Ballet West announces its 62nd season with Gothic thrills, Rolling Stones and a return to classic storytelling
Ballet West has unveiled its 2026-27 season — the company’s 62nd — with a lineup that mixes treasured holiday tradition, full-length narrative classics, and boundary-pushing contemporary work. Season subscriptions are now on sale, with six-ballet packages starting at $218, and existing subscribers can renew directly through the Box Office at 801-869-6900.
Notably, this season also marks Artistic Director Adam Sklute’s 20th anniversary with the company — and his final season at the helm. “To celebrate my twentieth anniversary, I’ve curated audience favorites, renowned classics, and contemporary gems that reflect the strength and diversity that defines Ballet West,” Sklute said.
The season kicks off with the return of “Dracula,” running October 23-31, 2026, at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre. Choreographed by Ben Stevenson to a score by Franz Liszt (arranged by John Lanchbery), the production is billed as “back by popular demand”. It blends old-Hollywood Gothic horror with lighthearted comedy and classical technique. Expect flying effects and theatrical pyrotechnics alongside the dancing — Front Row Reviewers called it a “Gothic Showstopper.” The nearly two-and-a-half-hour production, with two intermissions, is recommended for ages 8 and up.
November brings “Rolling With the Stones,” a program of five contemporary works running November 6-14. Highlights include the Utah premiere of Ulysses Dove’s elegiac “Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven,” set to Arvo Pärt, and the Utah premiere of Christopher Bruce’s “Rooster” — a stylish, athletic piece danced to a suite of Rolling Stones classics. The bill rounds out with Christopher Wheeldon’s “Je ne t’Aime pas” and “This Bitter Earth,” plus Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes,” set respectively to Kurt Weill, Dinah Washington (as arranged by Max Richter), and Rachmaninoff. Critical Dance praised “Rooster” as “diverse and eclectic.”
No Ballet West season would be complete without “The Nutcracker,” America’s first full production of the ballet, running December 4-26, 2026. Willam Christensen’s original 1944 choreography — now recognized as a Living Historic Landmark by the State of Utah — has been performed continuously by the company since 1955, set to Tchaikovsky’s iconic score. The New York Times has called it “one of the best Nutcrackers.” With dozens of performances across the holiday season (including matinees and evening shows nearly daily from December 4 through 26), it remains the company’s signature family event, recommended for ages 4 and up. Single tickets go on sale in September, with additional showtimes to be announced.
The new year opens with “Don Quixote,” February 12-20, 2027, Anna-Marie Holmes’ staging after Marius Petipa, scored by Ludwig Minkus. Set in the twisting streets of Seville, the comic ballet follows spirited Kitri and her suitor Basilio, punctuated by an all-male ensemble flamenco sequence performed to nothing but stomping feet and clapping hands. The Guardian dubbed it “heaps of fun.”
April is a particularly full month. “The Glass Slipper,” April 2-3, 2027, is the season’s Family Classics Series add-on production, performed by Ballet West II and students of the Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy. This hour-long, narrated telling of the Cinderella story, choreographed by Pamela Robinson-Harris to Prokofiev, is aimed at young audiences (ages 4 and up) as an introduction to live theater — and the Saturday, April 3 evening performance will be narrated entirely in Spanish.
That’s followed by “Carmina Burana,” April 9-17, 2027, pairing Nicolo Fonte’s staging of Carl Orff’s dramatic cantata with George Balanchine’s neoclassical “Symphony in C,” set to Bizet. The Balanchine work, described as “seeing the music, hearing the dance,” builds to a finale featuring all 52 company dancers in white tutus — a spectacle the Utah Arts Review called “stunning.”
The season closes in May with “Works From Within,” May 12-15, 2027, at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center rather than the Capitol Theatre. This is Ballet West’s dancer-choreographer showcase, in which company members selected through a competitive proposal and workshop process create and stage original works — a chance, as the marketing puts it, for “dancers to become creators.”
Subscription details: Six-ballet packages are priced by seating section, from $218 (Orchestra 5/Mezzanine 5) up through $781 (Grand Tier, Boxes, Premium Orchestra), with the top two tiers ($709 and $781) bundling in an annual $200 Storyteller Membership per seat.
Taken as a whole, the 62nd season focuses on what Ballet West does best: reliable holiday spectacle, full-length story ballets with international pedigree, and a true platform for both developing Utah talent (the Academy-driven “Glass Slipper”) and the company’s own dancers taking on choreographic roles. For subscribers and single-ticket buyers alike, it’s a season that spans horror-tinged theatricality, rock-and-roll contemporary dance, and pure classical showcase — proof that Utah’s flagship ballet company continues to diversify its repertoire while protecting its signature traditions, even as it prepares to bid farewell to the artistic director who shaped it for two decades.
