http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/arts/dance/alexei-ratmansky-whipped-cream-american-ballet-theater.html 2016-10-05 18:13:47 Different Dancing Sweets, and Richard Strauss, for Ratmansky’s New Ballet Alexei Ratmansky’s “Whipped Cream” is based on a ballet that was called “Schlagobers” in 1924; sets and costumes will be by Mark Ryden. === In recent years the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky has often delved into the past to create historically informed stagings of classical ballets. For his next world premiere with American Ballet Theater, to be performed in 2017 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Calif., and then at the Metropolitan Opera House, Mr. Ratmansky is turning once more to the past, to a story ballet with music by a very famous composer in which sweets and confections come to life and dance. No, it’s not another “Nutcracker.” Mr. Ratmansky is mounting “Whipped Cream,” based on a two-act ballet with music by Richard Strauss that was originally called “ The sets and costumes for Mr. Ratmansky’s version, which still tells the story of a boy who overindulges at a Viennese pastry shop, are being designed by the artist Mark Ryden. The new ballet by Mr. Ratmansky, who is Ballet Theater’s artist in residence, will have its premiere in Costa Mesa on March 15, and come to the Met on May 22, the company said. “I am so very intrigued by this unique story and the approach Alexei and Mark are taking,” Kevin McKenzie, the company’s artistic director, said in a statement. “The combination of fantasy and surrealism will prove something dreamlike from both of them.”