The Boy from Kyiv

Alexei Ratmansky's Life in Ballet

By: Marina Harss

Narrated by: Whitney Dykhouse

Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The Boy from Kyiv is the life story of Alexei Ratmansky, the most celebrated ballet choreographer of our time.

Before Ratmansky was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, the resident choreographer at American Ballet Theatre, the artist in residence at New York City Ballet, and generally, as The New Yorker has it, "the most sought-after man in ballet," he was just a boy from Kyiv, sneaking into the ballet at night, concocting his own juvenile adaptations of novels and stories, and dreaming up new possibilities for bodies in motion.

In The Boy from Kyiv, the first biography of this groundbreaking artist, the celebrated dance writer Marina Harss takes us behind the curtain to reveal Ratmansky's fascinating life, from his Soviet boyhood through his globe-spanning career. Over a decade in the making, this biography arrives at a pivotal moment in Ratmansky's journey, one that has seen him painfully and publicly break ties with Russia, the country in which he made his name, in solidarity with his native Ukraine, and take on a new challenge at the storied New York City Ballet. Told with the lyricism, drama, and verve that befit its subject, The Boy from Kyiv is a riveting account of this artist's ascent to the peaks of his field, a mesmerizing study of creativity in action, and a triumphant testament to ballet's enduring vitality.

©2023 Marina Harss (P)2023 Tantor

Great look at a great choreographer and his work.

The story is good. The first person quotes are great wish there were more. But the narrator’s weird breathy anxious voice and mispronunciation of common ballet terms, dancers and choreographers was extremely annoying and almost offensive. Why don’t the narrators research pronunciations. If I wasn’t so interested in the story I wouldn’t have continued listening; it was a huge detraction!