Carolina Performing Arts this season embarks on the most ambitious project the group has taken on: a centennial celebration of the groundbreaking 1913 ballet “The Rite of Spring,” choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky to composer Igor Stravinsky’s score.

The celebration, “The Rite of Spring at 100,” will feature nine world premieres, two U.S. premieres and 11 new works commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts. From Sept. 30 through next April, world-class composers, choreographers and artists will take the stage at Memorial Hall to revisit, re-examine and respond to the Stravinsky-Nijinsky masterpiece.

The celebration and season opens Sept. 30-Oct. 1 when the Silk Road Ensemble with brilliant cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform the world premiere of “Sacred Signs,” a piece by Uzbek composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky commissioned for “The Rite of Spring at 100.”

The centennial also will include performances by artists including Compagnie Marie Chouinard, the Marinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev, Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet, Nederland Dans Theater I and Bejart Ballet Lausanne, among others.

“The Rite of Spring at 100” also will include artistic residencies, interdisciplinary courses at UNC and two scholarly conferences. For information, tickets and more, call 919-843-3333 or see carolinaperformingarts.