Boston Ballet Announces ÜNI Public Art

Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen announces the launch of ÜNI, Boston Ballet's Public Art Installation. ÜNI is a multimedia pop-up experience that brings people together and breaks down preconceived notions about dance. The one-of-a-kind dome structure for presenting expansive dance films and audio-visual artworks is both an intimate experience and sculptural spectacle for the senses. ÜNI will bring cutting-edge art to communities around Boston for free, beginning with the Juneteenth Block Party in Roxbury on June 17.

"ÜNI Public Art is an incredibly exciting addition to what Boston Ballet has to offer and is unlike anything any other dance company is doing," said Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen. "Being able to showcase these innovative dance films in an immersive, pop-up structure allows us to bring Boston Ballet to communities and meet people where they are."

Boston Ballet remained open during the pandemic and kept its dancers employed by making dance films and launching its first-ever virtual season. During this time, the organization set out to bring people together, reach new audiences, and respond to important topics like representation. Nissinen worked with Strategic Advisor Denise Korn and Boston Ballet Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Moe to find new ways to use dance to forge human connections, engage with the community, and reflect on the world we live in through dance. They used input from community organizers, community members, and multi-disciplinary designers to create ÜNI. ÜNI is both a free online portal for dance on film created in collaboration with Gensler and a portable public art installation created in collaboration with MASARY Studios.

ÜNI widens the appeal of ballet to those who were previously unengaged with the art form or intimidated by the term "ballet" by removing the barriers that have kept a broader audience from participating, such as cost and location. When selecting choreographers, collaborators, and artists to participate in the development of ÜNI, Boston Ballet focused on highlighting the work of underrepresented voices within the world of dance. ÜNI was born of the idea that dance should be inclusive, welcoming and available to all, and the diverse array of partners that brought this project to life is an extension of that vision.

ÜNI Public Art will premiere at the Juneteenth Block Party on June 17 in Nubian Square. This free event caps off the Embrace Ideas Festival hosted by KING Boston. More locations and dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

Featuring seven exciting films, many created specifically for the structure, ÜNI Public Art places visitors in the center of the action. The films include Nanine Linning's La Voix Humaine, Ken Ossola's 360-degree Zoom In, John Lam's moving pARTs, William Forsythe's The Barre Project (Blake Works II), Stephen Galloway's DEVIL'S/eye, Sugar Plum Dream, featuring Principal Dancer Chyrstyn Fentroy, and Citydance, a short film which previews an upcoming documentary by NBC Universal Boston on Boston Ballet's Citydance program.

Boston Ballet chose MASARY Studios as their creative partner to explore and develop the concept for the ÜNI environment. MASARY's experience in creating contemporary media artworks in collaborative settings made them the ideal partner for this project. The group took on the challenge of bringing ballet to the public in a new, immersive experience. They created a physical design and aesthetic that wove their signature audio-visual poetry throughout. The resulting journey through 20-plus minutes of dance films discovers new horizons only to have them dissolve into unexpected ideas of movement, form, and sound. Based in Fort Point, Boston, MASARY is an interdisciplinary studio-practice making artworks at the intersection of sound, light, performance, and new technologies.

"It has been a joy to explore these questions with the Boston Ballet team, asking where dance happens, who sees dance, how it is experienced, finding ways to break expectations, and asking even more questions. We are thrilled to be a part of this journey with the BB family," said Ryan Edwards, Principal MASARY Studios.

"Over the course of developing and designing the work with the team, I've been most excited by the connections the project is able to make. Cultural connections between Boston Ballet and the public, and technical connections between digital and physical mediums," said Caleb Hawkins, Design Director at MASARY Studios.

ÜNI Public Art is an extension of the ÜNI web portal, which showcases an evolving collection of dance films curated by Mikko Nissinen.

For more information on ÜNI Public Art, visit bostonballet.org.

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