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

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

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 (593 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.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Dealing now with increasing judicial dangers

Ben Wickstrom 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

For years, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (“MACA”) has been engaged in a dispute with the Manitoba government over the workload of its lawyers. That dispute is expected to come to a head at the end of November, when two weeks of grievance hearings are scheduled.

We remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement with our employer. But if we cannot, our union’s lawyers are prepared to make our case. As those hearings approach, we want to explain how we got here, what is at stake, and why this dispute matters beyond the working conditions of our members.

These problems are longstanding and predate the election of Manitoba’s current government. Our concern with the current government is not that it created these problems, but that it is now responsible for addressing them.

Despite the evidence before it, the government has not meaningfully addressed the workload concerns we have raised throughout its time in office.

Is another goalie on Jets’ wish list?

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Is another goalie on Jets’ wish list?

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026

Kevin Cheveldayoff and company are down to the short strokes.

With the opening-day roster due on Monday afternoon, the Winnipeg Jets took steps on the weekend to get down to the final number.

As it stood on Sunday, the Jets were down to 24 healthy players in training camp after centre Danny Zhilkin and defenceman Henry Thrun were placed on waivers.

With a maximum of 23 spots available, the only things left to determine are whether the Jets are interested in claiming a more experienced goalie to serve as the backup to Stuart Skinner and if centre Brayden Yager will break camp with the big club.

Read
Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026

Legislation needed on vacant buildings

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Legislation needed on vacant buildings

Editorial 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

There is something deeply backwards about a system that lets a property owner keep a building boarded up indefinitely while neighbours are left to live with the consequences.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Furby Street residents fed up with inaction on drug houses

Carol Sanders 6 minute read Preview

Furby Street residents fed up with inaction on drug houses

Carol Sanders 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:39 AM CDT

Anxious Furby Street residents contacted the city and their elected officials Friday to — once again — report people coming and going from a boarded-up house they call a dangerous “drug centre” and “den of thieves” that’s just steps away from a house under construction.

Linda Zak, who was holding a yard sale with a group of neighbours Friday morning, described the trouble the home attracts, while a woman slumped on the front steps and a man standing in the yard yelled to someone inside it.

“It is a drug centre,” said Zak, 77. “We know that. A couple of days ago, a person lit the front on fire. Now, as you look at it, you can see where the facade was burning and they were trying to harm people inside.”

“We’re very concerned about it being next to the home this man is building,” she said, pointing to the two-storey that’s nearly completed. The boarded-up house is in the 500 block of Furby.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:39 AM CDT

Completely separating inmates unrealistic, inquest judge says in report on three Stony Mountain slayings

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Preview

Completely separating inmates unrealistic, inquest judge says in report on three Stony Mountain slayings

Erik Pindera 5 minute read 1:43 PM CDT

Nothing short of keeping inmates separated at all times could have prevented three unrelated prisoner-on-prisoner killings several years ago in Stony Mountain Institution’s maximum-security unit, an inquest judge has found.

Provincial court Judge Lindy Choy made the finding after overseeing an inquest earlier this year into the slayings of Adrian Fillion, 42, Michael Monney, 27, and Nolan Thomas, 26, all of which occurred at the hands of fellow maximum-security inmates in the federal prison just north of Winnipeg. The killings occurred when cells were unlocked, allowing inmates to briefly move around to other areas in the cell block.

“The overall impression I was left with from the (Stony Mountain Institution) witnesses was that management of inmates in a custodial facility is a very complex undertaking. There are clearly multiple levels of oversight involved in any decisions that are made and it is all done in a very structured manner,” Choy wrote in her report on the inquest, which was made public Tuesday.

“While maintaining complete physical distance between inmates at all times would have prevented the homicides from occurring, we know that from a social and psychological perspective, this is not generally realistic nor acceptable.”

Read
1:43 PM CDT

Khan cites infighting, quits as Tory leader

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Preview

Khan cites infighting, quits as Tory leader

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Updated: 9:56 AM CDT

Manitoba’s Leader of the Opposition is stepping down.

Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan announced late Monday afternoon he is quitting caucus and will sit in the legislature as an independent MLA, effective today.

He cited internal party fighting for his decision.

The former Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman survived a caucus confidence vote Friday. He said there were 13 votes for him to remain and six against, with one person absent.

Read
Updated: 9:56 AM CDT