National Ballet of Canada welcomes new principals, Adieu, new season

Three new principals will join The National Ballet of Canada for the 2025-2026 season, the Toronto-based company announced on 16th May 2025.

Chase O'Connell and Beckanne Sisk will join from the Houston Ballet. Agnes Su will join from The Stuttgart Ballet.

Meanwhile, Principal Guillaume Côté will soon take a final bow in the triple bill titled Adieu after 26 years with The National Ballet of Canada. The programme will run from 30th May to 5th June 2025. Earlier in the current 2024-2025 season, Principal Jurgita Dronina and First Soloist Chelsy Meiss retired from the stage.

2025-2026 SEASON

The National Ballet of Canada has made its 2025-2026 season programmes available. I do not know when it was announced.

The new season opens with the world premiere of Procession, a new work by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. Procession, co-production with The Royal Danish Ballet, will tour to Ottawa later in the season.

The full-length works to be performed are The Winter's Tale by Christopher Wheeldon, The Nutcracker by James Kudelka and Pinocchio by Will Tuckett.

The double bill in February-March 2026 will feature Canada's pride Crystal Pite’s Flight Pattern and Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc. To my surprise, Flight Pattern, which was created for The Royal Ballet in 2017, makes a North American premiere in this double bill.

I watched the second or third performance of Flight Pattern with The Royal Ballet in 2017. It was mind-bendingly sublime and thought-provoking it gave me goosebumps.