The Royal Ballet Will Perform WAYNE MCGREGOR: ALCHEMIES
Performances run 18 April – 6 May 2026.
The Royal Ballet will present the world premiere of a new work by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor as part of Wayne McGregor: Alchemies. An evening of pure poetry and power, Alchemies features the anticipated premiere alongside the Company's first revivals of Yugen and Untitled, 2023.
Following the announcement that McGregor will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Dance Award as part of this year's Olivier Awards, this programme is a perfectly timed testament to the choreographer's boundless imagination and collaborative spirit.
The world premiere comprises McGregor's latest work for The Royal Ballet following MADDADDAM in 2024. It will be set to music by British composer Bushra El-Turk, a mixture of brand-new composition and some of her existing work. El-Turk's work has featured previously at the Royal Opera House with her multimedia opera Woman at Point Zero in the Linbury Theatre. The music for the new work will include live performance from British-Chinese musician Beibei Wang, the dynamic percussionist who has previously performed as a soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The new work will also feature designs by acclaimed British designer Saul Nash, who is himself a choreographer and movement director and uses his love for dance to inform his design. Nash has a background in creating technical garments for movement for his eponymous label, moving between the worlds of dance and fashion. On opening night, the cast features a host of talent from across the Company, including William Bracewell, Melissa Hamilton and Joseph Sissens.
Yugen premiered in 2018 as part of The Royal Ballet's Leonard Bernstein Centenary celebrations, created in response to the composer's haunting Chichester Psalms. He collaborated with ceramicist and author Edmund de Waal on the set design. Shirin Guild, an Iranian-British fashion designer with a minimal and cross-cultural style, created the costumes for the work, which also featured lighting design by McGregor's long-time collaborator Lucy Carter. This is the first revival of Yugen by The Royal Ballet, with two casts led by Principal dancers Matthew Ball and Sarah Lamb, and Lauren Cuthbertson and Ryoichi Hirano respectively.
Also receiving its first revival is McGregor's Untitled, 2023, a work inspired by the late artist Carmen Herrera and her dynamic yet sparing use of form, colour and perspective. McGregor collaborated with Herrera to create designs for the stage for the first and last time during Herrera's career. Untitled, 2023 is set to a score of ferocity and desolation by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, with costumes created by Burberry under Daniel Lee, and lighting design by Lucy Carter. The cast for Untitled, 2023 on opening night includes Principal dancers Fumi Kaneko, Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Calvin Richardson.
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