Ballet Central Will Embark on 2026 Tour

BALLET CENTRAL are back on tour this summer with a brand-new company of dancers and a programme of classical ballet and contemporary dance. Showcasing the talent of Central School of Ballet's graduating class of 2026, this year's company consists of 35 young dancers – the future of dance. 

Ballet Central 2026 will open at The Theatre Chipping Norton on 14 May before playing a further nine venues around the country. Tickets for all venues are on sale now. The Ballet Central Tour is the perfect introduction to dance for audiences of all ages.

This year's repertoire sees tradition meet cutting edge, combining classical ballet and Broadway buzz with contemporary innovative creation.

The 2026 programme presents one of Kenneth MacMillan's earlier works, Solitaire. Revived for Ballet Central by Lynn Wallis, Solitaire presents a quirky, dreamlike world told through a montage of nine dances, knitted together by Malcolm Arnold's enigmatic score.

Times Square Ballet, an excerpt from Ashley Page's musical On the Town, is sure to delight audiences with its rhythm, glamour and romance. This hectic night of fun reflects the hustle and bustle of the famous Broadway theatre district during the 1940s.

Two exciting new commissions will take to the stage in this year's tour, from distinctive choreographers Monique Jonas and MA Alumni Cameron McMillan.

Monique Jonas's REPLICA is a series of mirrored realities played out through abstract storytelling – a physicalised exploration on perception; the external world versus internal thought, on truth and illusion. It reflects Jona Dance's fusion with diasporic rhythms and contributions from the dancers themselves.

Cameron McMillan's BOLERO 18 is inspired by the 18 cycles of the insistent, looping crescendo of Maurice Ravel's Bolero, re-imagining the iconic 1928 score through a contemporary lens and capturing the threshold and restless energy of youth and the tension between individuality and collective force. Propelled by this new generation of dancers, it draws out the duality at the heart of the music -  its mechanistic repetition and underlying magnetic power revealing both its rigorous structure and its surging emotional drive.

Ballet Central was created in 1984 as the touring company of Central School of Ballet to give Central's graduating students the opportunity of professional performance experience.

The programme is formed around Ballet Central's relationships with leading choreographers and provides the opportunity for students to experience performance in front of a ticket-buying audience.

Central School of Ballet is the only professional dance training school in the UK providing touring experience on such a scale.

Populated by the final year students of the BA (Hons) Professional Dance & Performance degree, joining the Ballet Central company forms a core part of the degree course and, most importantly, supports graduate employment.

Ballet Central graduates go on to dance in companies including Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, Scottish Ballet, Ballet Black and Rambert Dance Company, as well as international dance companies across the globe.

Tour Dates

14 May - The Theatre Chipping Norton

19 May - Newbury Spring Festival

23 May - Uppingham Theatre

5 June - The Dance Space, Brighton

9 June - New Futures, Cadogan Hall

13 June - Darlington Hippodrome

18 June - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

24 June - Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds

2 July - EM Forster Theatre, Tonbridge