Modern myths RWB updates classic Slavic folk tales as part of Stravinsky-based double bill By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 6:21 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 5, 2026

Two stories, two choreographers, one composer: the Royal Winnipeg Ballet opens its 2026/27 season with a double bill that celebrates the influential works of Igor Stravinsky.

Stravinsky Stories, which runs Thursday to Sunday at the Centennial Concert Hall, pairs veteran Russian-Ukrainian choreographer (and former RWB principal dancer) Alexei Ratmansky’s The Fairy’s Kiss with the world première of emerging Chicago-born choreographer Houston Thomas’s Firebird.

Much like Tchaikovsky before him, Stravinsky was a composer who took commissions for ballets, but there are actually no definitive versions of either of these works, says RWB artistic director Christopher Stowell.

“Unlike Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty, where there’s sort of a blueprint of a classical production that most people follow, there have been famous productions of both The Fairy’s Kiss and Firebird, but there isn’t one that everyone’s following at all,” he says.

“They are iconic pieces of music and part of the classical ballet canon and a very different esthetic than Tchaikovsky — it’s fully between 30 and 50 years later and Stravinsky was pushing the boundaries of things in Paris in the beginning of the 20th century. So a real modernist at the time, but a theatrical dance composer.”

That leaves the door wide open for reinterpretation and reimagination, especially since both ballets were themselves inspired by other texts. The Fairy’s Kiss is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Ice-Maiden, while the firebird is a centuries-old character in Slavic folklore and mythology — the glowing bird who is both blessing and curse — that has inspired a great many literary and musical works.

Stravinsky’s Firebird, which premièred in 1910, is an amalgam of a several Russian folktales. It follows Prince Ivan, who must defeat the evil immortal sorcerer Koschei the Deathless with the help of the magical Firebird to free the princesses and warriors Koschei holds captive in his enchanted garden.

Thomas, for his part, was a little apprehensive about accepting the opportunity — and the challenge — of tackling Firebird as his first narrative work because he doesn’t typically have much interest in recreating the classics.

“But I was curious on how I could make this ballet new, how could I bring it into the 21st century, and, most importantly, how can audience members see themselves onstage as, like, normal people, you know?” he says from the RWB studios, where he’s been working with the company for the past several weeks.

“Oftentimes ballet kind of lives in this fantasy world and I think it can be a little hard for people to see themselves in it.”

So Thomas has taken Firebird out of Koschei’s enchanted garden and set it in the modern corporate world. In his telling, Ivan is a junior executive trying to climb the corporate ladder, while Koschei is a corrupt, greedy CEO. The Firebird here is a rare species of bird Koschei captured as a baby and keeps as a pet.

“She’s in a cage of sorts and Ivan is stuck in this power structure or this capitalist system, and so they really see themselves in each other in a way which eventually motivates Ivan to fight this system. I thought it would be interesting to place it somewhere different, not just for the environment, but also talking about themes like power and greed felt really relevant for today,” Thomas says.

As this is Thomas’s first story ballet, it required a different approach to choreography.

“The other works that I create are really motivated by the dance and the music. I’m very interested in those two ideas coming together and how it can spawn new ideas or spawn new movements within ballet, especially within the classical language and pointe shoes,” Thomas says.

He was interested in how pedestrian movements we use in everyday life could be incorporated into the dance.

“Now that I’m trying to tackle a story, that component really came into play when creating. It was, how can I tell a story, for one, but also how do I pick up on a moment or say something with a single gesture or movement?” he says.

Stowell is excited to include Thomas’s choreographic voice in the RWB’s repertoire.

“He’s at the beginning of his career as a choreographer and, in my opinion, is going to have a big one. I’m really happy that we’re developing a relationship with him at this moment in his career,” Stowell says.

Having a Ratmansky-choreographed work is also a big get for the company.

“(Ratmansky) is currently one of the most prolific and important voices in the ballet world, and we haven’t done a work of his since he left the institution in the ’90s,” Stowell says.

This is the fifth version of The Fairy’s Kiss Ratmansky has choreographed; the first was in 1994 during his time as a dancer at the RWB, which spanned 1992 to 1995. (Unlike Thomas, Ratmansky has taken a more classical tack with his choreography, rooting it in 19th-century ballet traditions.)

“I choreographed it in the studios that I’m in now, and then I was allowed to go back to Ukraine, and I set this on the National Ballet of Ukraine — that’s where it premièred. It was my first big ballet. It’s the ballet I’ve revived the most,” he says.

It is also, perhaps, the most flummoxing work in his œuvre.

“It is an enigma of this ballet. It was created in 1929, and the score is gorgeous. The music is really, really beautiful. However, it never had a successful staging. Many choreographers tried it, and then it is performed sometimes to positive reviews, and then it drops from the rep,” Ratmansky says, adding that the list of choreographers who have attempted the neoclassical ballet — which is about the sacrifices artists make for their art and was itself a homage to Tchaikovsky — includes some of the greats, including original choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, Kenneth MacMillan and George Balanchine.

“There is a puzzle in there that you need to resolve somehow, and as you see, it’s my fifth attempt, and I still hope that I can get it right.”

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com