2013/14 Season

One of the central works of the classical ballet canon, and one of the most enduringly resonant and deeply affecting of all works of theatrical art, Swan Lake has enthralled audiences since its premiere in Moscow in 1877. Set to a timeless and famously evocative score by Tchaikovsky, the ballet is marked by a thematic and stylistic dynamism that embraces the fantastic and mythic while remaining rooted in the most universal of human emotions.

The National Ballet of Canada’s Innovation series presents three cutting edge world premieres by exceptional Canadian choreographers in one dazzlingly eclectic programme of dance. This season the series features the outstanding and singular talents of Robert Binet, José Navas and James Kudelka.

The National Ballet’s sumptuous, comical, touching and spellbinding version of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Christmas tale was created in 1995 and has been enthralling audiences – especially children – ever since.

It is a refreshingly traditional version of the story...

Edmonton-born Azure Barton’s delicately layered but vigorously imagined Watch her dazzled audiences when it premiered with The National Ballet of Canada in 2009. Set to Lera Auerbach's interpretation of Pergolesi’s famous Dialogues on Stabat Mater, the work is a mesmerizing evocation of a spiritual state achieved ...

One of the central works of the classical ballet canon, and one of the most enduringly resonant and deeply affecting of all works of theatrical art, Swan Lake has enthralled audiences since its premiere in Moscow in 1877. Set to a timeless and famously evocative score by Tchaikovsky, the ballet is marked by a thematic and stylistic dynamism that embraces the fantastic and mythic while remaining rooted in the most universal of human emotions.

John Cranko was one of modern ballet’s greatest interpreters of literary works, and his trademark skill with drama, character and the unfolding and shaping of narrative was never more fully displayed than in his 1965 version of Alexander Pushkin’s classic verse novel Eugene Onegin. Employing the arch-romantic sonorities of Tchaikovsky’s music, Cranko breathes fresh and insightful life into the story of the jaded aristocrat Eugene Onegin...

Michel Fokine’s landmark 1911 ballet Le Spectre de la Rose has been lavishly re-imagined by the exciting young Choreographer-in-Residence with Stuttgart Ballet, Marco Goecke...

Many choreographers have been drawn to the Cinderella story as a ballet subject, and for very good reason. Replete with themes of transformation, love thwarted and found, familial discord, broad humour and wonderfully malleable characterization, the story offers a rich palette of dramatic and comedic opportunity. As well, the surprising, shape-shifting ebullience of Prokofiev’s...