Boston Ballet and Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen present Spring Experience, a triple bill featuring a world premiere by Ken Ossola, William Forsythe’s Blake Works III (The Barre Project), and Jiří Kylián’s Bella Figura. Spring Experience runs May 9–19 at the Citizens Opera House.

“Our 60th season comes to a close with this powerhouse program with works by the world’s most in-demand choreographers today,” said Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen. “We are so fortunate to work with William Forsythe and perform his groundbreaking works, and Jiří Kylián’s Bella Figura is simply a masterpiece that cannot be missed. I am very excited to introduce a new choreographer to Boston Ballet audiences. We know Ken well from his work with us for Bella Figura for many years, and through Zoom In, his virtual piece created for us during the pandemic.”

World Premiere

Ken Ossola will create a world premiere for Boston Ballet, pulling inspiration from Michelangelo’s “non-finito” sculptures Prisoners. Featuring a score composed by Boston Ballet Music Director Mischa Santora and electronics composed by Michael Cain, the ballet will envelop audiences into a world of sound, music, and dance.

“It’s always an honor to create for such a high-level company, as it is my second time working with Boston Ballet. Working with the dancers is an emotional and enriching experience, as I try to dive deep into their own experiences in order to make my work more relatable to them. Their versatility allows me to pull them in different directions, inviting them to leave their comfort zone while honoring their background and who they are as individuals and part of a group,” said Ossola. “My inspiration came from works of Michelangelo, the “non-finito” sculptures such as the Prisoners, which could be felt as a perpetual feeling of incompleteness and emergence. His non-finito approach leaves an open door to the imagination in a poetic way for the viewer.”

Ken Ossola started dancing at age 16, was accepted at l’École de Danse de Genève, and later joined the Ballet Junior de Genève. In 1989, Ossola was invited to join Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) 2, under the leadership of Gerald Tibbs and the Artistic direction of Jiří Kylián, With NDT 2, he worked and created works with leading choreographers such as Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Martino Muller, Paul Lightfoot, Nacho Duato, Johan Inger, and Kylián. Ossola joined NDT 1 in 1991. He collaborated with Kylián on a great number of creations including One of a Kind, Blackbird, Tiger Lily, Wings of Wax, and Bella Figura, becoming one of NDT’s most recognized dancers. Working very closely with Kylián sparked Ossola’s interest in choreography and in 1999 he retired from NDT to pursue his career as a choreographer. For over 20 years Ossola has choreographed works for internationally renowned dance companies and organizations such as Grand Théâtre de Genève, Les Grand Ballet Canadiens, Shanghai Ballet, Boston Ballet, Bavarian State Theater, Tanz Luzerner Theater, among others.

The music titled TOCCATA is composed by Boston Ballet Music Director Mischa Santora and will have live electronics by cutting-edge electronic artist and eminent jazz pianist Michael Cain. This unique collaboration will intertwine an orchestral score with electronics. Ossola, Santora, and Cain have closely collaborated on the creation of the new score.

“One of my main goals with this project was to expand the sonic vocabulary of what we have come to recognize as the classical symphony orchestra. The orchestral sound has constantly evolved over the last 300 years of classical music, and I believe it must continue to do so in order to stay relevant as a dynamic art form. I feel deeply honored to be entrusted with a project of this magnitude and hope it will resonate with performers and audiences alike,” said Santora.

“The audience can expect a reimagined orchestral experience, where the things they know and love about orchestral music are reframed and expanded in seamless and interesting ways by electronic sound elements. My hope is that it becomes inspiration for the choreography and dancers to find new forms of expression and meaning in their movements,” said Cain. “As a musician, composer, and producer, I’ve long been fascinated with electronic sound elements integrated with traditional ensembles and instrumentation. The ensemble of the orchestra is already so full and rich that it presents considerable opportunities for musical exploration. And, of course, both Mischa and Ken are just extraordinary artists and individuals to collaborate with.”

Blake Works III (The Barre Project)
Returning after a successful world premiere by Boston Ballet in 2022, Blake Works III is an installment in William Forsythe’s continuously evolving work The Barre Project. The work derives its inspiration from the propulsive and rigorously structured songs of composer James Blake, whose work appears primarily in the popular music idiom.

The Barre series began in 2021 at the height of the pandemic as a filmed dance that was streamed to a global audience facing restrictions on live performance at the time. The live stage version for Boston Ballet features newly choreographed sections that highlight the diverse and formidable talents of the ensemble and is a version of the ballet that is unique to this company alone.

William Forsythe is “widely recognized as one of the most important choreographers working today” (Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times), and his work has been performed by virtually every major ballet company in the world. Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. He spent the next seven years of his career creating new work for Stuttgart and companies around the world. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of Ballet Frankfurt. He later served as the director of The Forsythe Company—a new, independent ensemble based in Dresden and Frankfurt am Main—which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Forsythe’s work continues to be commissioned by the world’s most prestigious companies, and he regularly gives lectures and workshops at universities and cultural institutions around the world. He is an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and holds an Honorary Doctorate from The Juilliard School. Boston Ballet launched a long-term partnership with Forsythe in 2016.

Bella Figura
Jiří Kylián’s transformative and breathtakingly beautiful Bella Figura is set to music by Lukas Foss, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe Torelli.  Kylián created the work for nine dancers in 1995 for Netherlands Dance Theatre and Boston Ballet was the first American company to present Bella Figura in 2011. Boston Ballet’s repertoire has included nine of Kylian’s works to date.

Jiří Kylián started his dance career at the age of nine at the School of the National Ballet in Prague. He received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School in London in 1967. Then, he joined the Stuttgart Ballet led by John Cranko. In 1975, Kylián became artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater and in 1978, he founded Nederlands Dans Theater 2, as an incubator for young talent. He also initiated Nederlands Dans Theater 3 in 1991, the company for dancers over the age of 40. In the course of his storied career, Kylián has received many international awards including an honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School, three Nijinsky Awards for best choreographer, company and work, and two Benoit de la Danse awards. Kylián has also directed four dance films: Car-Men (2006), Between Entrance & Exit (2013), Schwarzfahrer (2014), and Scalamare (2017).