La Scala’s 2026-2027 Ballet Season announced
The 2026-2027 ballet season was presented at La Scala this morning by its director, Frédéric Olivieri.
The season offers seven programmes with nine works, including five premieres and four new productions.
Among these is Akram Khan’s Giselle, created in 2016 for the English National Ballet. A pas de deux from the ballet was well received at the Gala Fracci earlier this year.
The season opens with Rudolf Nureyev‘s The Nutcracker, and sees the return of George Balanchine‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Paquita by Pierre Lacotte, works that showcase the entire company.
In honour of the centenary of Maurice Béjart’s birth, La Scala dedicates a tribute with L’uccello di fuoco (The Firebird), Boléro, and Serait-ce la mort?, a title never before performed at La Scala. Alongside the repertoire, contemporary pieces include the Dawson / Morau Double Bill, and the Gala Fracci, the annual event dedicated to the memory of Carla Fracci, returns for two evenings.
The Season also marks the beginning of a collaboration with Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2027, with Mont Ventoux by the collective Kor’sia, which will also be performed for the first time by the La Scala Company.
Ballet Season 2026/2027
Preview Under30: 15 December 2026
17, 18 (2 performances), 23 (2 performances), 30, 31 December 2026; 3 (2 performances), 9, 10 (2 performances), 13, 16 January 2027
THE NUTCRACKER
Rudolf Nureyev
The new Ballet Season opens on 17 December with The Nutcracker, choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev. It was first seen at La Scala in 1969, with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, and the current production was introduced in 1987.
3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (2 performances), 14, 16 March 2027
GISELLE
Akram Khan
The acclaimed reinterpretation of Giselle by Akram Khan was created in 2016 for English National Ballet. Renowned for his visceral choreographic language, rooted in Kathak and contemporary dance, and considered one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists of our time, Akram Khan has reimagined the greatest Romantic ballet and its story of love, betrayal, and redemption, set within a migrant community. Although radically reinvented, the essence of Giselle continues to resonate in the sound universe and score of Vincenzo Lamagna, which incorporates elements of Adolphe Adam’s original.
8 April 2027
THE BALLET SCHOOL OF THE TEATRO ALLA SCALA ACADEMY
Once again this year, the students of the Ballet School meet the great masters of classical, modern, and contemporary repertoire. For the students, dancing at La Scala means not only testing their technical and interpretative abilities but also gaining a highly formative, professional experience on the stage they have dreamt about during their years of study.
7 and 9 May 2027
GALA FRACCI
Sixth Edition
The Scala continues to pay tribute to Carla Fracci, who has been and remains a central figure in the history of dance, an inspiration for generations of young people, not only in the world of ballet. Director Frédéric Olivieri is carrying on the tradition established in 2022 by Manuel Legris to celebrate dance in the name of this great star. In 2027, the sixth edition of the Gala will feature two dates dedicated to honouring Carla Fracci’s extensive repertoire of signature roles and the ballets she performed.
27, 28, 30 May; 1, 3, 5, 8 June 2027
DOUBLE BILL DAWSON / MORAU
The Four Seasons – David Dawson
Étude – Marcos Morau
Two parallel creative universes, rich in inspiration and imagination, converge on the stage of La Scala, which once again hosts David Dawson and, for the first time, Marcos Morau. These are two works never before presented in Italy. With Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, rearranged by Max Richter, Dawson creates a choral piece on the cycle of life, in continuous change of forms, colours, and lights, in spaces dedicated to each of the four elements, with his always profoundly human aesthetic approach. Drawing on classical ballet but deconstructing it in his own poetic style, Marcos Morau presents Étude, a recent work for the Paris Opera, exploring the relationship between darkness and light – the light that allows us to imagine and create despite doubts and shadows.
8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16 July 2027
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
George Balanchine
Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream entered the company’s repertoire 23 years ago and has surpassed 100 performances in Italy and abroad. The ballet is being brought back after a decade, with sets and costumes by Luisa Spinatelli. Balanchine created the work in 1962 –the first act develops the Shakespearean story, and the second is a long divertissement.
20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30 September 2027
TRIBUTE TO BÉJART
L’oiseau de feu
Serait-ce la mort?
Boléro
On the centenary of his birth and the twentieth anniversary of his death, La Scala pays tribute to Maurice Béjart with a trilogy of ballets that celebrates the imagination of the great choreographer and his absolute uniqueness. It features two of his most renowned, innovative, and groundbreaking works – L’Oiseau de feu and Boléro. Explosive choreographic and musical moments of great impact serve as a setting for Serait-ce la mort?, a delicate gem to be seen for the first time in Milan to the music of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Lieder.
5, 7, 9, 11, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 November 2027
PAQUITA
Pierre Lacotte
In a picturesque Spain of the nineteenth century, during the Napoleonic occupation, the forbidden love between the French officer Lucien d’Hervilly and the gypsy Paquita is crowned with a wedding after various adventures and revelations. Pierre Lacotte was a specialist in reconstructing the romantic repertoire, and in 2001, he restaged the ballet for Paris Opera Ballet with designs by Luisa Spinatelli. Its debut at La Scala came in 2025, with new designs by Spinatelli. It now returns to the stage, with its intricate plot serving as a showcase of great dance, lyricism, and virtuosity, culminating in the famous Grand Pas de Deux of the second act.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
