On January 20th at Raffles London at The OWO, London City Ballet’s Artistic Director, Christopher Marney, greeted dancers, friends of the company, and media to share news of what to expect from the company in 2026.
Now striding into its third season under the leadership of Marney, London City Ballet’s 2026 season is set to be one of collaboration and new works.
A season highlight will see the company reviving Glen Tetley’s gothic Firebird, working with the original designer Johan Macfarlane, in the company’s first-ever co-production, seeing it partner with York Theatre Royal and the Opéra de Vichy, France.
The company will also appear at Salisbury International Arts Festival in June, and, for the first time outside the Hamburg Ballet, John Neumeier’s Ghost Light will premiere in the UK. Neumeire will visit the UK to work in person with the company and recreate the piece, marking his first visit to the UK in decades.
York Theatre Royal Chief Executive Officer Paul Crewes attended and shared that it was a real “privilege” and that by collaborating with the company, it shows the theatre’s intentions for the work they want to do with dance in the future and for the theatre to be seen as a “camp for dance theatre” going forward.
Collaboration was key for both Marney and the company. “I think it’s vital because we’re not just putting on classical ballet that, you know, we can take from the notation, and just sort of do and do over and over,” he said. “We’re working on mixed repertoire, and with that comes a different designer, a new choreographer or a stager for an older work. So the doors, you know, it’s like a revolving door. We’ve always got these wonderful artistic people who are coming from all sorts of different backgrounds.”
Tasha Chu will continue to work as artist in residence, and Ashley Page returns to present his exuberant Mephisto Waltz.
The company has seen growth not only in touring venues but also in its size. “Last year, we doubled our reach to towns and cities across the UK and on top of two London seasons at Sadler’s Wells and the Linbury Theatre, we were proud to give no less than 80 percent of our performances on tour outside of London – offering what I would hope is the best possible opportunity to reach new audiences,” Marney said.
During the season launch, it was announced that the company will embark on a European, UK and US tour beginning in Budapest in May this year, ending in the autumn season in the States. The tour will comprise over 30 venues, including the National Dance Theatre, Budapest; the Salisbury International Arts Festival; the Opéra de Vichy, France; York Theatre Royal; Bath Theatre Royal; and Sadler’s Wells. The full tour will be announced in April.
Marney continued, “And for those of you who aren’t aware, we go to venues, we don’t just parachute in, do the performance and then come back to London. We really try to build an audience who wants to be there. Our Saturday morning ballet classes have been very popular. We open up the doors to the auditorium, and we invite those coming to the matinee to watch the process of preparation for a dance before the show. This has been wonderfully insightful for audiences as we’ve been on the tour together.”
International star Alina Cojocaru will perform as a guest artist across the tour.
Positive strides have also been made by the company to increase its company size, now featuring 16 dancers, with Marney pleased to share that they were increasing dancers’ contracts from seven months to eight months.
Marney shared that he has noticed more dancers seeking freelance contracts and leaving long-term contracts with companies to explore other work post-pandemic.
He commented, “Since then, there’s been such a shift, and you see people feeling freer to move around more, have different experiences. And I love that because they’re with us this year for eight months, but then they come back with a different set of tools because they’ve worked somewhere else and done a different genre, or they’ve had an experience in a different country. So it all really feeds into the work, I think.”
For dancers who are shifting from companies or wanting to explore freelance dance options, he said, “I was always a freelance dancer, so it’s easy for me to say, but I find that dancers who have a bit of experience with a company under their belt, once people know that they are available and that they’re free to take on different types of work and that they’re interested, the offers and the interest starts coming.”
Marney added, “I mean, in London specifically, there is so much going on. And, you know, sometimes, yes, it’s picking up a couple of weeks of research and development on a project with no performance at the end of it. But then other times, you know, it’s performance-driven. I think if you do it, you have to also be prepared to supplement your income and your living conditions with things like teaching, coaching. It becomes different and it becomes important because you don’t have a paycheck at the end of every month. There’s the same paycheck. But I think taking the chance to do it was one of the best things that I did because it just meant, you know, I felt so enriched by being able to be available, manage my schedule, and work with the different people that I really wanted to.”
For more information on London City Ballet, head to londoncityballet.com.
By Jamie Body of Dance Informa.
