Xander Parish launches the Nouveaux Ballets Russes with a new Swan Lake in Florence

Xander Parish, the first British dancer to become a principal of the Mariinsky Ballet, is co-founder and artistic director of a new international company, the Nouveaux Ballets Russes.

Announced at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 25 September, the company has been brought together and is funded entirely by the New Generation Foundation. It makes its debut in Florence in March 2027 with the world premiere of Parish’s new production of Swan Lake, co-produced with the Maggio.

The opening night falls almost exactly 150 years after the ballet’s first performance, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 4 March 1877.

A company in Diaghilev’s image

As the name suggests, the model is the Ballets Russes, founded by Sergei Diaghilev in 1909, whose collaborations with Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Coco Chanel broke down the boundaries between the arts. The new company intends to reinterpret the classical repertoire in bold, highly visual productions where dance, music, visual art, fashion and technology meet.

It also aims to bridge the gap between the leading ballet schools and the profession, giving young dancers stage experience at a decisive point in their careers. Auditions for the corps de ballet took place at the Teatro del Maggio on 26 September, with most candidates coming from Italy.

Roger Granville, president and co-founder of the New Generation Foundation, said the project opened a new chapter for the foundation, extending its commitment to opera, music and theatre through a privately funded company with long-term plans for new productions and international tours. He described Parish as “an exceptional artist and dancer with whom we wanted to establish an organisation of the highest artistic calibre”.

“At moments of fracture in history, culture gathers in the city of light,” Granville added, calling Florence, whose Renaissance courts gave rise to ballet, “a natural setting for this renewal”.

A Belle Époque Swan Lake

Parish sets his Swan Lake in the Belle Époque, in a visual world that draws on Surrealism, the legacy of Russian ballet and folklore, and artists such as Ivan Bilibin, Natalia Goncharova and Léon Bakst. Projection mapping, digital imagery and holographic scenery will be woven into the live performance, creating a world of illusion in which light, reflections, movement and images constantly shift.

Jean-Romain Vesperini directs, with sets by Bruno de Lavenère and video design by Étienne Guiol – both part of the artistic team behind the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Alain Blanchot designs the costumes, from Bal Princesses to Moulin Rouge Boys and Odile’s entrance. The principal cast includes Joy Womack, Vsevolod Maievskyi, Boris Zhurilov and Anastasia Matvienko.

The Maggio’s sovrintendente, Carlo Fuortes, said he was particularly pleased that a significant part of the theatre’s 2027 programme would be devoted to dance, with a company bringing together Russian, Ukrainian, British, American and Italian dancers, among others. “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,” he said.

Conlon’s first complete Swan Lake

James Conlon conducts the Orchestra del Maggio in all six performances. He admits he has conducted very few ballets, having concentrated almost entirely on the symphonic and operatic repertoire and on oratorio, and has previously conducted only the suite and the second act of Swan Lake.

He accepted at once, he said, because “it is a great masterpiece that I have always loved”. For Conlon, who has known the Orchestra del Maggio for more than 40 years, Tchaikovsky‘s score “is more than a magnificent work for dance: it is a true symphonic architecture, powerful and dramatic”.

After Florence, the production tours to Venice, Monte Carlo, Paris, London, New York and San Francisco, with further engagements in Asia.

Performances and tickets

Swan Lake, Nouveaux Ballets Russes, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence

• Sunday 14 March 2027, 5pm – world premiere
• Wednesday 17 March, 8pm – performance for schools
• Thursday 18 March, 8pm
• Friday 19 March, 8pm
• Saturday 20 March, 6pm
• Sunday 21 March, 3.30pm (afternoon subscription)

Tickets: stalls €80, €70, €60, €50 and €45; boxes €40; gallery €30; restricted view €15.

Gramilano Editor

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.