About Marina Harss

New York, NY

Marina Harss (CBA ’19) is a writer, journalist, and critic based in New York City, writing on all aspects of dance and occasionally on opera. Her features, profiles, reviews and interviews have appeared in: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Nation, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Ballet Review, Dance Magazine, Pointe Magazine, Playbill, BAMBill, Dancetabs.com, and the Fjord Review, among others. Her book on the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv, will be published by Farrar Straus and Giroux in October 2023

The Boy from Kyiv—Alexei Ratmansky’s Life in Ballet

At The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, Harss worked on a critical biography of Alexei Ratmansky, a ballet choreographer in the prime of his career, and one who is imbuing the field of ballet with renewed energy. With his cooperation, and through wide-ranging interviews with him, as well as with friends, family members, and collaborators worldwide, Harss explored how Ratmansky’s Soviet upbringing, peripatetic career, and personal curiosities have led to his particular style, and how this style, in turn, fits into the larger history and aesthetics of ballet. Her research also included observation of Ratmansky’s work in the studio with dancers from various companies around the world, including the Bolshoi, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Zurich Ballet, Staattsballett Berlin, and Miami City Ballet. Farrar Straus and Giroux will publish the work in October 2023.

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