Last Updated on June 17, 2026
Youth Company of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera and The Royal Ballet School
Next Generation Festival, an annual Royal Ballet initiative which brings young dancers and choreographers from around the world to the Linbury Theatre, kicked off its 2026 edition with wondrous displays of talent from Vienna and London. The Youth Company of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera opened the festival, closely followed by The Royal Ballet School, in the first of two appearances at this year’s event.
The Royal Ballet School (RBS), currently celebrating its centenary year, dedicated this programme to the art of choreography, a key element of its curriculum since its very beginnings in 1926, and called it Creative Voices for the Future. And it is hugely to the School’s credit that all 10 new works created by the young students were original, accomplished and showed a wide range of sources of inspiration, from climate change to Broadway musicals.
The students’ works were sandwiched between five pieces by established choreographers – Kristen McNally, Andrew McNicol, Jessica Lang, Cathy Marston and David Bintley – performed by students at different levels of their RBS training.
I can’t pass detailed comment on all 10 pieces, so before concentrating on those closest to my heart, I’ll say unequivocally that I enjoyed all 10. I’ll start with There Is No Planet B, choreographed by Year 8 (12-13 years old) Will Florence to the voice of David Attenborough talking about climate change and how to reverse it, followed by music by Ludovico Einaudi. The young choreographer included British Sign Language in his piece, skilfully blending its gestures into the language of classical ballet. A very clever piece.
Loop 404, by Mirabelle Hogan of Year 9, was a witty take on what happens when technology refuses to cooperate. She marshalled her dancers in lines that dissolved into complicated formations, only to reform again, in a continuum of movement brought to an abrupt halt by the dreaded 404 message we’re all surely familiar with.
I also loved Tangle, partly because it was danced by one of my very favourite 60s soul/blues songs – ‘I Would Rather Be Blind’ – sung here by Michael Grimm, but partly, too, because I found it a very accomplished, grown-up work. Clovis Couillard of Upper School Year 2 (15-16 years old) created an atmospheric, loosely narrative piece, with strong characterisation for the woman at the centre of a love triangle, her partner and her new love.
Year 2 provided another strong piece, so strong, in fact, that it won the School’s Gillian Lynne Award for Choreographic Innovation. Entitled Dancing Fool, the work of Maria Caroline Ferreira Gaspar was a colourful homage to 1950s Broadway musicals, set to the Manhattan Singers’ eponymous song, and performed with exuberant joy and pizzazz.
In a welcome surprise, the evening included an appearance by Deborah (now Baroness) Bull, formerly a much-loved Royal Ballet principal, now an honourable member of the House of Lords, as the ballet teacher in Cathy Marston’s A Line in Reflection, which was set in a ballet studio.
Like many other junior companies, The Youth Company of the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera offers 12 dancers aged between 17 and 20 a transitional stage between school and life as professional dancers. The programme brought to the Next Generation Festival consisted of only one piece: Strauss 2225: Dances for the Future, by the cerebral Canadian choreographer Robert Binet.
This especially commissioned work marked the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, and was billed as exploring questions such as “how will we live in 200 years?’ “How will we dance?” And “how will we make music?”
Set to a medley of music by young contemporary composers, this was a one-hour-long dark, brooding piece, its various stages moodily lit by Stephan Kugler. To the last person, these wonderful dancers gave it their all, and they were never less than a pleasure to watch; but although often visually striking, Binet’s abstruse concept didn’t really answer any of the questions it posited, and to me it ended up saying how we will dance in 200 years is exactly how we dance now.
Furthermore, I always feel that young dancers should be offered material in which they can express the joy of dancing (take a bow, RBS), which is surely why they have embarked on such an arduous career. I was sad to note that, throughout Dances for the Future, the dancers were never offered the opportunity to smile…
Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera was at the RBO Linbury on 12 & 13 June at 7.15 pm
Dur.: One hour Tickets: £5 to £30
The Royal Ballet School is at the RBO Linbury 16 & 17 June at 7.15 pm
Dur.: 2 hours 15 minutes inc one interval. Tickets: returns only
Royal Ballet and Opera
Linbury Theatre
Bow Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 9DD
For more dance, check our ballet and dance previews
Leave a Reply