The Royal Ballet 2025-2026 Season, Shows, Reviews

January 1, 2020 - Updated on July 7, 2025

The Royal Ballet

♦ Location: London – England

♦ Artistic Director: Kevin O’Hare CBE

♦ Orchestra: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

♦ Affiliated School: The Royal Ballet School

♦ Founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois as Vic-Wells Ballet. Name change to The Royal Ballet granted by Royal Charter in 1956 to mark its 25th anniversary.

♦ Official Website of The Royal Ballet

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The Royal Ballet 2025-2026 Season

The Royal Ballet 2025-2026 season features several full-length works ranging from the most traditional classical ballets to recent contemporary adaptations of popular literature, as well as mixed repertory programs which highlight masterpieces and innovation.

Performances of Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker and Giselle, and Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling uphold The Royal Ballet’s history in grand productions.

Continuing this path into the 21st century are Like Water For Chocolate, Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet inspired by Laura Esquivel’s novel of the same name, Woolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s adaptation of three Virginia Woolf writings, and the world premiere of Carnage and the Divine, Akram Khan’s vision of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin.

Other McGregor pieces are highlighted in the triple bill Alchemies, completely dedicated to the company’s Resident Choreographer. A world premiere will close the program which also includes Yugen set to Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Untitled, 2023 inspired by artist Carmen Herrera’s creations.

In a program titled Perspectives, a new work by Cathy Marston set to Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto – “a turbulent yet intimate piece written as Europe teetered on the brink of World War II” – is sandwiched between George Balanchine‘s iconic Serenade and Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go.

Sol León and Paul Lightfoot will have their Royal Ballet debut in a double bill, So Are We: León and Lightfoot. Opening is a world premiere adaptation of STANDBY which was originally choreographed for film during the Covid-19 pandemic and closing is Shoot the Moon (celebrating its 20th anniversary), a piece set to Philip Glass music.