This World Ballet Day (WBD), we explore how dance is continuing to shape stages and audiences across the world. Join us at PBT as we reflect on a year of premiers, promotions and artistic breakthroughs and look forward to another year of all things ballet!
 

One to Watch 

The purpose of World Ballet Day is crucially not just to celebrate the artists or the art itself but also to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to join in the celebration. The Royal Ballet’s collaboration with blind artist Devon Healey and Director of Fall for Dance North Festival, Robert Binet, embodies WBD’s accessibility mission. The six minute work featuring choreography from Sir Wayne Mcgregor, Bim Malcomson, Rebecca Myles Stewart and Tiler Peck will be interlaced with immersive descriptive audio (IDA), providing those who can and can not see with a soundscape of sensation, sensibility and narrative understanding. The use of IDA invites both the seeing and sightless into each others’s world filling any disparities with empathy and sensitivity. Premiering this World Ballet Day, the piece opens doors for a new means of creative collaboration.

Audiences can livestream the premier as well as company class via the World Ballet Day website.
 

What to Expect this Season

In Europe, The Royal Ballet’s 2025/26 season promises nothing short of world class innovation and captivating storytelling. The former part of the season will see new exciting works by Wayne McGregor and Cathy Marston, two choreographers that have continued to move audiences with their poetic mastery and emblematic perception. In the latter half of the season, audiences can expect poignancy and sensibility from Akram Khan with his Onegin-inspired Carnage and the Divine promising a beautiful yet unapologetic exploration of innocence and desire and the thin strands that tie those two extremes together. This will be Khan’s first time working with the company.

Across the channel, The Paris Opera Ballet boasts an impressive season of revivals, premiers and audience favorites. The autumn months will see the company perform Giselle, and Balanchine’s Roots, before finishing the season with Dawson and Brown’s post-modern spectacle, Contrasts. Audiences can also expect new creations from Micaela Taylor and Mats Ek as the company continues to cement their reputation for classical ballet while welcoming innovative and daring talent.

The Norwegian National Ballet will also feature pieces by Wayne Mcgregor, beginning with their premier of Jocasta’s Line, an alluring tale of misery and passion inspired by the tragic myth of Oedipus Rex and Antigone. In addition to welcoming esteemed international choreographers, the Norwegian National Ballet has also taken great lengths to promote regional voices, strategically staging works by Nordic choreographers such as Simone Grøtte in a celebration of home-grown talent.

On the other side of the Atlantic, The National Ballet of Canada proudly presents Procession, a long-awaited collaboration between two highly respected choreographers of the 21st century, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Scraiber. Set to a Baroque-inspired score, the contemporary piece is expected to fuse new, diverse movement patterns with a metaphorical sensibility previously unexploited.

In the USA, San Francisco Ballet announced the premier of its new full length ballet, Eugene Onegin, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov. The work will be co-commissioned with the Joffrey Ballet and signals an exciting return to narrative ballets. William Forsythe’s Blake Works The Barre Project V will also premier this season as part of an evening dedicated to celebrating the 20th century choreographer.

Across the Pacific Ocean, The Australian Ballet in Sydney has lined up an exciting season of beloved classics,  revamped revivals and choreographic firsts. In September, The Australian Ballet presented Prism, a triple bill featuring works by Forsythe, Jerome Robbins and Stephanie Lake. The second piece, Seven Days was Lake’s second work as resident choreographer and featured a fusion of contemporary dance and ballet, moulded to reflect the talent and ethos of the company.

Promotions and Appointments 

The year 2025 saw a number of artists worldwide recognised for their contribution to the stage. In London, the Royal Ballet’s Melissa Hamilton was promoted to Principal Dancer after 17 years of dancing with the company.

Following his leading role in The National Ballet of Canada’s Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Onegin, Larkin Miller was promoted to Principal Dancer and Peng-Fei Jiang was promoted to first soloist. Hope Muir, the company’s director emphasised her admiration for the artists and her gratitude for their dedication to the company. Behind the scenes, more congratulations were in order as Charlotte Geeves joined Muir in the role of Executive Director. The collaboration between the two leaders was praised by Muir who deemed Geeves a ‘tremendous asset’.

In Birmingham, Yu Kurihara was promoted to principal dancer and Enrique Bejarano Vidal became a first soloist. The announcement followed their last performance of Sleeping Beauty in Tokyo. Yu, as Aurora, graciously accepted the award in her homeland as friends and family applauded. In addition to welcoming external talent, the company has shown impressive internal growth with a strong talent pipeline provided by the formalisation of BRB2.

The Australian Ballet also continues to celebrate home-grown talent, promoting 11 dancers, eight of which were trained at the Australian Ballet School, to higher ranks. Davi Ramos (previously Dutch National Ballet) was among those named by David Hallberg, promoted from soloist to senior artist.

Finally, in San Francisco, Cavan Conley was promoted to principal rank and Katherine Barkman and Joshua Jack Price were both awarded the title of first soloist. Additionally, in an effort to create a clearer career progression for artists, the company added the ranks of demi-soloist and first soloist.

World Ballet Day through the Years

Writing about this year's performances and premiers fills me with great nostalgia. As a student and young professional, I remember eagerly awaiting the annual World Ballet Day livestream. I recall vividly rushing home from ballet school to idolise my favorite artists as they danced their way through class, rehearsal and performance. I remember my teacher setting some of the exercises used in company class the next day and me, having eyeballed the screen for some time, knowing the exercise off-by-heart. I recall being captivated by the array of outfits, noting their barre spots, treasuring their technique and lapping up the backstage gossip. I remember studying how they did their hair, the way they tied their shoes, if they danced centre on pointe or flat. The whole event was like the olympics for me, deserving of a grand opening and hundreds of thousands in the audience.

Now as an adult and retired professional, I do not care so much for the artist’s fashion, though some outfits are quite something to behold, but my respect and admiration for the artists and choreographers on screen remains unshaken. To this day, I await the event with eager anticipation and look forward to overwhelming my non-ballet friends with exciting news from the day. The ‘live’ YouTube notification still gets me excited and I remain ever in awe of the incredible artistry on display. Dancer or non-dancer, world ballet day provides an exciting peak behind the curtain.

Whether you are watching from home, with friends or in between work, this World Ballet Day promises to be a day of inspiring creativity. Watch as companies worldwide rehearse timeless classics and challenge themselves with innovative choreography. Whether you’re an aspiring dancer or simply a theatre enthusiast, this is certainly not a day to be missed!