Paris Opera Ballet 2024-2025 & 2025-2026 Season, Shows, Reviews

byCherilyn J. Lee

January 1, 2020 - Updated on April 3, 2025

Paris Opera Ballet

♦ Location: Paris – France

♦ Artistic Director: José Carlos Martínez

♦ Orchestra: The Paris Opera Orchestra

♦ Affiliated School: Paris Opera Ballet School

♦ Founded in 1669 by the court of Louis XIV

♦ Official Website of Paris Opera Ballet

Table of Contents

Paris Opera Ballet 2025-2026 Season

Alexander Neef and José Martinez, General Director and Dance Director of the Paris Opera, respectively, have announced programming for the Paris Opera Ballet 2025-2026 Season under the motto of “And above all, the intoxicating thing: freedom!”

Per tradition, the season opens with a Gala including the youngest talents from the Paris Opera Ballet School up through the Étoiles. This year, the Défilé du Ballet will be followed by the Junior Ballet dancing Requiem for a Rose by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and the main company performing the epitome of romantic ballet, Giselle.

Along with a run of Giselle, Paris Opera Ballet is scheduled for five other full lengths in the City of Light that range from the classical to the contemporary:

Roland Petit’s Notre-Dame de Paris, inspired by Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name;
Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc, the choreographer’s answer in 1994 to the question, “What is love today?”;
Rudolf Nureyev’s Romeo and Juliet and La Bayadère, staples of the classical ballet canon set to scored by Sergei Prokofiev and Ludwig Minkus, respectively;
John Neumeier’s La Dame au camélias, inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ tragic love story between Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duval

Four mixed repertory programs showcase the company dancing works by some of the most prolific 20th and 21st century choreographers.

Roots is the season’s first triple bill featuring George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Mthuthuzeli‎ November’s Rhapsodies, and Christopher‎ Wheeldon’s Corybantic Games, while later in 2025, Contrasts will bring pieces by Trisha Brown, David Dawson, and Imre and Marne van Opstal to the Palais Garnier.

In spring and summer of 2026, Empreintes by Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica‎ Wright, Étude by Marcos Morau, Dreams This Way by Micaela Taylor, Solo for Two by Mats Ek, and The Seasons’ Canon by Crystal Pite will be seen in the Impressions and Vibrations programs.

Paris Opera Ballet 2024-2025 Season

The Paris Opera Ballet 2024-2025 season features the return of Rudolf Nureyev’s The Sleeping Beauty after a decade-long hiatus, dramatic full-length ballets, contemporary works, and pieces that are making their company premieres.

Launching the dance season, the traditional Ballet Parade brings together the students of the Paris Opera Ballet School and all the dancers of the Company. The evening’s program also includes William Forsythe’s Rearray and Blake Works I and Johan Inger’s Impasse which also comprise the triple-bill program that follows. Rearray and Impasse make their company debut, the former a reworking specifically for Paris Opera Ballet dancers, the latter interweaving classical line with contemporary vocabulary.

The full-length classical ballets scheduled are:

Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, inspired by this mystery behind the death of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and set to music by Franz Liszt
Pierre Lacotte’s reconstruction of Joseph Mazilier’s Paquita
John Cranko’s Onegin, based on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin
Rudolph Nureyev’s The Sleeping Beauty, which has not been seen on the Paris Opera stage in over a decade
Manuel Legris’ (Artistic Director of La Scala Theatre Ballet) Sylvia set to a score by Léo Delibes

Along with a world premiere by Hofesh Shechter, the season will also see:

Play (Alexander Ekman), which addresses adults and wonders what we do with our childhood games set to Mikael Karlsson’s jazzy music
OCD Love (Sharon Eyal), a 2015 piece inspired by a text from American poet-slammer Neil Hilborn whose difficulty-of-loving theme will be adapted for the Paris Opera dancers
Appartement (Mats Ek), a look into the complexity of human relationships set to music by Fleshquartet

Source: Paris Opera Ballet