The 2026-27 season for New York City Ballet will feature the resurrection of a George Balanchine ballet not performed at Lincoln Center since 1969, five world premieres, the first New York staging of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Romeo and Juliet” and the final company performances of two acclaimed principal dancers.
The season, announced on Wednesday, includes 48 ballets in the fall and spring seasons — including 24 choreographed by Balanchine and five by Jerome Robbins, a cofounding choreographer of the company. It will begin and end with full-length performances of Balanchine works: “Jewels” in the fall and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the spring.
Jonathan Stafford, the artistic director of the ballet, said that “Jewels” “feels like the epitome of New York City Ballet. It’s such a good vehicle for our company.”
One of the retiring dancers, e Adrian Danchig-Waring, 41, who joined in 2003, will have his last performance in October — in a work created for the occasion by the choreographer Pam Tanowitz. And the other retiring dancer, Taylor Stanley, 34, a member of the company since 2010, will dance his farewell with the company on Feb. 28, in a program including the “Emeralds” section from Balanchine’s “Jewels.”
“They are beloved dancers who have really made their mark on the company,” Wendy Whelan, the associate artistic director, who curated most of the 2026-27 season, said in an interview.
In addition to Tanowitz’s new work, there will be world premieres at the fall fashion gala by Alysa Pires and Jennifer Archibald (this is Archibald’s first work for the company). The spring season features two world premieres, by Justin Peck, the company’s resident choreographer, and by Tiler Peck, a principal dancer with the company.
And in October, the company will perform a Balanchine rarity: “Pithoprakta,” with music by Iannis Xenakis, which was last performed by New York City Ballet in 1969. The ballet is being staged by Suzanne Farrell, who was a lead in the original with Arthur Mitchell.
Whelan said the piece hadn’t been performed in New York for so long, that for many patrons, “It’s going to be like a new ballet.”
“It’s a very different Balanchine work,” she said. “I watched and thought, ‘I can’t believe Balanchine choreographed this.’ It’s wild.”
The production is “very, very modern,” she added, while the music seems particularly apt for this unsettled era. “It is really out there. It feels of the time. It’s very nervous.”
Stafford said the dance would likely become part of the company’s regular repertory. “It allows the ballet to live on and have a future,” he said.
Ratmansky’s production of “Romeo and Juliet,” set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev, is new to New York and to City Ballet. (Peter Martins’s 2007 version, “Romeo + Juliet,” is retired for now, the company said.) Ratmansky created his for the National Ballet of Canada in 2011 and it has been performed by the Bolshoi since 2017. The New York version will feature new costumes, lighting and a set built for the David H. Koch Theater. “We are also very excited about what Alexei will pull out of our dancers,” Whelan said.
Adam Nagourney is the classical music and dance reporter for The Times.
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