By Elizabeth Hadley

The silence was deafening as the audience moved toward the edge of their seats while the curtains were drawn for the opening night of the Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler, a ballet by John Neumeier, on Thursday.

The stage first illuminated 24 men standing in various poses wearing nothing but tights and ballet slippers, all prepared to put on their best performance.

Boston Ballet is the first North American company to premiere this ballet and only the fourth in the world.

Neumeier is the recipient of many awards, such as the Dance Magazine Award, Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and many more. He was also in charge of costumes and lighting for this production.

Six movements throughout an hour and forty five minutes made up the show.

The entire ballet was done without any sets, and themes were only represented by the colors of the costumes worn by dancers.

The movements had different titles to describe what Neumeier wanted the dancing to represent.

The first movement represented Yesterday, the second movement Summer, the third movement Autumn, the fourth Night, the fifth Angel, and the sixth What Love Tells Me.

The first movement, matched the symphony, and presented boisterous moves performed by the male dancers.

Summer featured the company sporting ornate yellow and orange costumes. All 250 costumes were made of 500 yards of lycra and silk that was custom-dyed in 40 colors, according to the playbill.

The fourth movement lasted ten minutes, and was performed in silence by only two men and one woman: Lasha Khozashvili, Paulo Arrais, and Anais Chalendard.

“I believe that dance, in its essence, is the living shape of emotion,” Neumeier said on the choreography of this ballet, according to the playbill.

Lead ballet dancer Khozashvili, who has been a member of The Boston Ballet since 2010, was only off stage for three minutes during the entire show.

“The hardest thing about being in this ballet is the stamina needed to perform in this performance to the best of his ability,” Khozashvili said in a behind-the-scenes interview by Vimeo.

The company dancers put in a total of 60 days of rehearsal for this performance, while the male dancers put in an extra 200 hours on top of that.

Audience member Lisa Sheppard said she was inspired by the performance and interpreted it as the world and its creation.

“I could really see the story of the Bible and how the world got bigger as the ballet went on,” Sheppard said.

“I feel as though this is the type of ballet that could be seen every night and would always find new things to understand.”

The Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler dropped jaws. There was no need for an intermission, as the show flew by in the blink of an eye. The energy, passion, and talent shown on the stage was something that does not often come around.