Vertical Road explores humanity’s earthly nature, rituals, and the consequences of our actions. This mesmerising work becomes a meditation on the journey from gravity to grace. With a specially commissioned score by long-term collaborator composer Nitin Sawhney, Khan draws inspiration from the Sufi tradition and the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi.

Boston Ballet was the first American company to perform Vertical Road, and the first time the work was restaged on a professional company since 2017. The piece changes each time it is performed by a different company, as it is built into the life and history of the dancers and the emotional and spiritual state of the choreographer today. Each dancer becomes fully immersed in the piece, as the cast of 12 dancers is dedicated only to Vertical Road for over six weeks of rehearsals prior to performances.

“I have always believed that a space where bodies are allowed to express and question what it means to be human, is absolutely necessary for all of us, as a society, and as a civilisation. And if you don’t have the space to feel at home in your body, you will never feel at home in the world.

Boston Ballet has continuously brought together artists from different sides of the globe to present, to share, to learn and to celebrate the power of dance. I am so excited for Boston Ballet to embody Vertical Road. It is a work that calls upon the real. It is about ritual, it is about process, it is about the labor of human movement to try and reach a place, where the movement eventually arrives at stillness. Because in stillness, the real movement begins, which calls upon the inner movement of our soul” – Akram Khan