World Ballet Day 2026: The Royal Ballet reveals how stories are made
Presented by Kristen McNally, the Royal Ballet’s three-hour livestream on 29 October goes into the rehearsal room to show how coaches pass roles on to new generations of dancers.
World Ballet Day returns on Thursday 29 October, with ballet companies around the world sharing filmed content online. This year’s theme is storytelling, following the journey from studio to stage.
The Royal Ballet‘s contribution is a three-hour livestream from the Royal Opera House, starting at 11.30am GMT. It looks at the people who keep ballet alive behind the scenes: the teachers and répétiteurs who coach dancers and hand choreography down from one generation to the next.
Company class goes live
As usual, the stream opens with a live broadcast of the Royal Ballet‘s daily company class. This is one of the most popular parts of World Ballet Day, showing the dancers at their morning practice before the day’s rehearsals begin. Royal Ballet Principal Character Artist Kristen McNally presents.
The art of coaching
After class, the livestream moves into the rehearsal studios. Former dancers and coaches from the company will lead rehearsals and talk about their work. Many of them learnt their roles directly from the choreographers, and they will share memories of performing those roles and of coaching them since then.
Coaches do more than stage a ballet. They guide each dancer and work to keep a piece true to its original form. They combine steps, technique and artistry with knowledge that often goes back decades. Through rehearsals and conversations, the stream will show how their experience shapes the way today’s dancers interpret their roles.
A centenary connection
The theme suits the centenary of the Royal Ballet School, which is being celebrated this year. Students from the school will appear during the day, along with dancers from Birmingham Royal Ballet, who will join the livestream from Covent Garden.
A global celebration
World Ballet Day began more than a decade ago as a collaboration between the Royal Ballet, the Australian Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet. It has since become a worldwide celebration, bringing companies, dancers and audiences together through livestreams and online content.
The Royal Ballet’s stream has British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation and audio description.
World Ballet Day 2026 takes place on Thursday 29 October. The Royal Ballet’s livestream begins at 11.30am GMT.
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 Italian ballerina 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.
