Entertainment

From Russia, but with mixed emotions

An American ballet about the Soviet Union is risky business, but American Ballet Theatre has a resident expert — Alexei Ratmansky. His three new ballets look at the contradictions of the communist era — the façade and the reality.

And he could chose no better music than that of Dmitri Shostakovich, a composer alternately glorified and attacked by the regime. Ratmansky understands these works the way he knows his own soul.

The trilogy is the company’s most ambitious commission in a long while. The first piece, “Symphony #9,” bowed last October at City Center, and the other two made their debuts Friday. All three have no formal story, but there’s plenty going on.

“Symphony #9” shows a world where you have to watch what you say. The mood changes as quickly as a Baltic sky. While a martial tune blares at the end, the corps stands in formation, then collapses slowly like marionettes with their strings cut.

“Chamber Symphony” may be a fantasia on Shostakovich’s life — though if we’re to believe Ratmansky, the composer’s three wives were High Maintenance, Consumptive and Rebound. Even if the idea of the suffering artist at odds with society is familiar, Ratmansky states it with conviction and makes a tour de force role for David Hallberg, who never seems to leave the stage.

The corps stands in for Soviet society and the composer’s stormy relationship with it— the men lift Hallberg up, then drop him. In the end, the group masses like a monumental sculpture in a barren plaza, but Hallberg walks off alone in the back, ignored.

“Piano Concerto #1” parodies Soviet physical culture. Ratmansky outfits two of the company’s top Russian ballerinas, Natalia Osipova and Diana Vishneva, in red bathing suits. Hauled about by Ivan Vasiliev and Corey Stearns, they stare us down while they balance or turn. The men doing the heavy lifting are part hero, part forklift in what’s both a celebration and send-up of virtuosity.

Each dance plays out against George Tsypin’s note-perfect backdrops; riffs on Soviet propaganda with banner-wielding comrades, bright red stars and planes.

The three works sometimes sprawl, but ultimately they triumph. As with many Ratmansky ballets, it barely matters which dancers you see in them, because he brings out the best in all. Whichever cast you see, watch for the Russians — they know exactly where he’s coming from.