Holland Festival – Stravinsky Fairytales – Alexei Ratmansky & The National Ballet

Snowstorm

The Fairy's Kiss, written in 1928 under the French title Le Baiser de la Fée for Les Ballets Russes, is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. A boy is saved by a fairy's kiss during a snowstorm. He grows up to be a handsome young man, but on the night before his wedding, the fairy returns to claim him, sealing his fate with an icy kiss.

The legend of the firebird, the starting point for Stravinsky's L'Oiseau de Feu from 1910, tells the story of the tsar's son Ivan, who catches a firebird in a magical garden. After she breaks free, Ivan receives a feather from her that will save him in need.

Quirky

Ratmansky has translated both stories into dance in an extremely idiosyncratic way. In Ratmansky's hands, The Fairy's Kiss – with beautiful sets and costumes by Jérôme Kaplan – grows into a moving story about a choreographer who cannot escape his fate. His passionate Firebird jumps off the stage, with the firebird also symbolizing a force of nature from which you cannot easily escape.