Holland Festival – Stravinsky Sprookjes – Alexei Ratmansky and Het Nationale Ballet

The Dutch National Ballet will present two of the most successful and imaginative ballets by today’ s most important classical ballet choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky. Stravinsky Sprookjes consists of his dazzling Firebird and the European premiere of the poetic The Fairy’s Kiss. Both are set to the majestic music of Igor Stravinsky.

The Fairy’s Kiss, composed in 1928 under the French title Le baiser de la fée for Les Ballets Russes, is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice-Maiden. During a snowstorm, a boy is saved by the kiss of a fairy. He grows up into a handsome young man, but on the eve of his marriage the fairy returns to claim him and seals his fate with an icy kiss.

The legend of the firebird was the inspiration for Stravinsky’s 1910 L’Oiseau de feu and tells the story of the tsar’s son Ivan, who catches a firebird in a magical garden. After she manages to break free, she gives Ivan a feather that will help save him at times of need.

Ratmansky has translated both stories into dance in a highly unique way. In Ratmansky’s hands, The Fairy’s Kiss – with beautiful sets and costumes by Jérôme Kaplan – turns into a moving story about a choreographer who cannot escape his fate. Sparks fly on stage when his impassioned Firebird is performed, with the firebird symbolizing an inescapable force of nature for him as well.