Birmingham Royal Ballet announces 2026 - 27 Season

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2025-26 season has been a tremendous success so far with a 30% increase on ticket sales from the last record-breaking season in 2019, demonstrating the demand for world-class ballet is back to pre-Covid attendance numbers.

The 2026-27 season announcement also follows the most successful run ever of The Nutcracker in Birmingham, and takes place on the brink of a national tour of Carlos Acosta’s production of Don Quixote - which had its premiere in the long shadow of the Covid pandemic and now gets a sun-drenched revival which opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on 12 February. The production will then tour to The Lowry, Salford (5 – 7 March), Plymouth Theatre Royal (18 – 21 March), Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (15 – 18 April) and London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre (23 – 25 April). The Company will be joined by guest dancers Siphesihle November and Genevieve Penn Nabity from National Ballet of Canada for selected Birmingham performances following their company’s staging of this production in 2024.

Next season sees the return of Sir Peter Wright and Galina Samsova’s perennially popular Swan Lake, one of several celebrations in his 100th year (see also the Sir Peter Wright Centenary event on 18 June here). The season opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on 23 September where it will play until 3 October before moving to London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre 28 – 31 October. 

The Nutcracker returns to Birmingham Hippodrome from 20 November - 12 December and, in the absence of a Royal Albert Hall run this year, the Company will shift focus entirely to the premiere of The Maiden of Venice in the spring. Following the World Premiere in Birmingham (20 – 27 Feb), today we announce that the production will tour to Theatre Royal Plymouth (11 – 13 March), Sunderland Empire (18 – 20 March), The Lowry, Salford (31 March – 2 April) and Southampton Mayflower (14 – 17 April).

The Maiden of Venice is Carlos Acosta’s groundbreaking reimagining of the 19th-century classic, La Bayadère. The creation of this production is an important development for Birmingham Royal Ballet. The Company has never had a full-length La Bayadère in its repertory and performing it will showcase the virtuosity of the current dancers.

La Bayadère is extremely important in Ballet history, not least because of the incredibly beautiful and technically challenging Kingdom of the Shades scene. In recent times, the original narrative has become problematic, in both its themes and its recognised cultural appropriation. By moving the time and place from ancient India to Renaissance Venice, these sensitivities are removed in favour of the universal messages and richness of this precious work of art. This new setting is being brought to life through set and costume designer Anna Fleischle’s stunning designs with lighting design by Lucy Carter and new arrangements of Minkus’s score by Gavin Sutherland.

Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Carlos Acosta said: ‘I am so thrilled that we will be touring this new production. Since arriving at BRB five years ago I have always had a vision of re-making La Bayadère. It is such an important ballet - to me personally, but also to the sector and to audiences. I understand why it has become problematic, but I feel passionate about not allowing it to be buried or to be, in effect, cancelled. There are so many reasons why moving it to Renaissance Venice works so well for the storytelling, and I am so happy that my company of amazing dancers will have the opportunity to perform this new version.’

Also in spring 2027, BRB2 will perform a brand-new work created specifically for them. Further details and dates to be announced. Meanwhile for spring this year BRB2 takes to the road with Carlos Acosta’s Ballet Celebration visiting Cheltenham (14 – 16 May) and Hall for Cornwall (20 May) for the first time before travelling to Northampton Royal and Derngate (23 May) and, just announced, a return to New Theatre, Peterborough (29 May).

More announcements for the 2026-27 Season will follow later in the year.