Ballet Nights to Feature Alina Cojocaru at Richmond Theatre

Dancers including Alina Cojocaru, Laurel Dalley Smith and James Wilton will perform with Ballet Nights in Richmond Theatre on Wednesday 25 November, following a sold out show in the venue in the spring.

Ballet Nights' specially curated programme illustrates the company's core mission to create new dance, and more opportunities to connect with audiences across the UK - by bringing together artists from the world's most prestigious institutions, new work, young talent and live music to theatres beyond central London.

Featuring ballet icons and contemporary trailblazers, this programme, curated by Jamiel Devernay-Lawrence, is led by Romanian-born dancer Alina Cojocaru OBE, one of ballet's most remarkable talents. She is famed for her rapid rise through the ranks of The Royal Ballet, for which she became a principal after only two years, at 19. She performed in the company for 14 years before joining English National Ballet as a lead principal where she interpreted roles including Akram Khan's acclaimed reimagining of Giselle. 

As a guest artist, Cojocaru continues to dance with the world's foremost ballet companies. With Ballet Nights this November, she will showcase the revival of Afsked, a duet choreographed by her creative partner and Olivier Award-winning, Danish-born choreographer Kim Brandstrup, with UK contemporary dance star Seirian Griffiths, a dance artist who has performed with BalletBoyz, Akram Khan, Sharon Eyal and Matthew Bourne.

Brandstrup and Cojocaru have worked together extensively, notably in Metamorphoses (2024), where Cojocaru performed with Matthew Ball in Bath, and for Between the Rooms (2022), a short film for LA Opera directed and choreographed by Brandstrup. This is the first time they bring their exceptional partnership to Ballet Nights.

Talking about revisiting the piece for Alina Cojocaru and Seirian Griffiths, choreographer Kim Brandstrup said : “Afsked is the Danish word for farewell: the act of parting, of saying goodbye. The duet for Alina Cojocaru and Seirian Griffiths traces a reluctant separation—an intimate struggle between the desire to hold on and the inevitability of letting go. 

“I first created the piece in 2003 for Zenaida Yanowsky and Dylan Elmore. It was one of the first times I brought together dancers with profoundly different training: one from ballet, the other from contemporary dance. They discovered a way to meet through the intensity of pure movement and musicality, rather than through a shared style or common vocabulary. What emerged was a connection that felt both unexpected and very human.

“I had long wanted to return to the piece. Having worked with Alina and Seirian separately on many different projects, I felt instinctively that they would be extraordinary together. From the very first rehearsal, there was an immediate chemistry between them—a charged, instinctive connection. They have entered the world of Afsked with remarkable openness and commitment, and together they have made the piece entirely their own.”

Griffiths will also perform in an extract from Breaking Bach, Brandstrup's hit show from the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival, with live music by cellist Joseph Barker.

In a varied repertory and for the first time, Ballet Nights presents works by ballet superstars Paul Marque and Bleuenn Battistoni, both Etoiles of the Paris Opera Ballet - the highest title at the world's oldest ballet company. Marque and Battistoni will perform two pas de deux from Swan Lake and Le Corsaire, in an evening that puts international stardom within touching distance of Richmond audiences. 

Teeming with exceptional dance beyond borders and genres, the programme expands further across the dancescape, with a performance by star of the Martha Graham Dance Company Laurel Dalley Smith. She brings a piece of American modern dance to Richmond Theatre, in Satyric Festival Song, which premiered in 1932 in New York, and was last performed on a London stage over 20 years ago. The dance was inspired by American Indian Pueblo culture and the clowns who mock sacred rituals. It disappeared from the repertory for many years until it was reconstructed by Diane Grey and Janet Eilber in 1994 for a season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

Further on the side of contemporary dance, high-energy choreography from British powerhouse James Wilton returns and emerging Bajan artist Liam Woodvine brings his new solo work to Ballet Nights. Confession is currently touring across the UK. Music remains integral to the evening with performances throughout by Quartet Concrète and international soprano Hannah Dienes-Williams.