At 20, BalletX has matured into a contemporary ballet company with a national reputation. The company premiers numerous new works, regularly performs at the prestigious Vail Dance Festival, and has grown to 16 dancers.
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In 2024, one of its longtime supporters left the company $7.4 million.
Wednesday’s announcement of its 2026-2027 season is evidence of BalletX’s growth and inheritance.
The season will open on Nov. 4 with a new ballet by Loughlan Prior that delves into Prohibition-era Philadelphia. Prior, a New Zealand choreographer, created a work for BalletX’s virtual series during COVID, and, in 2024, choreographed Macaroni, a quirky piece somewhat set in Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia.
The November program will also include the return of Amy Hall Garner‘s 2023 Switching the Groove and 2025 Christian Denice‘s In the Wake.
The spring series opening March 10, 2027, will feature two world premieres. Noelle Kayser is making a work inspired by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, known for 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera.
Le Wang’s new piece will focus on whalefall, when a whale’s carcass falls to the ocean floor, creating a massive new food source for sea creatures. (Whalefall is also the title of an unrelated film to be released this year.)
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BalletX will also bring back Gregory Dawson‘s Sojourner for the spring.
The program at the Highmark Mann Center, opening May 21, 2027, looks especially exciting. It will be dedicated to the works of Justin Peck, the resident choreographer at New York City Ballet and three-time Tony Award winner for choreography.
The Peck works will include Become a Mountain, which BalletX has performed in recent years. The company also will perform the Philadelphia premieres of Peck’s 2012 ballet In Creases and his 2018 work Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
The summer season, opening July 7, 2027, will feature new works by South African choreographer and composer Mthuthuzeli November, Emmy-award winner choreographer Natasha Adorlee, and BalletX choreographic fellow Phoebe Jewitt.
If some of these dates seem far off, BalletX still has one more program this season. The 2026 summer series opens July 15 with the return of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s whimsical 2019 ballet The Little Prince.
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