Miami City Ballet: "The Fairy's Kiss" by Alexei Ratmansky Works & Process Peter B. Lewis Theater Guggenheim Museum New York, NY January 29, 2017, afternoon by Mary Cargill copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill The Miami City Ballet is premiering Alexei Ratmansky's "The Fairy's Kiss" in February, set to Stravinsky's "Le Baiser de la Fée". Stravinsky's music was inspired by both a Hans Christian Andersen story and the life and music of Tchaikovsky. The original tale, "The Ice Maiden," is a dark and complex story of an orphan boy claimed by the dangerous ice maiden, another "man challenges nature and loses" saga. Stravinsky, who had been commissioned by Ida Rubinstein in 1927, changed the focus to man meets artistic destiny. He honored Tchaikovsky on the 35th anniversary of his death by reworking his musical ideas and themes. (This was a fairly radical idea in the 1920s, when Tchaikovsky was considered completely passé by the art world.) He developed a scenario telling of a young man whose mother died in a snowstorm, and who, at his betrothal to a charming peasant girl, is claimed by the ice maiden (in the guise of a gypsy) who leads him away from his settled...