Mikko Nissinen and the new Boston Ballet

Dance Magazine, Jan, 2003 by Iris Fanger

Led by board veteran John W. Humphrey, the board of trustees had to act quickly to keep the troupe in business. The trustees banded together in a fund-raising drive to bring down the deficit and formed a second search committee, which brought Nissinen to Boston.

With his first program, which opened the company's thirty-ninth Boston season in mid-September, Nissinen introduced himself to local audiences with a sharp jab to their sensibilities. They were used to viewing contemporary ballets in discrete doses, and one at a time. The mixed bill he chose was decidedly here, now, and on the edge, presenting a ballet apiece by Mark Morris (Maelstrom, which the company had danced before), William Forsythe (In the middle, somewhat elevated, a company premiere), and Jorma Elo (a world premiere, SHARP side of DARK). Moreover, the opening solo in Elo's ballet was danced by a member of Boston Ballet II, Andrea Schermoly, in line with Nissinen's policy that casting is open to everyone.

It was chancy on several levels to pack an evening with three abstract ballets, but most of the audience was cheering by the end of the evening. Other repertoire additions to come include Frederick Ashton's La Fille real gardee (February 20-March 2), a full evening of Balanchine works (March 27-April 6), and Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo and ]uliet (May 8-25) replacing Pelzig's version (which the company premiered in 1997) and a 1984 production choreographed by Choo San Goh.

"I think Rudi's ballet is a masterpiece, and it has not been done in America. I don't want to do what everyone else is doing," Nissinen says. "Every year will be slightly different. From this year's repertory will come long-term connections-more Ashton works in the future, and more Balanchine. I plan to introduce works by Balanchine in order to bring the next one, and the next," he says, conscious of the connection back to Williams, when Mr. B was company mentor and allowed use of his ballets free of royalty payments.

But Nissinen isn't spending his days only behind the desk in an office he has had no time to decorate. He teaches company class several times each week, alternating with the ballet mistress and ballet masters he's hired (creating a total turnover in the studio staff): Eva Evdokimova, a celebrated ballerina who danced with American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Danish Ballet, among others; Raymond Lukens, who has also been appointed director of Boston Ballet II; and Anthony Randazzo, who was a principal dancer with Nissinen when they were both at the San Francisco Ballet. Trinidad Vives, formerly associate artistic director at the Houston Ballet, has been named Boston's artistic associate, a new position. Vives, who has taught for Boston in previous years, also danced with the Basel Ballet; Lukens was guest teacher for the Alberta Ballet. Evdokimova appeared with the Boston Ballet in 1983 as partner to Rudolf Nureyev in Don Quixote on Broadway.

"I've been brought here because of my diverse schooling," Evdokimova said. "What made me want to come to Boston was the sense of a new beginning, to be in at the start of it."