Boston Ballet

In 1979, Boston Ballet opened the Nervi Festival in Italy, and in 1980 was the first American dance company to perform in the People's Republic of China. The Company made its London premiere in 1981, with a full-length production of Swan Lake. In 1983, Boston Ballet presented Don Quixote on Broadway with Rudolf Nureyev as special guest artist, after touring the United States, Mexico, France, and Italy. Boston Ballet collaborated with choreographer Mark Morris for the first time in 1986, performing his Mort Subite at the PepsiCo Festival in Purchase, New York. The following year, Boston Ballet was the first ballet company to perform at the BESSIE Dance and Performance award ceremony at New York City Center.

Boston Ballet made its debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, in January 1990. In May of that same year, Natalia Dudinskaya and Konstantin Sergeyev, along with then-assistant artistic director Anna-Marie Holmes, staged a new production of Swan Lake featuring Boston Ballet dancers performing the leading roles with dancers from the Kirov Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. In July 1991, Boston Ballet toured throughout Spain.

In 2005, the Company added James Kudelka’s Cinderella, George Balanchine’s Coppélia, Jewels, and Midsummer Night’s Dream, the American premiere of Jirí Kylián’s Black and White and John Cranko's Onegin, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet to its repertoire. Boston Ballet additionally appointed Jorma Elo as Resident Choreographer. Elo has created at least six works for the company, including Plan to B, Brake the Eyes, and Le Sacre du Printemps. During the summer of 2007, the Company completed a second tour of Spain to audience and critical acclaim. Boston Ballet’s past touring has included appearances at the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series, the "Fall for Dance" festivals held at New York City Center and Orange County Performing Arts Center, as well as back-to-back performances at the Spoleto Festival USA and the Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America series in Spring 2008. Boston Ballet embarked on its first tour to Seoul, Korea in the summer of 2008. There, they presented a range of works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, and Christopher Wheeldon, which had never before been seen by Korean audiences. In fall 2009, Boston Ballet's sole performance venue became the Boston Opera House. Located in the Boston Theater District, this 2,500-seat theater provides clear sight lines and has a newly renovated orchestra pit.

Boston Ballet maintains a repertoire that combines classics such as Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and August Bournonville’s La Sylphide. Other contemporary versions of classics, such as Mikko Nissinen’s Swan Lake, and John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet are included as well. New works by contemporary choreographers including William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, Mark Morris, David Dawson, Val Caniparoli, Christopher Wheeldon, and Helen Pickett. Over 35 performances employ the entire company and more than 250 Boston Ballet School students who join in the production every year. Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker has been performed annually for 42 years.

1956: E. Virginia Williams moved her ballet school from a studio in Back Bay to 186 Massachusetts Avenue, across from the Lowes State Theatre in Boston. The School at this point offered classes starting at a children's level all the way to a Professional Division. The schools “fundamental purpose" was to provide its students with a training equivalent to that offered professional dancers by the great European ballet schools.

1958: Out of her Boston School of Ballet, sometimes called The New England School of Ballet, E. Virginia Williams formed a small dance group named The New England Civic Ballet. The group primarily performed at small local festivals and venues around New England. [6]

Between 1958 and 1962: The New England Civic Ballet performed regionally, dancing various pieces such as a 3 Act Nutcracker, Les Syphides, and repertory works by E. Virginia Williams, Sydney Leonard, Lev Ianov, Jean Paige. [7]

Aug 14, 1962: New England Civic Ballet performed as part of the 30th year of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. At this point, New England Civic Ballet was considered a semi-professional company, and began calling themselves “The Boston Ballet”. The performance was reviewed for Dance Magazine in October 1962 by Doris Hering. The review expressed that the Boston Ballet dancers perform with a cohesiveness of style that one rarely encounters even in a seasoned professional company and there is no artifice. Instead there is an ease of communication between them and the audience. [8]

Dec 15, 1963: The Boston Globe officially announced on December 15, 1963 that a Ford Foundation grant of $144,000 to the Boston Ballet School has given birth to Boston's first and only professional ballet company. The Ford Grant was a historic $7,756,000, the largest private subsidy made to single art form at the time. In part, based on the recommendations of George Balanchine and McNeil Lowry, the grant provided for the formation of several professional ballet companies. This included the Boston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and Washington Ballet. Balanchine was a strong supporter of this initiative, he would serve as Boston Ballet's artistic advisor for several years and as a further gesture of support gave the new company several of his works. [9]

Friends of Boston Ballet is a membership program which provides unrestricted annual operating support that funds the Company's on stage work, and its wide range of education and outreach programs.