Boston Ballet announces 2016-17 Season

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen recently announced the programming for the 2016–17 Season at the Boston Opera House, to begin in October.

The 53rd season will launch with Le Corsaire, a historically significant work in the world of ballet that originally premiered in Paris in 1856, followed by Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. The season continues with the North American company premiere of William Forsythe’s Artifact, “a work that definitely shows this choreographer as the most influential practitioner of the art form since Balanchine,” wrote Roslyn Sulcas for The New York Times.

In April 2017, Marius Petipa’s quintessential The Sleeping Beauty will return with soaring music by Tchaikovsky. The season will also include two mixed repertory programs with works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiří Kylián and Alexander Ekman, as well as a world premiere by Resident Choreographer Jorma Elo. Additionally, Le Corsaire, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty will offer Boston Ballet School students the unique opportunity to appear in company productions.

“Boston Ballet’s 2016–17 season will be a cornucopia of incredible dance full of company premieres, world famous productions, several well-loved ballets and a world premiere. I am thrilled to share it all with our audiences, and am particularly excited to bring a full-length work of William Forsythe’s to Boston,” Nissinen states. “It is our goal at Boston Ballet to showcase the transformative power of art and give the audience a chance to be touched by a wide range of programming—this season will certainly do just that.”

For further information, such as specific program dates, visit www.bostonballet.org. Tickets for The Nutcracker will go on sale to the public in mid-July. Tickets for the remainder of the 2016–17 Season will go on sale to the public on September 1.

Photo (top): Boston Ballet in Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor. Photo (left): Altan Dugaraa, Lia Cirio and Paulo Arrais in Jiří Kylián’s Wing of Wax. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor. Photo (right): Pianist Freda Locker and Principal Ashley Ellis in Jerome Robbins’ The Concert (or The Perils of Everybody.) Photo by Gene Schiavone. All images courtesy of Boston Ballet.