Nouveaux Ballets Russes - A New Ballet Company Is Born

‍ The New Generation Foundation announces the establishment of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes

The Company will make its debut at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in March 2027 with the world premiere of a new production of Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Marking 150 years since the ballet’s first performance, the production will feature choreography by Xander Parish, Artistic Director and co-founder of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes, with James Conlon conducting.

Florence, 25 September 2026 – The New Generation Foundation announces the launch of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.  Brought together, supported and funded entirely by the New Generation Foundation, the new international company will bring together dancers with international careers and training.

The Nouveaux Ballets Russes draws inspiration from the international and multidisciplinary spirit of the Ballets Russes, founded in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev. The Ballets Russes transformed the arts by bringing together the foremost creative figures of their time, crossing boundaries between disciplines and expanding the expressive possibilities of ballet. Their innovative collaborations with artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Coco Chanel left a lasting mark on twentieth-century culture.

The Nouveaux Ballets Russes seeks to carry that spirit into the present, reinterpreting the classical repertoire through bold, visually compelling productions in which dance, music, visual art, fashion and technology come together in a single creative vision. The Company is also committed to supporting the next generation, creating meaningful opportunities for young dancers at a decisive stage in their careers and investing in artistic excellence. Bridging the gap between leading ballet schools and the professional world, it gives emerging artists the chance to gain experience, develop artistically and perform on major stages.  

The Company will make its debut in Florence at the Teatro del Maggio on 14 March 2027 with a new interpretation of one of the best-known and most beloved works in ballet, “Swan Lake” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Co-produced with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the production will be staged almost exactly 150 years after the ballet’s first performance, which took place at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 4 March 1877.

The choreography is by internationally acclaimed ballet star Xander Parish, Maestro James Conlon conducts the Orchestra del Maggio, and stage direction by Jean-Romain Vesperini. The sets are by Bruno de Lavenère, with video design by Étienne Guiol. Both were members of the artistic team for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Costumes are by Alain Blanchot. The principal cast includes internationally renowned dancers Joy Womack, Vsevolod Maievskyi, Boris Zhurilov and Anastasia Matvienko.

Auditions for the corps de ballet will take place on 26 September at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with the majority of candidates coming from Italy.

Set in the Belle Époque, the production develops a visual language that draws on Surrealism, the legacy of Russian ballet and folklore, including the work of artists such as Ivan Bilibin, Natalia Goncharova and Léon Bakst. Innovative projection mapping, digital imagery and holographic scenery will be integrated with live performance to create an immersive world shaped by illusion, in which light, reflections, movement and images continually shift, challenging the audience’s perception of reality.

Following the Florence performances, the production will embark on an international tour, appearing on stages in Venice, Monte Carlo, Paris, London, New York and San Francisco, with further engagements in Asia.

“With this major project, the New Generation Foundation opens a new chapter in its history, extending its commitment to opera, music and theatre through the founding of a new international ballet company, funded entirely by private sources and with long-term ambitions for new productions and international tours,” says Roger Granville, President and co-founder of the New Generation Foundation. “This important new Company was created together with Xander Parish, an exceptional artist and dancer with whom we wanted to establish an organisation of the highest artistic calibre, bringing together classical technique with contemporary choreography, design, fashion and technology. A former principal dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet, Parish was the first British dancer to attain that position. At the heart of this project is the belief that art still has the power to transcend the divisions of history, bringing people and cultures together through a shared ideal of beauty and humanity. At moments of fracture in history, culture gathers in the city of light. Magnificent Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, whose courts gave rise to ballet, provides a natural setting for this renewal. It is significant that the Company should make its debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, an institution synonymous with excellence in music and the arts, where the performing arts find their fullest expression and new projects have an extraordinary opportunity to flourish.”

“I am particularly pleased that a significant part of the Maggio’s 2027 programme will be devoted to dance,” says Superintendent Carlo Fuortes. “With the new production of Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the Nouveaux Ballets Russes will come into being: a new ballet company bringing together outstanding Russian, Ukrainian, British, American and Italian dancers, as well as dancers of other nationalities. Just as Paris in the 1920s was the city where the Ballets Russes were born, Florence will become the birthplace of this new Company in 2027. A project of extraordinary symbolic value, co-produced with the New Generation Foundation, it looks to the future and further enriches the Maggio’s multidisciplinary character, reaffirming the place of dance in its artistic programme.”

James Conlon, who will conduct the Orchestra del Maggio in all six scheduled performances, says: “I have conducted very few ballet performances during my career, having focused almost exclusively on the symphonic and operatic repertoire and on oratorios. As for Swan Lake, which I have never conducted in full, only the suite and the second act, both in staged productions and in concert, I accepted immediately because it is a great masterpiece that I have always loved. I saw this invitation as an extraordinarily appealing opportunity, with an almost symbolic significance, given that the production will be staged exactly 150 years after the first performance in Moscow. I was also very drawn to the idea of working with a new international company such as the Nouveaux Ballets Russes while conducting the Orchestra del Maggio. I believe Tchaikovsky’s score for Swan Lake is more than a magnificent work for dance: it is a true symphonic architecture, powerful and dramatic, and indeed a masterpiece. Working with the new Company and with the Orchestra del Maggio, which I have known for more than forty years, will allow us to approach this work from a fresh perspective, in support of a modern, energetic choreography with an international outlook.”

World premiere: Sunday, 14 March 2027, 5.00 pm (Subscription A)

Further performances: Wednesday, 17 March, 8.00 pm, performance reserved for schools

Thursday, 18 March, 8.00 pm (Subscription B) – Friday, 19 March, 8.00 pm – Saturday, 20 March, 6.00 pm – Sunday, 21 March, 3.30 pm (matinee subscription)

Ticket prices:

Stalls 1: €80 – Stalls 2: €70 – Stalls 3: €60 – Stalls 4: €50 – Stalls 5: €45
Boxes: €40 – Gallery: €30 – Restricted view: €15

Contacts:

For International Press Enquiries:

Sophie Balfour-Lynn

Email: sophiebl@suttoncomms.com

Tel: +44 (0) 7595 217 616

Elisa Nello, Events and Communications Officer, New Generation Foundation

Email: en@newgenerationfoundation.com

Tel: +39 3664051903

Paolo Klun, Head of Communications, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Email: p.klun@maggiofiorentino.com

Tel: +39 335 173 6860 – 055 2779251

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