Or, worse, when that world is breaking down with such vehemence that the air seems to grow more toxic by the minute? In Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet “Solitude,” dancers waver and buckle as inner and outer forces wreak havoc on their bodies. Ratmansky’s latest ballet, his first as artist in residence at New York City Ballet, is about war — the devastating war in Ukraine, the country where Ratmansky grew up and where his parents still live. That grief — the solitude of “Solitude” — is apparent from the start. The principal dancer Joseph Gordon kneels before the limp body of Theo Rochios, a young student of the company-affiliated School of American Ballet.

---

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, Gustav Mahler, Ratmansky, David H, Joseph Gordon, Theo Rochios, Gordon Organizations: New York City Ballet, Koch, American Ballet, Rochios Locations: New, Ukraine, Russian, Kharkiv