New York Metropolis Ballet’s 2026 Winter Season will open on Tuesday, January 20, and proceed for six weeks of performances, by way of Sunday, March 1 on the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Middle.
The season will function 18 ballets together with 2 World Premieres, which would be the 499th and 500th unique works created for the Firm since its founding in 1948. The primary premiere, by NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, will happen on Thursday, January 29. The second premiere, by NYCB Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, will happen on Thursday, February 5.
“In reaching this unbelievable milestone of 500 unique ballets, which is a testomony to the Firm’s unparalleled historical past of creativity and its enduring contributions to the world of dance, we’re thrilled that the 499th and five hundredth new works created for the Firm shall be choreographed by our present resident artists, Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky, and can premiere only one week aside this winter,” mentioned NYCB Inventive Director Jonathan Stafford and Affiliate Inventive Director Wendy Whelan.
Along with the five hundred new works created for the Firm because it was based by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1948, NYCB has additionally carried out almost 70 extra ballets created for different firms. These embody masterpieces by the Firm’s co-founding choreographers, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, that had been choreographed previous to 1948, and ballets by extra choreographers that entered the NYCB repertory after first being carried out elsewhere. With the addition of the 2026 Winter Season World Premieres by Peck and Ratmansky, NYCB may have carried out a complete of 571 works throughout its historical past.
The opening evening program on Tuesday, January 20 will function two early ballets by Balanchine, Serenade (1934) and Prodigal Son (1929). This system may also function one of many latest additions to the NYCB repertory, Ratmansky’s Paquita, which premiered throughout the 2025 Winter Season. Ratmansky’s Paquita was initially paired with Balanchine’s Minkus Pas de Trois from 1951. For the 2026 Winter Season, solely Ratmansky’s Paquita, impressed by the Grand Pas from Marius Petipa’s 1881 staging of the full-length ballet, shall be carried out.
The second program of the 2026 Winter Season, which is able to debut on Friday, January 23, will function Balanchine’s Kammermusik No. 2 (1978), Le Tombeau de Couperin (1975), and Raymonda Variations (1961). This system may also embody Robbins’ Vintage Epigraphs (1984).
The second week of the 2026 Winter Season shall be highlighted by the World Premiere of The Wind-Up by Justin Peck on Thursday, January 29. Peck’s new ballet, his twenty sixth for NYCB, shall be set to the primary motion of Ludwig van Beethoven’s landmark Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). The ballet will premiere on a program that may also function Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet, August Bournonville’s Flower Pageant in Genzano Pas de Deux, and Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer.
The third week of the season shall be highlighted by the World Premiere of The Bare King by Alexei Ratmansky on Thursday, February 5. Ratmansky’s new ballet, his ninth for NYCB, shall be set to Jean Françaix’s Le Roi Nu, which was impressed by the Hans Christian Andersen folktale The Emperor’s New Garments, and was composed in 1935 for a ballet by Serge Lifar that premiered on the Paris Opera Ballet the next 12 months. The ballet will premiere on a program with two works by Justin Peck: Dig the Say and In all places We Go; and Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth.
The fourth and fifth weeks of the season shall be highlighted by 14 performances of Peter Martins’ full-length manufacturing of The Sleeping Magnificence, from Wednesday, February 11 by way of Sunday, February 22. Set to Tchaikovsky’s beloved rating, the manufacturing was created in 1991. The ballet, which options greater than 100 dancers, together with college students from the College of American Ballet, is one in every of NYCB’s largest and most lavish productions.
The ultimate week of the 2026 Winter Season shall be highlighted by a program that can debut on Thursday, February 26 that includes two masterpieces created for NYCB by the Firm’s co-founding choreographers within the Nineteen Sixties: Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering (1969) and Balanchine’s Diamonds (1967), the ultimate part of the three-part Jewels.
All NYCB performances will function the 62-piece New York Metropolis Ballet Orchestra beneath the management of Music Director Andrew Litton and can happen on the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Middle, which is situated at West 63rd Road and Columbus Avenue.
Tickets can be found on-line at nycballet.com, by telephone at 212-496-0600, or on the theater’s field workplace. For full program info go to nycballet.com.
