16 essential ballet shows to book tickets for this spring

The Telegraph dance critic chooses the best ballet shows to look forward to this season, from a spirited version of The Great Gatsby to a triple instalment from the Rambert.

English National Ballet – She Persisted

In 2016, ENB served up a triple bill of new works by female choreographers. Here, they cannily keep only the best of them – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida Kahlo biopic, Broken Wings – pairing it instead with Pina Bausch’s punishingly good The Rite of Spring and the debut main-stage piece by ENB first artist Stina Quagebeur: Nora, inspired by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 (020 7863 8000), April 4-13

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Scottish Ballet

Scotland’s top, always entertaining dance company launches its 50th-anniversary year with a double-bill that embraces a new piece by resident choreographer Sophie Laplane, Dextera – set to Mozart, performed live – and MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations, his 1974 Scott Joplin fantasia that still has an irresistible spring in its step.

Eden Court, Inverness (01463 234234), March 30, then touring Scotland until May

International Draft Works

The Royal Ballet joins forces with choreographers from companies as distant and diverse as Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and Norwegian National Ballet for this showcase of new works both in-progress and fully fledged. There’s inevitably a potpourri element to this sort of evening, but that’s part of its fascination.

Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), April 11, 12

Lost Dog – Juliet and Romeo

Imagine the traditionally ill-fated Montagu and Capulet didn’t fall victim to atrocious luck and timing and lived not-so-happily ever after … Such is the premise of this new telling of the tale by Lost Dog, a lively little dance-theatre company that often punches well above its weight.

Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), April 13, 14

Israel Galván – Fiesta

Israel Galván – 21st-century flamenco’s most tireless rule-breaker – returns to London with a top-notch clutch of musicians and fellow dancers. Their aim? To turn the so-called “fin de fiesta” – the period of invention and improvisation following a choreographed flamenco show – into a show in its own right.

Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 (020 7863 8000), April 28, 29

Inala

After two sold-out runs at Sadler’s Wells, former Rambert director Mark Baldwin’s “Zulu musical” makes its West End debut at the Peacock Theatre. As ever, the marvellous Soweto Gospel Choir are very much on duty, as are current and former members of both Rambert and the Royal Ballet and Rambert. It’s the sort of show that critics want to gripe abut but wind up enjoying too much to do so.

Peacock Theatre, London WC2 (07863 8222), April 30-May 18

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Northern Ballet – The Great Gatsby

David Nixon’s spirited version of the F Scott Fitzgerald classic returns to the stage, complete with Chanel-inspired costumes and an original score by Richard Rodney Bennett. Might be just the thing as summer approaches.

The Lowry, Salford (0843 208 6010), May 8-11; Mayflower, Southampton (02380 711811), May 15-18

Royal Ballet

The Royal brings together three huge talents in one of the most promising evenings of 2019. Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour (to Vivaldi and Bossi) is a tried-and-tested abstract delight, while Crystal Pite’s 2017 masterpiece of compassion Flight Pattern (to Górecki) here gets its first revival. The first ever, as yet unnamed piece by all-time-great contemporary choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui completes the infinitely tempting package.

Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), May 8-21

Birmingham Royal Ballet 

The Royal’s itinerant sister company serves up an intriguing double bill of two new works: choreographers Laura Day, Kit Holder And Lachlan Monaghan’s reimagining of Prokofiev’s wonderful Peter and the Wolf; and Ruth Brill’s Seasons in our World, which delves into the relationship between the passing of the seasons and people’s lives, set to a new score by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian.

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (01242 572573), May 11, 12, then touring the UK until May 25

Rambert

A fascinating-looking triple bill from Britain’s leading contemporary dance company, now under the fabulously named Benoit Swan Pouffer. Wayne McGregor’s PreSentient (created for the troupe in 2002) joins forces with Hofesh Schechter’s blistering bellow of existential angst, 2007’s In Your Rooms, and a new piece by Marion Motin, the hip-hop-fancying choreographer for French wonder Christine and the Queens.

Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 (020 7863 8000), May 14-18

San Francisco Ballet

The fresh-faced, beguilingly theatrical West Coast company returns to Sadler’s for the first time since 2012. And, given that they’re now serving up a full four programmes, composed entirely of work (by big names such as Cathy Marston, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Liam Scarlett) created since then, dance fans would be mad not to give them a go. 

Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 (020 7863 8000), May 28-June 8

Royal Ballet

The Royal delves into its peerless back-catalogue for this mixed but loosely Russian-themed bill of works by three all-time greats. Fokine’s 1910 Ballets Russes masterpiece The Firebird (to Stravinsky’s coruscating score); Ashton’s heartbreaking Turgenev adaptation from 1976, A Month in the Country (to beautifully reworked Chopin); and Balanchine’s coruscating full-company, Bizet-propelled showpiece from 1947, Symphony in C.

Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), June 5-14

English National Ballet – Cinderella

Premiered by Dutch National Ballet in 2012, Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella is one of the smartest and liveliest adaptations of Prokofiev’s marvellous but tricky score. Here, ENB present it in a new, in-the-round version that (given their form with Swan Lake) might well come off a treat.

Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (020 7589 8212), June 6-16

Royal Ballet

A one-off show dedicated the Royal Ballet’s founding, astounding female principal and prima ballerina assoluta, Margot Fonyen (1919-1991). The Royal’s current great and good will perform The Firebird in its entirety, alongside snippets from many of the works created for her by Ashton and others – it should be a treat.

Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), June 8

Ballet Black

The super company founded to promote classically trained black and Asian returns to the Linbury with a programme that includes The Suit, choreographed by Cathy Marston, inspired by Can Themba’s South African fable of the same name, and set to a score pieced together by composer Philip Feeney.

Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, London WC2 (020 7304 4000), June 13-15

Birmingham Royal Ballet – Hobson’s Choice

As BRB’s long-serving director David Bintley hands over the company’s reins to Carlos Acosta, the company dusts off Bintley’s much acclaimed 1989 comedy, inspired by Harold Brighouse’s play. It will be fascinating to see how it stands up – certainly, its central theme of female empowerment could hardly be more perfectly perfectly of-the-moment.

Birmingham Hippodrome (0844 338 5000) June 19-22; Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 (020 7863 8000), June 28, 29