The Gesture of Memorial

In 2013, Alexei Ratmansky's Chamber Symphony premiered as part of his acclaimed Shostakovich Trilogy (2012–2013). In this article, I examine how Chamber Symphony demonstrates a political and memorial orientation toward the Soviet past. The creation of the work was prompted by an autobiographical interpretation of the ballet's music—an orchestrated version of the composer's Eighth Quartet. I analyze the choreographic devices Ratmansky uses to represent the memories of a central male character, presumably “Shostakovich.” I argue that Ratmansky's choreographed memorial widens in scope to include others who have suffered from artistic repression. Moreover, through his innovative movement vocabulary and dynamics, Ratmansky inverts the dominant, heroic language of Soviet-era ballet

Art · Art history · Ballet · Dance · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Literature · Symphony · Trilogy · Visual arts · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies