Houston Ballet 2024-2025 & 2025-2026 Season, Shows, Reviews

byCherilyn J. Lee

January 1, 2020 - Updated on May 12, 2025

Houston Ballet

♦ Location: Houston, Texas – United States

♦ Artistic Directors: Stanton Welch AM and Julie Kent

♦ Orchestra: Houston Ballet Orchestra

♦ Affiliated School: Houston Ballet Academy

♦ Founded in 1955 by Tatiana Semenova

♦ Official Website of Houston Ballet

Table of Contents

Houston Ballet 2025-2026 Season

The Houston Ballet 2025-2026 season, curated by Artistic Directors Julie Kent and Stanton Welch AM, is a balance of classical favorites with contemporary innovation including world premieres by Jacquelyn Long, Alice Topp, and Welch.

On May 1, 2025, the company announced the return of Principal Dancer Aaron Robison who comes most recently from San Francisco Ballet.

“I am extremely delighted to be rejoining Houston Ballet this July. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and look forward to continuing my growth as an artist under the inspiring leadership of Julie Kent and Stanton Welch. I really look forward to this next chapter, and I can’t wait to perform for the wonderful Houston audiences once again.” – Aaron Robison

John Cranko’s Onegin opens the season, a ballet inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s novel and set to Tchaikovsky’s score. The ballet explores themes of redemption and personal transformation by via a worldly aristocrat who must face the consequences of rejecting a young woman’s love.

Next is Rock, Roll, & Tutus, a program which presents three distinct works:

Houston Ballet Soloist Jacquelyn Long’s Illuminate for a six-dancer cast marks her first company work.
Welch’s Vi et animo, set to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, demonstrates technical precision and dramatic range.
Christopher Bruce’s Rooster combines contemporary ballet with Rolling Stones music.

The perennial holiday tradition The Nutcracker returns as does the one-night only Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance which celebrates the company’s artists and achievements via a gala-like selection from the repertoire.

Welch’s Sylvia returns, a production set to Delibes’ score which centers on three female protagonists: Sylvia the huntress, Artemis the goddess, and Psyche the mortal, each exploring different facets of strength and identity.

The Broken Wings Triple Bill features Welch’s new work set to Mason Bates’ score incorporating marimba, glockenspiel, and natural sounds. Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort pairs six men and women with fencing foils to Mozart’s concertos. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings, with Peter Salem’s original score, interprets Frida Kahlo’s artistic journey.

An Evening With The Stars introduces Australian choreographer Alice Topp to the company with a world premiere. The program also includes Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering set to Chopin’s music and Welch’s Tapestry set to Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and featuring Holly Hynes’ loom-inspired designs.

The season concludes with Welch’s 2016 production of Giselle. This interpretation of the classical, romantic story of a peasant girl features set and costume designs by Roberta Guidi di Bagno.

Houston Ballet 2024-2025 Season

Artistic Directors Stanton Welch AM and Julie Kent have recently announced the Houston Ballet 2024-2025 season which features three full-length story ballets and three repertory programs along with the annual Nutcracker and Jubilee of Dance evening.

“The incredible range of ballets offers growth for our dancers as well as audiences.

From curtain up to curtain down, this season explores the depth and breadth of this art form, and I’m so excited to be involved in presenting works we’ve never seen before and the kind of classics that are a wonderful way to introduce new audiences to ballet.”

Julie Kent, Co-Artistic Director of Houston Ballet

Opening the season is the Houston Ballet premiere of John Neumeier’s production of The Little Mermaid which is a beautifully haunting interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale. The performance features sets and costumes of grand scale displayed in a captivating blend of colors and shadows, complemented by an original score by composer Lera Auerbach.

Following is Velocity, a triple-bill that includes:

Aszure Barton’s powerful Come In, originally created in 2006 for her friend and mentor Mikhail Baryshnikov
Stanton Welch’s Velocity, originally choreographed for The Australian Ballet in 2003
A world premiere by Silas Farley who debuted his first piece with the Houston Ballet during the 2022 Margaret Alkek Williams Jubilee of Dance

After the annual productions of The Nutcracker and Jubilee of Dance, 2025 begins with another triple-bill, this time highlighting the fusion of classical dance with contemporary innovation. Works on the In the Night program include Jerome Robbins’ In the Night set to four piano nocturnes by composer Frédéric Chopin, Welch’s Maninyas, and Lila York’s Celts which pays homage to her Irish heritage.

Two classical ballets – Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty and Welch’s world premiere Raymonda – follow, while the season wraps up with Sparrow. The latter includes Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, an intensive development of the classic ballet lexicon, Stevenson’s Four Last Songs, set to Richard Strauss’s operatic score, and Welch’s Sparrow, set to Simon & Garfunkel’s most recognizable music such as “Cecilia” and “Scarborough Fair”.