World Ballet Day 2020 – The Biggest Ever Global Celebration of Dance

Yasmine Naghdi of The Royal Ballet in class during World Ballet Day 2019 (c) 2019 ROH. Photograph by Gavin Smart

World Ballet Day 2020 will be the biggest ever celebration of global dance with a staggering 40 dance companies participating in this year’s unique live streamed event. The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and The Royal Ballet will be joined by dance companies from across the globe including Singapore Dance, Joburg Ballet, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre and Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico.

With COVID-19 guidelines changing daily in countries across the globe, the dance world has struggled to return to its stages and rehearsal studios. However, 2020’s World Ballet Day will bring us together, more than ever before, to celebrate our art forms and go exclusively behind the scenes of the world’s top ballet companies.

Each company will be streaming live rehearsals and bespoke insights in accordance with their respective local COVID-19 guidance. Watch via www.worldballetday.com or individual companies Facebook and YouTube pages (find fool list below) as well as via Tencent video in China.

The three main host Companies – The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and The Royal Ballet – invite audiences to experience morning class which, in the UK, will take place on the iconic Royal Opera House Main Stage. There will be exclusive interviews and access to backstage rehearsals as the Company prepares for The Royal Ballet: Live, the first series of live performances by The Royal Ballet in seven months.

Brian Maloney and Meaghan Grace Hinkis of The Royal Ballet during World Ballet Day 2019 (c) 2019 ROH. Photograph by Gavin Smart-min

The Royal Ballet itinerary

Presented by Royal Ballet dancers Alexander Campbell and Kristen McNally, The Royal Ballet’s itinerary includes:

Pre-recorded Class on the Royal Opera House Stage
George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky pas de deux, rehearsal with Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov
Cathy Marston’s In Our Wishes, rehearsal with Fumi Kaneko and Reece Clarke
Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour rehearsal with David Donnelly and Téo Dubreuil
Frederick Ashton’s Dance of the Blessed Spirts rehearsal with Fernando Montaño
Valentino Zucchetti rehearsing a new work Scherzo, performed by Artists of The Royal Ballet

There will also be interviews and insights celebrating Black History Month and The Royal Ballet summer community engagement programme Doncaster Dances.

The Australian Ballet itinerary

Following safety restrictions in place in Melbourne, Australian Ballet have recently returned to the Primrose Potter Australian Ballet Centre (with special permission from the Victorian Government). They will start their day with a Covid-safe morning ballet class to live piano. Followed by Bodytorque.Digital, an online series showcasing new choreography. Interviews will feature their Artistic Health and Education teams discussing the work they’ve been doing this year.

The Bolshoi Ballet itinerary

This year the Bolshoi dedicate their livestream to Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, as the theatre celebrates the composer’s 180th birthday. The stream will also include access to rehearsals of The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake (choreography by Yuri Grigorovich), The Nutcracker (choreography by Yuri Grigorovich) and Onegin (choreography by John Cranko). Morning classes will be led by theatre tutors Nadezhda Grachyova and Alexander Vetrov. There will also be interviews with Bolshoi dancers Svetlana Zakharova, Ekaterina Krysanova, Olga Smirnova, Artem Ovcharenko, Egor Geraschenko and the head of the ballet company Makhar Vaziev.

The Australian Ballet will kick off the livestream (2am GMT) before passing the baton to the Bolshoi Ballet (7am GMT) and on to The Royal Ballet (11am to 3pm GMT).

A full schedule from these global dance companies will be available via worldballetday.com

Join us as we celebrate the best creative teams, dancers and artistic communities across the world, bringing companies together to celebrate past, present and future.

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet said: ‘Since 2014 World Ballet Day has proved a wonderful platform for connecting ballet lovers across the globe and now, more than ever, this digital celebration of dance promises to unite us all as we face new, shared challenges across the world. My heartfelt thanks go to Ricki Gail Conway without whose generosity The Royal Ballet would be unable to present this highlight of the dance calendar. We look forward to celebrating the incredible talents of all the international artists involved and bringing our art form to audiences who are missing live performance.’