Elegant passing of the baton for RWB’s 2025-26 season

Cornerstone production The Sleeping Beauty chosen by Lewis, staged by Stowell

Jen Zoratti By: Jen Zoratti Posted:

Advertisement

Advertise with us

It’s a new season at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/02/2025 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a new season at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Curated by outgoing artistic director André Lewis, the upcoming 2025/26 season announced this week will be the first under RWB’s new artistic director Christopher Stowell.

“Joining such a prestigious institution is a true privilege. I’m thrilled to build on its incredible legacy by bringing my own artistic perspective and values to RWB in the years to come,” Stowell said in a media release.

David Cooper photo Jaimi Deleau will perform in The Four Seasons in the mixed-repertoire program next spring.

David Cooper photo

Jaimi Deleau will perform in The Four Seasons in the mixed-repertoire program next spring.

“This season, crafted under André’s visionary leadership, sets a fantastic stage. Looking ahead, I am eager to deepen my connection with RWB’s artists and audiences through an exciting endeavour: staging my own production of The Sleeping Beauty next season.”

Stowell’s version of the classic ballet, choreographed after Marius Petipa to Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, will take the Centennial Concert Hall stage March 12 to 15, 2026.

The Sleeping Beauty — which tells the story of Princess Aurora, who is cursed by the malevolent Carabosse (whom Disney fans might know as Maleficent) but saved by true love’s kiss — was last presented by the RWB digitally during the 2021/22 season, owing to pandemic restrictions.

The 2025/26 season opens Oct. 9 to 12 with Hansel & Gretel from New Zealand choreographer Loughlan Prior. Set to an original score by Claire Cowan, this story ballet based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale goes from black and white to a riot of colour, thanks to sets and costumes by Kate Hawley.

Festive favourite Nutcracker will take up its annual Christmas residency at the concert hall Dec. 19 to 23, 26 and 27. Before that, it will spend a month on the road, taking holiday magic to Regina, Saskatoon, Ottawa and Vancouver.

Mainstage season concludes with a mixed-repertoire program April 30 to May 3, 2026, featuring James Kudelka’s The Four Seasons, choreographed to the Vivaldi masterwork of the same name, along with the Winnipeg première of Cameron Fraser-Monroe’s Segatem — which made its world première in New York City in the fall — and a new work from American choreographer Dwight Rhoden, founder of Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City.

The current season continues with Jekyll & Hyde March 6 to 9 at the Centennial Concert Hall.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Jen Zoratti

Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

 

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Jen Zoratti

Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

 

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Related Articles

RWB’s Indigenous Advisory Committee collectively resigns
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Anishinaabe lawyer Danielle Morrison co-founded the IAC in 2018.
RWB’s Jekyll & Hyde a delightfully dark, visceral ballet
MARK RASH PHOTO Logan Savard (left) as Dr. Henry Jekyll and Stephan Azulay as Mr. Edward Hyde in the ballet’s mesmerizing final pas de deux.
Steady hand, bold vision: For 30 years, André Lewis steered RWB toward adventurous artistic choices
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS André Lewis is retiring from the RWB after a long career as a dancer and then artistic director.

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Advertisement Advertise With Us

Report Error Submit a Tip

Advertisement

Learn more about Winnipeg Free Press Advertising solutions

More Stories

SUPPLIED Empty Bowls Celebrity Auction Dinner Co-Chair Lauren Harvey, left, with Harvest Manitoba President and CEO Vince Barletta, and Empty Bowls Co-Chair Margaret Redmond at the gala event that broke a Manitoba record for the largest gala fundraising total in the province’s history thanks to a five million dollar donation from Doug Harvey and his family.

Late philanthropist, family fill Harvest’s Empty Bowls with record-setting $5-M donation

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

Late philanthropist, family fill Harvest’s Empty Bowls with record-setting $5-M donation

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:54 PM CDT

It was a record-breaking night for Harvest Manitoba made possible by a genuine Winnipeg hero and his family.

The organization’s annual Empty Bowls Celebrity Auction Dinner on Thursday raised $6.5 million to support Manitobans facing hunger and food insecurity.

And it was a $5-million legacy donation from late city philanthropist Doug Harvey and his family that will see the event go down in the history books as the largest gala fundraising total ever recorded in Manitoba.

“There was literally nothing that lit my dad up more than contributing himself, but even more so, inspiring others to give,” his daughter Lauren Harvey said Friday.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 11:54 PM CDT

Puppies, stocks — ‘zoomies’ abound

Andrew Froese 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

This spring, I adopted a three-month-old rescued German Shepherd mix. To say she is easily excitable is an understatement.

It is not really her fault. A puppy’s frontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps with decision-making and impulse control, is still developing. When an older dog, or a human, gets tired, we generally understand we should rest. Puppies have not quite figured that out. They often interpret tiredness as a signal something is wrong, which makes them more alert, more reactive and harder to settle.

That creates a feedback loop. The puppy gets tired, which makes her frantic, which makes her more tired, which makes her even more frantic. Eventually, this becomes what people call the “zoomies”: frantic sprinting, biting, jumping and general chaos.

From the outside, it looks like the puppy has too much energy. In reality, the opposite is true. The zoomies are not a sign of excess energy. They are a sign the puppy is overtired and does not know it yet.

Bit of creepy consultation could go a long way

Maureen Scurfield 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Halloween has always been my favourite time of year. I do my house up with lots of spooky lighting and characters on the lawn with eerie sounds booming out.

But last year I got seriously hassled by some people in the neighbourhood who thought it was too creepy. How do I get them on board this year? I don’t want to fight with them again.

— Want to Be Good Neighbour, River Heights

Dear Good Neighbour: Go to your close neighbours and explain what you want to do with your yard for Halloween this year, and also provide them with a firm time by which the celebrating will wrap up and things can quiet down.

Business in brief: Kinew, Canadian ambassador to U.S. discuss trade

Free Press staff 2 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Canada’s ambassador to the United States met Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and local business leaders during a visit to Winnipeg this week.

Mark Wiseman and Kinew spoke about trade uncertainty with the United States and opportunities for Manitoba businesses, a government news release says.

The provincial U.S. Trade Council, the Business Council of Manitoba and part of the Premier’s Business and Jobs Council spoke to Wiseman about the impacts of trade uncertainty.

Province down 4,400 jobsEmployment dropped 0.6 per cent in Manitoba in September, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

SUPPLIED Security footage showing Cody Lamb’s car being stolen on Sept. 11 in Douglas, Manitoba.

Towing company hands stolen car back, but not to owner

By Matthew Frank 4 minute read Preview

Towing company hands stolen car back, but not to owner

By Matthew Frank 4 minute read Yesterday at 4:29 PM CDT

A Manitoba man says he is dumbfounded after his car was stolen, impounded by a Winnipeg towing company and given back — to someone that wasn’t him.

Cody Lamb lives in the western Manitoba community of Douglas, about 18 kilometres east of Brandon, but spends weeks away from home working on oil rigs in Alberta.

The 24-year-old says on Sept. 11, while away for work, he heard from his girlfriend who told him his car wasn’t in their driveway. Lamb reported the car stolen to Brandon RCMP the same day.

After filing the report, he heard from Steinbach RCMP on Oct. 1 that his car was recovered that day in the community of Mitchell, roughly five km west of Steinbach.

Read
Yesterday at 4:29 PM CDT
Yielding attraction

Yielding attraction

Joel Schlesinger 6 minute read Preview

Yielding attraction

Joel Schlesinger 6 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Yield is a Rorschach test for investors. Where one see opportunity in high payouts from an investment, another sees high risk.

Consider bonds: yields are moving higher, which implies higher risk in the market, but to an investor considering buying a bond, higher yields represent higher income.

For most of the past 18 years, bond yields have been near historical lows and investors have sought alternatives.

“Canada’s population is aging, with a growing number of investors approaching or entering retirement and looking for more income,” says Pat Sommerville, co-chief executive officer of Hamilton ETFs in Toronto.

Read
2:01 AM CDT