How Ballet Companies are staying En Pointe this Season

It’s that time of year when we start booking seasonal treats and family outings, when pantomime aside, nothing says Christmas quite like a stately traditional production of Nutcracker or Swan Lake. However, in the last decade, the dance scene has changed so radically that any ballet aficionado looking for something a little different this autumn will not be disappointed. Likewise, those new to dance will be astonished by the exciting array of performance on offer.

Innovative artists are increasingly turning to dance, experimenting and pushing the human body to its limits to delight and wow audiences. For example, in July, to celebrate the start of the Paris Olympics, the Karachi-born, London-based conceptual artist Rasheed Araeen presented us with ‘discosailing’ as a new form of ballet. It comprised people acting as human masts, wearing sails on their arms, and floating around the water in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on circular discs, making a series of meditative balletic movements.

Of course, Matthew Bourne has long been world-renowned for his interpretations of the classics, like his darkly comic, irreverent Nutcracker! inspired by 1930’s Hollywood musicals and his audacious, multiple award-winning all-male Swan Lake, which was first staged at Sadler’s Wells in 1995 and ripped up the ballet rule book once and for all. It has since become the most successful dance theatre production of all time and Swan Lake: The Next Generation tours Britain from November till mid-June.

Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) traces its roots back to when Nanette de Valois founded Sadlers Wells in 1931. In 2020 the Cuban dancer and choreographer, Carlos Acosta took over from Sir David Bintley, who’d been Artistic Director since the ballet relocated to Birmingham from London in 1990. Acosta’s athleticism and grace had already assured him a devoted following as a dancer and he’s continued to woo younger fans with Birmingham-focussed commissions, particularly Black Sabbath, the first ever Heavy Metal ballet, which includes some of the band’s best-known songs like Paranoid and Iron Man.

Black Sabbath is now on international tour. Meanwhile, Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker will be at the Hippodrome from late November till mid-December and Londoners can see it at the Albert Hall for three nights at the end of the year. BRB also brings Frederic Ashton’s La Fille Mille Mal Gardée, to Sadlers Wells in late October, alongside Luna, a brand-new work created by an international all-female team and inspired by Birmingham’s most pioneering women.

Birmingham is fast carving out a reputation as one of Britain’s most innovative creative hubs, the home of runaway successes like the TV series Peaky Blinders. Few would guess that Steven Knight, who created the series, was a passionate ballet fan until he wrote Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby with Rambert. Two years ago, it opened at the Troubador in Wembley and I took my daughter. Choreographed by Rambert’s Benoit Swan Pouffer, it was simply one of the most visually astonishing stage performances I have ever experienced. My daughter, then 18, was entranced, babbling with excitement afterwards about how cathartic and spectacular it was. Incorporating violence, drugs, sex, pyrotechnics and plenty of gunshots and loud bangs, the performance took dance and what the human body is capable of to another level. It was a lightning strike, an invigorating, transformative shock to the senses. It tours Britain from mid-September till May next year so do not miss it.

The Royal Ballet will stage two if its perennial favourites at the Royal Opera House, Christopher Weeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (late September to 1 st November), followed by Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella through Christmas. Otherwise, it too is focused on innovation this season, staging Encounters: Four Contemporary Ballets, between late September and mid-October.

In November Wayne McGregor brings a trio of Margaret Atwood’s novels to the stage with MaddAddam, with a new score by Max Richter. Just before then, for three nights, The Royal Ballet presents Legacy, a series of events to celebrate the dazzling historic and ongoing contribution to the ballet world by artists of colour. Royal Ballet Principal, Joseph Sissens, is collaborating with Director Kevin O’Hare, following in the footsteps of Joseph Toonga, who led the Company’s Black History Month celebrations in 2023.

Ballet Black was founded by Casa Pancho 22 years ago to showcase the work of black and Asian dancers. Its latest, an exciting double bill, Ballet Black: Heroes, starts touring at Watford Palace Theatre in early October and ends at The Lowry in Manchester in late November. Finally, to English National Ballet (ENB) and Sadler’s Wells. Nutcracker been a much-loved Christmas staple for 50 years and an enchanting new version by ENB’s Artistic Director Aaron S. Watkins plays at the Mayflower in Southampton before moving to the Coliseum for the Christmas period.

There are also two productions of Giselle running this autumn. Following five-star reviews in January this year, Mary Skeaping’s production for ENB tours Liverpool and Manchester from late October before returning to London for a run at the Coliseum in January. In September, Akram Khan’s Giselle for ENB will return to Sadler’s Wells for the first time in five years. Giselle sold out when it played Manchester and Bristol in 2023 and has played to rapturous audiences around the world. In November fans of Khan’s work will also be treated to his company’s production of Gigenis, incorporating Indian classical dance and music. Other highlights at Sadler’s Wells this autumn include the National Ballet of Canada, the Hofesh Shechter Company’s Theatre of Dreams and the sensational tapdancing show, Stories, incorporating urban jazz and percussion. RB Dance Company, that created Stories, reached the finals of France’s Got Talent in 2018, since when it has mounted over 100 performances in Paris with audiences of over 100,000.

And for those who seek a dollop of nostalgia and unadulterated Christmassy joy, Sadler’s Wells will, as ever, bring its beloved, comforting adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman to the Peacock Theatre, an unmissable opportunity to introduce newcomers and young children alike to the wondrous glories of dance.