Philadelphia Ballet’s 2026-27 season brings the fireworks for America’s 250th birthday
The company is focusing on American classics and favorites by Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, and, of course 'The Nutcracker.' It will also finally move into its new home on North Broad Street.
The United States is celebrating its Semiquincentennial this year, and Philadelphia Ballet will be bringing the fireworks in its 2026-27 season opener, the company announced Tuesday.
Instead of commissioning new work, the company is leaning into American classics and other favorites, while also finally establishing a home for itself on North Broad Street.
The season will open Oct. 8-11 with a celebratory, all-Americana program called “Stars and Stripes Forever.” It will include Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, the concert version of George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Eliot Feld’s Variations on ‘America,’ and Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes.
The ballet returns to the Academy of Music the following week with a mixed repertory bill on Oct. 15-18. That program will feature Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, and Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room.
December will, of course, see the return of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, which will take place Dec. 4-31.
Next year’s spring will be devoted to full-length story ballets.
On March 4-14, Philadelphia Ballet will bring back Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella.
And the season will wrap up April 29-May 9 with the return of artistic director Angel Corella’s Don Quixote.
The company is also finally expecting to open its new home on North Broad Street. The Philadelphia Ballet Center for Dance is planning its opening in September. Along with studios, offices, space for its wardrobe team, and two wellness centers (one for company dancers, another for ballet students), it will include a black-box theater and gathering space called the Barbara Weisberger Dance Innovation Lab, named after the company’s late founder.