UK / WEST END DANCE NEWS COVERAGE

BroadwayWorld is now accepting nominations for the BroadwayWorld Stage Recording Awards, celebrating outstanding achievements in theatrical and performance-based recordings released during the 2025 calendar year....

Twenty or so dancers parade before an oversized Art Deco clock, to the familiar strains of ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ from a brass band offstage. In other words, the stage is set for a reassuringly old-fashioned taste of the Golden Age of movie musicals....

The Royal Ballet and Opera has announced its 2026 Summer Season at the Royal Opera House, featuring special programmes curated by Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta....

If your festive wish-list includes being whisked away to a land of shimmering magic and charming story-telling, ENB have the ideal antidote to the winter drizzle outside with the first revival of their version of Nutcracker that debuted last year. Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smit bring a welcome ch...

I couldn't help but get swept away by The Red Shoes. A rich blend of romantic storytelling and cinema, this production showcases the best Matthew Bourne has to offer as a love letter to ballet in its purest (and most haunting) form. If you're unable to find a production of The Nutcracker this holida...

STRICTLY COME DANCING LIVE will announce the first two celebrity–professional pairings for the 2026 UK arena tour, with Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Karen Hauer, and La Voix and Aljaž Škorjanec joining the lineup. ...

Considering Ballet Black has been around for 24 years, it seems unbelievable that the current double bill Shadows is also a Sadler's Wells debut. Unfortunately it isn't their strongest work to date, choreographically speaking....

When a night is all about the music, and the music isn't for you, things aren't going to go smoothly. A case in point is Marking Time at Sadler’s Wells. The triple bill uses and celebrates the work of composer Nico Muhly, and features choreography by Jules Cunningham, Maud Le Pladec and Michael K...

Ballet lovers will all have their own relationship with Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker....

Falling snow, a rapidly-growing Christmas tree and an army of sword-fighting rats: it can only be Sir Peter Wright's The Nutcracker. Birmingham Royal Ballet's opulent, charming and whimsical production returns to Birmingham Hippodrome - where Wright's version received its premier in 1990 - and bring...

Birmingham Royal Ballet will tour Carlos Acosta’s production of Don Quixote to five UK venues in spring 2026, beginning at Birmingham Hippodrome on February 12....

The Royal Ballet season continues with Perspectives: Balanchine, Marston, Peck. A triple bill that will supposedly “ignite the imagination” - stir, perhaps; ignite, not quite. ...

Sharon Eyal and her S-E-D Dance Company return to Sadler's Wells with a UK premiere of INTO THE HAIRY, but if honest, I've definitely seen the material before. The programme info is clear; “parts of the creation were originally created in the frame of THIS IS NOT A LOVE SHOW (January 2022)”, the...

An evening of contrasting pieces, leading to a conclusion about the need to connect...

Created by Akeim Toussaint Buck, Toussaint to Move: FREE is a dance performance that combines reggae dub culture and contemporary dance, allowing audience members to become immersed in the world created by the five performers - Aline Simo Kamga, Francesca Matthys, Jemima Tawose, Márcio Inácio and ...

What did our critic think of JOBURG BALLET - COMMUNION OF LIGHT at Royal Ballet And Opera: Linbury Theatre?...

Normally all we see are signs confirming no photography or filming at the theatre, but Elena Antoniou wants you to do the exact opposite during her work LANDSCAPE. The piece was part of the Dance Umbrella festival and was performed for two nights in the Assembly Hall at Shoreditch Town Hall. ...

A delightful 'first ballet' aimed at children, Northern Ballet's Little Red Riding Hood offers a twist on the old tale of the hungry wolf and the sweet little grandmother. The importance of kindness and friendship is more important than the shock value in this version, which displays more sweetness ...

Royal Ballet Principal dancer Natalia Osipova will return to the Linbury Theatre from November 10–15, 2025, with a new edition of her acclaimed solo program OSIPOVA / LINBURY. ...

Marianela Núñez said of La Fille mal gardée during a rehearsal that it was just what the world needed right now. This much loved Frederick Ashton classic has not been seen on the Covent Garden stage since 2016, we needed it back then and we certainly need it now more than ever....

Dance Umbrella - the contemporary dance festival - started in 1978 and continues its mission today. One can always expect the unexpected…however, Sunday Shorts - “a screening of short films that draw on global perspectives and have movement at their heart” was far from what I'd hoped it would ...

The Royal Ballet 25/26 season continues with Black History Month Draft Works, this year curated by principal dancer Marcelino Sambé. Sambé, and producer Julia Gillespie have invited five female, black choreographers to either create, or show existing work for two performances in the Clore Studio. ...

English National Ballet’s season opener, R:Evolution offers up a varied set of challenges for the company, taking us back to the 1940s with George Balanchine and Martha Graham, to the present day with William Forsythe and David Dawson....

Narrative ballet is hard, so anyone willing to go there deserves a medal regardless of the outcome. The Royal Ballet (mainstage) season opened last night with Christopher Wheeldon's 2022 Like Water for Chocolate. Based on the 1989 Laura Esquivel novel of the same name, the ballet is fundamentally a ...

It's fair to say general consensus is never work with your family, yet Amit Noy is doing the exact opposite in his piece A Big Big Room Full of Everybody's Hope. Marseille-based performer and dance maker Noy makes his Sadler’s Wells choreographic debut with the UK premiere of A Big Big Room Full o...

London City Ballet return for their second season with another mixed bill, and the results are also mixed. Director Christopher Marney has chosen the repertoire well, finding chamber-sized works to fit the company of 14, however two out of the four works presented are weak choreographically....

From the moment the curtain raises and smoke billows away to reveal a barely lit stage, it’s clear that Rambert’s The Redemption of Thomas Shelby isn’t interested in gently inviting you in and asking how you take your tea. If anything, this is a rough kidnap of the senses, dumping you into a W...

Current geopolitics mean the Royal Ballet and Opera no longer welcomes the big Russian companies - Bolshoi and Mariinsky - for summer seasons when the resident company take their annual break. This of course leaves room for others…so welcome the National Ballet of Japan (for the first time), with ...

Varna International Ballet and Orchestra will return to UK stages in 2026 with its most ambitious tour to date, bringing three beloved classical ballets—Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and a brand-new production of Cinderella—to 23 venues across the country....

What did our critic think of SONGS OF THE BULBUL at Sadler’s Wells East?...

Iain Mackay has devised a successful programme which shows the strength and breadth of the school, its current student body and the legacy that underpins the institution as we know it. ...

Audience members got two for the price of one with English National Ballet School and Rambert School collaborating on a joint show for the continuing Next Generation Festival at the Royal Ballet and Opera's Linbury Theatre. ...

Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O'Hare has announced promotions, new joiners and leavers for The Royal Ballet's 2025/26 Season. ...

Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland returns for a second block of shows at the Royal Ballet and Opera until June 28. ...

It's so refreshing to get a new proposition, and that was the case with The Youth Company of the Finnish National Ballet at the Next Generation Festival at the Royal Ballet and Opera Linbury Theatre. ...

John Cranko's Onegin returns to the Royal Ballet and Opera stage for a second block of shows this season, and it's largely good news for all involved....

The Royal Ballet brings together a host of young dance talent with its Next Generation Festival. This year, the festival will see performances from some of the world’s best junior companies and dance schools, comprising American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Youth Company of the Finnish National ...

Ballet BC present a double bill at Sadler’s Wells with work by heavyweight contemporary dancemakers of the present day. ...

The dance world is all the richer for having different kinds of storytellers - no doubt. But equally, audience members will inevitably gravitate towards makers they feel a connection with. I should be clear - I don't connect with Cathy Marston’s take on narrative dance, or perhaps just Jane Eyre ...

Considering Kenneth MacMillan’s production of Romeo and Juliet is 60 years old…it looks as fresh as a daisy. This is no mean feat. As when a company is familiar with a ballet it can become stale before you know it - but this absolutely isn't the case, so bravo to all involved. ...