version of Paquita is not fiery. It is quiet and supple and uniquely hers.
Paquita is far outside the Company’s wheelhouse. It is classical and rooted in a history Balanchine wished to leave behind. But this is a good thing. World premieres can be fresh and tender—taking their first breaths, still growing–and this one was, but it is already evident that this piece is stretching the dancers, pulling them in new directions.
Paquita will be performed again through February 9 (and then again in the Spring 2025 Season) at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center.
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