World Ballet Day returns on 29 October 2020 for a global celebration to unite the dance community as it faces the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Join us as we celebrate the best creative teams, dancers and artistic communities across the world, bringing companies together to celebrate past, present and future.
World Ballet Day launched in 2014 and returns in 2020 for its seventh year, showcasing the best of global dance and presenting an opportunity for audiences to go behind the scenes of the world’s top ballet companies including The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and The Royal Ballet. The full roster of participating companies will be announced in due course.
Each company will be streaming live rehearsals and bespoke insights in accordance with their respective local COVID-19 guidance via their Facebook and YouTube pages as well as via Tencent video in China.
2019’s World Ballet Day was the most successful year yet, with the event reaching 315 million social media users around the world.
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the global dance community with dancers unable to rehearsal or perform for many months. As new COVID-19 guidelines come into place, the dance world is slowly beginning to return to the stage and this year’s World Ballet Day will provide an exclusive insight into how dance companies are responding to these new ways of rehearsing, working and performing.
World Ballet Day 2020 invites audiences to experience morning class, which in the UK, will take place on the iconic Royal Opera House stage. There will be exclusive interviews and access to backstage rehearsals, as we prepare for The Royal Ballet: Live, the first series of live performances for The Royal Ballet in seven months. The Australian Ballet will kick off the livestream (2am GMT) before passing the baton to the Bolshoi Ballet (7am GMT) and on to The Royal Ballet (11am to 3pm GMT).
A full schedule from these global dance companies will be available via worldballetday.com
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet said:
‘Since 2014 World Ballet Day has proved a wonderful platform for connecting ballet lovers across the globe and now, more than ever, this digital celebration of dance promises to unite us all as we face new, shared challenges across the world. My heartfelt thanks go to Ricki Gail Conway without whose generosity The Royal Ballet would be unable to present this highlight of the dance calendar. We look forward to celebrating the incredible talents of all the international artists involved and bringing our art form to audiences who are missing live performance.’
Save the date for the most unique World Ballet Day to date!
The Royal Ballet’s presentation is made possible through the generous philanthropic support of Ricki Gail Conway.
Featured image : World Ballet Day 2019. ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ rehearsal (c) 2019. ROH. Photograph by Gavin Smart