You May Be Done With Experiencing Winter: Escape with Boston Ballet’s Winter Experience

Boston Ballet’s Winter Experience is fleeting in its time at the Opera House but the impact of witnessing Jorma Elo’s Le Sacre de Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon is lasting. The contrast and intersection of these two works made for a perfect mixed bill and The Seasons’ Canon left me transformed. Boston Ballet’s Winter Experience runs at the Boston Opera House through March 15th and tickets can be found here.

Both works for Winter Experience are large group pieces, which I love. There is power in numbers. As I was watching, Le Sacre de Printemps, I felt that I have not seen the company dance so cleanly and together in a little while. Then, The Seasons’ Canon began and I instantly understood why. Le Sacre de Printemps is a piece for 16 dancers. The Seasons’ Canon is a piece for 54 dancers who often are one continuous body in motion. Crystal Pite’s is the type of work that transforms a dancer. It is incredibly precise and yet feels very organic at the same time.

Le Sacre de Printemps

Jorma Elo premiered his version of Le Sacre de Printemps (The Rite of Spring) with Boston Ballet in 2009. Le Sacre de Printemps is known as one of the most infamous ballets and orchestral works of the early 20th century. It was originally choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and its debut in Paris (1913) with Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes was groundbreaking. Jorma Elo took a century old disruptive work and made it modern in his own way.

The dancers are learning something old while at the same time recreating something new. The person next to you may have lived with this work for years, while you’re encountering it for the first time. It’s a huge arc of experience, life, and dedication that comes together in this project. I think that’s what will make it rich for the audience to see.

Jorma Elo

The simple but dramatic lighting that Elo has for this version of Le Sacre de Printemps meets the movement perfectly. It almost feels like you are watching a silent movie. Elo claims ownership of the original ballet’s themes and builds his interpretation by focusing on the score and the dancers rather than having a strict fidelity to Nijinsky’s depiction of a primal ritual centered on sacrifice for the common good. At some moments Elo’s version felt like you were looking through a zoetrope, which fed into that “silent movie” modality.

As I mentioned, this was the cleanest, most together, highest (jumps), perfectly en pointe (pun intended) that I have seen the company dance in a bit. I think in great part due to the dancers working on and performing The Seasons’ Canon, but also the company has really gelled with the newer members now well established. I could watch this whole program several more nights and not tire of it. If you can find a way to get yourself to The Opera House before Winter Experience ends, I highly recommend making the effort. It is a program you will definitely regret missing.

The Seasons’ Canon

The Seasons’ Canon is a work that will change a dancer. I can only imagine what it is like to work on a piece like this. Of course there are other contemporary choreographers many of whom Boston Ballet has worked with, but Crystal Pite’s sheer number of dancers and movement style that melts them all together is transformative. The work had no individual dancers (with a few exceptions). The dancers were bodies without faces in a sense. They weren’t human any longer, but rather humanity as a whole. They were more than a collective, they became one. Watching The Seasons’ Canon, felt like waking up early as the sun was thinking about rising and inhaling the air, feeling misty dew on your skin, watching the world untouched by humans exist around you.

Crystal Pite created The Seasons’ Canon for the Paris Opera Ballet, It is set to Max Richter’s recomposition of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. It is set on 54 dancers and yet somehow at moments you only see one body in motion somehow.

For me, the process of creation is like looking through a lens. It’s an opportunity to see the world in greater detail and clarity. It’s a magnified experience. Choreography is a way for me to grapple with the very meaning of creation. It is the crafting, colliding, collaging, framing, layering and excavating—the acts of making, and of seeing—that most deeply connect me to nature and all the beauty and brutality it contains. The Seasons’ Canon is a gesture, an offering. It’s my way of confronting the vastness and complexity of the living world, while at the same time giving thanks for it,

Crystal Pite

At one point, I found myself fighting back tears. The waves the body of bodies created reminded me so much of the power of being in nature. It is where I go when I am at my most desperate moments and it is where I can feel most whole and happy. I have certain experiences with art that I want as many people to see it as possible. This is one of those works. I loved it so much, I felt it to my core, and it moved me in a way that I am certain it could move anyone. So, I want as many people as possible to see Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon while they can.

Discounted tickets are available for certain performances with code Cityliving45 here. All 10 performances of Winter Experience will take place at the Citizens Opera House (539 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111)

Friday, March 6 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 7 at 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 8 at 1:30 pm
Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 pm
Friday, March 13 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 14 at 1:30 and 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 15 at 1:30 pm

Winter Experience performance length is approximately one hour and 30 minutes, including one
20-minute intermission