Boston Ballet started their season last week with one of my favourite mixed bills ever. Fall Experience is a trio of performances starting with a purely orchestral piece, then moving on to Alexander Ekman’s Cacti, which is stellar, followed by Akram Kahn’s intense and consuming Vertical Road. If you are new to ballet or new to contemporary ballets, this first program of the season is the perfect starting point. This is setting the bar very high but it will be worth it. In addition, Fall Experience is one of the shorter programs so it leaves you time to grab a drink or dinner after the show and to process what you just saw together.
Fall Experience runs at the Citizen’s Opera House through September 20th. Don’t be afraid of what I am about to write, but Fall Experience has an undertone of existential dread. It sounds heavy and deep but Cacti deals with our humanness and relationship with art and philosophy with levity. In a deeply artisitic playful way Cacti reminds us that it is not all that serious whereas Vertical Road makes you feel the flaws of humanity a little more down to the marrow of your bones.
The Boston Ballet Orchestra has the hard and very effective job of taking a theater full of humans living in a complex world and helping them be present in the moment. I love that this program starts with the curtain down and the orchestra playing Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1919 version) As the music started, the orchestra had my full attention, but then I found my mind wandering and thinking about things I needed to do, however as the orchestra played on I was brought back into the moment. By the time the music ended, I was primed for a night of art, artistry, artists’ visions and the ballet dancers that were about to embody it all.
Cacti is one of those pieces that I want as many people as possible to get to experience because it is exceptional – it is truly brilliant. It is quotidian, yet also deeply philosophical, but in a satirical and playful way. Cacti is beautiful to watch, but also poignant and funny. It is witty and these days we need all the wit we can find. Cacti had not been performed by Boston Ballet in almost a decade, and I don’t want you to have to wait another decade to see it again.
I love large group pieces and both Cacti and Vertical Road fill the stage with dancers, and musicians at times too. In Cacti, there is a lovely duet, danced to a conversation about the movement. It is a part of the piece that I adore. Daniel Rubin and Ji Young Chae nailed the duet. The movement was flawless but the casual air with which it was done highlighted the rapport between the two dancers set to this perfect narrative making it entertaining without being schmaltzy or slapstick. I could watch those two do that duet on repeat and never tire of it.
It is neutral only in shades of costumes. Vertical Road (Reimagined) gives you an immediate feeling of eeriness. My first reaction was being pulled back into one of my favourite childhood movies, The Neverending Story, when Atreyu tries to go through the Sphinx Gate. There is this sense that we humans have pissed off the g-ds. (The g-ds being whatever higher power you believe in rather than any specific religious wrath.) We are living in some pretty messed up times, so that sense of doom, at least for me, is always lurking over my shoulder. The most recent one is the heavy weight of ai for me personally. What have we done to deserve this? *Drops gigantically long scroll to the floor.* Let me see, where shall I begin.
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. And if you don’t have the space to feel at home in your body, you will never feel at home in the world. Boston Ballet has continuously brought together artists from different sides of the globe to present, to share, to learn and to celebrate the power of dance. I am so excited for Boston Ballet to embody Vertical Road. It is a work that calls upon the real. 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. Because in stillness, the real movement begins, which calls upon the inner movement of our soul,
Akram Khan
In Vertical Road (Reimagined), you feel your body shift into the rhythm even just seated in the theatre. You feel your heart and breathing match the intensity of the music and movement. I love this piece for the movement, the music and the message in its journey from beginning to end.
Boston Ballet’s Fall Experience runs through September 20th at the Citizen’s Opera House located at 539 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111. The box office is open the following days and times.
Phone Hours: Mon–Fri, 10 am–4 pm
Walk Up schedule can be found here : AUGUST 31–OCTOBER 4
*The Box Office is closed on the following dates: September 7, October 12, November 26, and December 25, 2026
and January 1, January 18, February 15, April 19, May 31, and June 18, 2027.
For my readers, use this link for discounted tickets https://bit.ly/4wWUssK or enter promo code: CITYLIVING
This code can be used for the entire season and offers the following ticket prices:
The Nutcracker: $60 All 5-season programs: $50
Cheaper tickets for some individuals can also be found if you want to try rush tickets and or qualify for special rates. Find out all about them here and keep your eye out on Instagram for other special rates which I will always share @citylivingboston or will be posted @bostonballet.
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