Boston Ballet highlights old, new & reinvented works for new season

In 2019, the Boston Ballet went to Paris. At the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, where they know a thing or two about ballet, our hometown company wowed them. The reviews were raves. Yes, the Hub company is that good.

At the end of the coming 2023-2024 season, the Boston Ballet will return to Paris (COVID clobbered touring plans after the 2019 triumphant French performances). Between now and then, the 60th anniversary season will include four world premieres, a couple dozen sold out nights of “The Nutcracker,” the return of “Cinderella,” and complete reinventions of lost classics.

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen took the time to walk us through what he loves about the art form’s past, present and future.

Fall Experience, now through Oct. 15

The season opens with pieces from four different choreographers that range from Jorma Elo and the Bach Cello Suites to a world premiere from My’Kal Stromile — three of the four being with new-millennium creations. Nissinen hopes a few of them eventually achieve immortality, but notes that’s never the goal. “We don’t try to create classics, we try to create art, and some of things do eventually become the new classics,” he told the Herald. “You will fail if you try to do it the other way.”

The Nutcracker, Nov. 24 – Dec. 31

Why is “The Nutcracker” so popular? Yes, nostalgia and the Christmas connection help. But mostly it’s that it is a stunning ballet full of complex, compelling, and challenging dance. “We at the company don’t think of it as entertainment, we think of it as a serious piece of art,” Nissinen said. “I choreographed it to be incredibly difficult for the dancers for a couple of reasons. I know I have a tired company on December 31st, but I also know I have a better company.”

Winter Experience, Feb. 22 – March 3

Earlier this fall, the Boston Lyric Opera reinvented “Madama Butterfly” to reflect modern values while retaining the opera’s artistic core. Nissinen will do that with Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda.” He considers Petipa’s work a masterpiece to enchant ballet purists and full of outdated and offensive caricatures. His new version re-envisions it in one bright and thrilling act. The winter program will pair “Raymonda” with two works by Helen Pickett, world premiere “SISU” and 2007 Boston Ballet commission “Petal.”

Cinderella, March 14 – 24

Love “The Nutcracker” but it’s the only ballet you’ve seen? Here is your next step. It’s a cornerstone of classical ballet and has an absolutely awesome score from Sergei Prokofiev.

Carmen, April 25 – May 5

Know that collective exclamation that rises from the audience when the swans emerge from the fog in “Swan Lake?” You’ll get a similar gasp when 28 female dancers emerge in unison for “Kingdom of the Shades.” Paired with “Carmen,” “Kingdom of the Shades” represents another revision from the company — Boston Ballet has rejected the rest of “La Bayadère” and its outdated stereotypes. “We’re just doing this abstract pearl of classical ballet,” Nissinen said of the outtake. It represents the company’s commitment to “preserve the best of classical choreography without perpetuating culturally insensitive and offensive portrayals.”

Spring Experience, May 9–19, 2024

A perfect reflection of the Boston Ballet’s love of old and new might be a Ken Ossola’s world premiere inspired by Michelangelo’s “non-finito” sculptures Prisoners and scored by Boston Ballet Music Director Mischa Santora. Beside it will be Jiří Kylián’s “Bella Figura” and William Forsythe “Blake Works III (The Barre Project).”