The National Ballet of Canada

Choreographic Associate Robert Binet Creates New Immersive Work

Co-Produced by The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet 

April 26, 2023… Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, announced today that Choreographic Associate Robert Binet has been commissioned to create a new immersive work, Dark With Excessive Bright, co-produced by The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet. 

“I am immensely grateful to Hope Muir and Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, for supporting my vision for this new production. The full-evening immersive work will premiere in London at The Royal Opera House next February and then will have its premiere at home in Toronto with The National Ballet of Canada at a later date,” said Binet. “Working with my long-term collaborator, composer Missy Mazzoli, and brilliant set designer and architect Shizuka Hariu to build this world is already proving to be a rich creative process and I cannot wait to share it with dancers from both companies.” 

Dark With Excessive Bright will make its world premiere at The Royal Ballet’s Festival of New Choreography presented in the Linbury Theatre in London, UK. The festival embraces and champions new and diverse choreographic voices and will take place February 12 – 21, 2024.  

Set to music by Missy Mazzoli with designs by Shizuka Hariu, Dark With Excessive Bright will build on the success of Binet’s The Dreamers Ever Leave You created in 2016, which created an intimate exchange between dancers and audiences. It was originally performed in immersive settings at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and later at Printworks in London. 

Robert Binet Biography > 
Festival of New Choreography > 

– 30 –

The original presentation of The Dreamers Ever Leave You was co-produced by the Art Gallery of Ontario and The National Ballet of Canada and generously supported by Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan, Kevin Garland, Joan & Jerry Lozinski and The Honourable Margaret Norrie McCain, C.C.

The National Ballet of Canada gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council; the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council; the Government of Canada – Department of Canadian Heritage, through The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism; and the Government of Ontario through The Honourable Neil Lumsden, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. 

Robert Binet. Photo by Karolina Kuras.

For more information, please contact: