One stage, three moods. Explosive energy. Deep resonance. Unstoppable drive. Feel the pulse of ballet now.

Rhythm Riot

Sadler's Wells Theatre

With stirring music and arguably the greatest love story in the literary canon, “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the most popular ballets of all time. The tale of young, impetuous love and deep-seated, age-old hatred has been adapted countless times for stage, film and television.

Romeo and Juliet

Oper Leipzig

With a ballet evening that is as brilliant as it is thoughtful, the Slovenian State Ballet Ljubljana and the Klagenfurt City Theatre continue their successful collaboration of recent years. Boléro combines two classics of modern ballet composed for large orchestra with the romantic melancholy of Chopin's Nocturnes for piano. The evening takes its title from Maurice Ravel's most famous work. He created Boléro on commission from the Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, but in dance history, Maurice Béjart's 1961 interpretation is considered a milestone. Choreographer Renato Zanella bases his work on Ravel's fundamental musical idea of ​​the struggle for supremacy between rhythm and melody, emphasizing that the beauty of melody rarely emerges victorious in a direct confrontation with the power of rhythm.

Bolero

Stadttheater Klagenfurt

"The Story of the Bamboo Cutter, or of Princess Kaguya" is Japan's oldest romantic fairytale-like narrative, dating back to 900. While at work, a childless bamboo cutter discovers a stray child, which he and his wife raise as their own. The radiantly beautiful child has been sent to Earth as a gift from the moon, and though her beauty attracts powerful men as suitors, Kaguya is the princess of the moon and must return there.

The Moon Princess

»The story of the bamboo cutter, or of Princess Kaguya«, is Japan’s oldest romantic fairytalelike narrative, dating back to 900. While at work, a childless bamboo cutter discovers a stray child, which he and his wife raise as their own. The radiantly beautiful child has been sent to earth as a gift from the moon, and though her beauty attracts powerful men as suitors: Kaguya is the princess of the moon and must return there.

Die Mondprinzessin

This is one of the most important ballets brought into being by Marius Petipa, the great French choreographer who is considered the father of classical ballet. He devised Don Quixote in 1869 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and staged its revised version two years later at the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg. It explores an episode from Miguel de Cervantes’s famous novel and draws on more than a hundred-year presence of the theme on European ballet stages. The score was written according to the choreographer’s instructions by Ludwig Minkus, Austrian violinist and ballet composer with long-standing links to Russia. Petipa’s work was complemented in 1900 with new sequences by Moscow-based choreographer Alexander Gorski. For this reason, they are now both listed as choreographers of the ballet

Don Quixote

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

With stirring music and arguably the greatest love story in the literary canon, »Romeo and Juliet« is one of the most popular ballets of all time. The tale of young, impetuous love and deep-seated, age-old hatred has been adapted countless times for stage, film and television.

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Romeo und Julia

Musikalische Komödie

Four years after its originally-scheduled PNB premiere, Alejandro Cerrudo’s complete One Thousand Pieces will finally take to the McCaw Hall stage. Cerrudo’s large-scale ensemble work is inspired by the work of artist Marc Chagall and features music from Philip Glass. Paired with the revelry and joy of Matthew Neenan’s made-for-PNB Bacchus.

One Thousand Pieces

Seattle Center

This triple bill showcases neoclassical ballet at its purest. Last season, the programme embraced pieces by three generations of choreographers, George Balanchine, Toer van Schayk, and Edward Clug, who turned to the music by Beethoven, Chopin, and Bizet. Each choreography had its own unmistakable appeal and was enthusiastically received by the audience. This season, the triple bill returns with even greater emotional resonance. Symphony of Dance: An Encore opens with Balanchine’s Symphony in C to Bizet’s music. The spectacular symphony of dance by the father of neoclassical ballet is followed by Edward Clug’s more subdued piece, fittingly titled Ssss… Set to Chopin’s nocturnes, the work provides a shift in mood from nostalgic to pensive. Finally, the programme culminates with Krzysztof Pastor’s choreography to Ravel’s Bolero. The piece needs no special recommendation: it is an explosion of passion and an apotheosis of rhythm that rouses, captivates, and hypnotises.

Symphony of Dance: an encore

A court ballet titled Don Quichotte was supposedly danced at the Louvre as early as 1614 (!). Overtime, themes from Cervantes’s work found a permanent place in ballet, leading to dozens of new stagings. None of them, however, was as sensational as Marius Petipa’s 1869 ballet, which continues to be staged to this day, refreshed and processed by successive generations of choreographers. Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus to write the melodic and vivacious music. The choreography was later revised by his student Alexandr Gorski, who added new dances to the great master’s work, making it even more impressive. Today, Petipa and Gorski are both recognised as the choreographers of the ballet. What is the secret of its enduring popularity across the world? The cheerful scenery of old-time Spain, the knight-errant of La Mancha, hilarious Sancho Panza, and clumsy Gamache never fail to charm the audience. In turn, the main characters, Kitri and Basilio, do not have a match in the classical repertoire when it comes to grace, vivaciousness, and dance virtuosity. It is an enthralling showcase of classical dance embellished with the Spanish style.

Thomas Mika

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 31 - Nov 14, 2026

Symphony of Dance: an encore · Polish National Opera

4 - 20 Feb, 2027

Don Quixote · Polish National Opera

Past events

Sep 24 - Oct 3, 2026

Rhythm Riot · English National Ballet

Apr 3 - May 10, 2026

Romeo and Juliet · Oper Leipzig

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