Boston Ballet's FALL EXPERIENCE to Open Tour to NYC and Paris

Boston Ballet will open its 63rd season with Fall Experience, a program featuring Alexander Ekman's Cacti and Akram Khan's Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023. The production will run September 10–20 at the Citizens Opera House and will also launch a season-long celebration of Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen's 25 seasons with the company.

Following the Boston engagement, Boston Ballet will perform Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 at New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival on September 24–25. The company will then return to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, where it will perform both Cacti and Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 October 8–11.

“I am thrilled to present this extraordinary program in Boston, especially before we bring these incredible ballets to audiences in New York and Paris, further highlighting Boston Ballet's reputation on the global scale,” said Nissinen. “Cacti is an inventive and engaging work that combines humor, live music, and exceptional dancing in a way that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Paired with the powerful emotional depth and striking physicality of Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023, the program showcases the remarkable versatility of our dancers.”

The Boston program will open with a musical interlude performed by the Boston Ballet Orchestra featuring the “Infernal Dance” and “Finale” from Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite (1919 version).

CACTI

Alexander Ekman's Cacti is a contemporary ballet created in 2010 and known for its use of humor, rhythm, and commentary on artistic interpretation. The work was nominated for Best New Modern Choreography by the UK Dance Critics Foundation.

Set to music performed by the Boston Ballet Orchestra and an onstage string quartet, Cacti features 16 dancers performing on raised platforms. The dancers use the platforms as instruments, slapping, stomping, and drumming to create percussive rhythms throughout the piece.

The choreography culminates with each dancer receiving a cactus, an intentionally ambiguous image that serves as a satirical response to the impulse to assign symbolic meaning to contemporary dance.

This marks Boston Ballet's first performance of Cacti since 2017.

“While creating Cacti, for the first time I had the chance to create a work with musicians in the studio, which was a new way of working for me,” Ekman said. “Together with a string quartet, we created a rhythmical game between dancers and musicians which became the score for the work. Cacti demands a high concentration both from dancers and musicians, which makes it very exciting to observe.”

Ekman is a Swedish dancer and choreographer whose works have been performed by companies including Nederlands Dans Theater, Paris Opera Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and The Joffrey Ballet. In 2024, he directed and choreographed a performance segment for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris.

VERTICAL ROAD (REIMAGINED) 2023

Akram Khan's Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 explores ritual, spirituality, and humanity's relationship to the earth. The work is set to music by Aditya Prakash and Khan's longtime collaborator Nitin Sawhney, with inspiration drawn from Sufi traditions and the writings of Persian poet and philosopher Rumi.

Boston Ballet gave the world premiere of Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023, marking the first time the work had been restaged on a professional company since 2017. The piece evolves with each company that performs it, incorporating the history and experiences of the dancers as well as Khan's changing artistic perspective.

“I have always believed that a space where bodies are allowed to express and question what it means to be human is absolutely necessary for all of us, as a society, and as a civilization,” said Khan. “It is about ritual, it is about process, it is about the labor of human movement to try and reach a place, where the movement eventually arrives at stillness.”

Khan's body of work includes Jungle Book reimagined, Outwitting the Devil, XENOS, Until the Lions, Kaash, DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis, and zero degrees. His collaborators have included the National Ballet of China, Juliette Binoche, Sylvie Guillem, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Israel Galván, Kylie Minogue, Florence and the Machine, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Hanif Kureishi, Steve Reich, Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook, and Ben Frost.

Touring

Boston Ballet will take Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 to the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center September 24–25, marking the company's return to the festival after appearing there in 2024.

In October, the company will return to Paris for its third engagement at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Performances of Cacti and Vertical Road (Reimagined) 2023 will run October 8–11.

Performance Schedule

All nine performances of Fall Experience will take place at the Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111.

• Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 pm
• Friday, September 11 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, September 12 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, September 13 at 1:30 pm
• Thursday, September 17 at 7:30 pm
• Friday, September 18 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, September 19 at 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm
• Sunday, September 20 at 1:30 pm

The running time is approximately one hour and 35 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.

Program

THE FIREBIRD: SUITE (1919 VERSION) – INFERNAL DANCE; FINALE

Boston Ballet Orchestra

Music: Igor Stravinsky

CACTI

• Choreography and Scenic Design: Alexander Ekman
• Music: Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert's Death and the Maiden (arranged and orchestrated by Andy Stein)
• Lighting and Scenic Design: Tom Visser
• Costume Design: Alexander Ekman
• Text: Spenser Theberge

VERTICAL ROAD (REIMAGINED) 2023

• Choreography: Akram Khan
• Music: Aditya Prakash, Foretelling (Prologue); Nitin Sawhney, Vertical Road
• Original Lighting Design: Jesper Kongshaug
• Lighting Recreation: Richard Fagan
• Costume Design: Kimie Nakano
• Dramaturg: Ruth Little
• Set Conceived by: Akram Khan, Kimie Nakano and Jesper Kongshaug

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