Boston Ballet presents 'Simply Sublime'

Simply Sublime includes three powerful works by three master choreographers George Balanchine, Michel Fokine and Christopher Wheeldon. Symphony in Three Movements is a large ensemble work, distinct in both its complexity and energy. The work is set to a score by Stravinsky, Balanchine’s long-time collaborator, and premiered in 1972 at a Stravinsky Festival at New York State Theater.

Florence Clerc’s world premiere staging of Les Sylphides after Michel Fokine, is also included in this repertory program.… Show more This one-act romantic work follows a poet as he dances with ghostly sylphs in a forest. Les Sylphides first premiered at the Maryinsky Theatre in 1908, under the title Reverie Romantique: Ballet sur la musique de Chopin. The work received its U.S. premiere by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Century Theatre in New York in 1916.

Polyphonia, Christopher Wheeldon’s playful romance for four couples, completes the program. The New York Times has described the work as “[handling] the classical vocabulary of Balanchine, Ashton and others without being inhibited or retro… with a constant supply or inventiveness.” Wheeldon’s mastery is displayed in his unique ability to weave classical and more contemporary dance movement in to four pas de deuxs which exude distinct qualities. Polyphonia first premiered in 2001 with New York City Ballet and has been in Boston Ballet’s repertoire since 2007. The Company presented Polyphonia to critical acclaim on the 2008 tour to Korea.

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