♦ Location: Copenhagen – Denmark
♦ Artistic Director: Amy Watson
♦ Orchestra: The Royal Danish Orchestra
♦ Affiliated School: The Royal Danish Ballet School
♦ Founded in 1748
Royal Danish Ballet 2025-2026 Season
The Royal Danish Ballet 2025-2026 season features the world premieres of Alexei Ratmanksy’s The Art of Fugue and Akram Khan’s Lady Macbeth along with the perennial Koreorama and Giant Steps programs.
Ratmansky started choreographing The Art of Fugue for the Bolshoi Ballet, but work was halted upon the development of the war between Russia and Ukraine. He will complete the work set to Bach’s unfinished masterpiece of the same name for Danish audiences in November of 2025.
For Lady Macbeth, Khan will fuse classical ballet and contemporary dance to create his interpretation of Shakespeare’s thriller. It will be set to music by Lamagna and Mathias Friis-Hansen and highlight scenic and costume design by Tim Yip and lighting design y Michael Hulls.
Other new works will be showcased in Koreoama No. 3 wherein emerging choreographers from the ranks of Royal Danish Ballet will create for fellow dancers. The initiative began with a focus on cultivating new ballet choreography, young choreographers tasked with transforming classical dance towards a more contemporary aesthetic.
As per tradition, Royal Danish Ballet will perform George Balanchine‘s The Nutcracker which comes to life with Tchaikovsky’s unmistakeable score and sets by Anthony Ward.
Other Balanchine ballets – Apollo and Symphony in C – will accompany Christopher Wheeldon’s Corybantic Games in the triple bill, Giant Steps.
Silja Schandorff and former Artistic Director Nikolaj Hübbe’s productions of Swan Lake and Giselle round out the season’s full-length classical ballet repertoire, demonstrating the company’s dedication to upholding tradition while also presenting neoclassical and contemporary works.
No Royal Danish Ballet year would be complete without a program featuring ballets by August Bournonville, choreographer for the Copenhagen-based institution between 1830 and 1848. In fact, the 2025-2026 season begins with a double bill of his works – La Ventana and The Kermesse in Bruges – the first, a Spanish-inspired love story set to music by H.C. Lumbye and V. C. Holm and the second, a joyful familial tale set to a score by H.S. Paulli.
Source: Royal Danish Ballet
Royal Danish Ballet Upcoming Performances
Royal Danish Ballet: Swan Lake
Royal Danish Ballet: The Nutcracker
Royal Danish Ballet: The Nutcracker
Royal Danish Ballet: Come Fly Away
Royal Danish Ballet: Koreorama No. 3
Royal Danish Ballet Reviews
Royal Danish Ballet News and Features
Beautiful! Perhaps someone could create a new romantic ballet to HC Anderson’s The Brave Tin Soldier ~ new music commissioned. It’s my favorite fairytale. Blessings and 🕊️