Profile: Boston Ballet

One of Boston’s cultural gems, Boston Ballet is known for stunning performances that include major classics and cutting-edge contemporary work. When it opens its 2009-2010 season this fall, the country’s fourth-largest dance company will have a single performance venue at the Boston Opera House. Mikko Nissinen, Boston Ballet’s artistic director, is looking forward to moving his company and reuniting subscription season productions with the holiday classic The Nutcracker. “The move will greatly enhance the audience experience,” he says.

Mikko cares deeply about sharing the art of dance. He’s pleased by the reach Boston Ballet has developed in his seven-year tenure: an audience of nearly 150,000 people is drawn to performances each year. Thousands of students receive studio training through the Boston Ballet School, including third graders in the Boston Public Schools who experience ballet through Citydance, the flagship of the Company’s outreach programs.

Established in 1963, Boston Ballet was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England, and is known for many pioneering firsts, such as being the first American dance company to perform in the People’s Republic of China, in 1980. Theodore Bale of Dance International has written, “Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen has worked miracles with the company, and done so in a way that seems to satisfy his audiences... and the dancers as well.”

The Company will celebrate its move to the Opera House with a dazzling array of programs that pay tribute to the past while reaching toward a long and bright future.