New Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director takes big leap with new season

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s forthcoming 2026/27 season will mark the start of a new chapter for the company: it’s the first to be entirely programmed by newly minted artistic director Christopher Stowell.

“My perspective on planning this season has been one of looking in the rear-view mirror because of the great history of the RWB, but then also really looking forward about how we can continue to be innovative and dynamic and distinct,” says Stowell, who began in the role last June.

“And the other thing is really wanting people in our community to be able to connect with us in a much broader variety of ways make it more easy, more accessible, more welcoming, less of a commitment, if that’s how they want it to be.”

The mainstage season will open in October at the Centennial Concert Hall with Stravinsky Stories, a double bill set to two pieces of music written for ballet by influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

The first is The Fairy’s Kiss, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky.

“There’s just so many good connections here. Alexei is one of the most important choreographers working today. He is Ukrainian, we have a huge Ukrainian community, and he used to be a soloist (and later principal dancer) with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet,” Stowell says.

“We haven’t done anything of his since he left (in 1995), so this feels like a big coup and a great way to open the season.”

Second on the bill is the world première of Firebird, based on the Russian fairy tale, by Toronto-born choreographer, dancer and RWB School alum Jera Wolfe and Chicago-born choreographer Houston Thomas.

“I’ve asked two choreographers to create Firebird because there’s sort of two worlds that exist in it, and I really wanted two different vocabularies,” Stowell says.

“They have really hit it off, the two of them, and have come up with really, really interesting concepts and ideas pulling the story into the 21st century. I hope this becomes a staple of our repertoire.”

Nutcracker will follow in December with its annual holiday homestand at the Concert Hall. It will also bring visions of sugarplums to several Canadian cities on tour.

For the ballet companies that have one, the annual production of Nutcracker isn’t just a tradition, it’s a tentpole, bringing in significant revenue for the year.

“And we have a beautiful Nutcracker that everybody loves,” Stowell says of Galina Yordanova and Nina Menon’s version that has been performed since 1999 and which, with its Mounties and polar bears, had its “elbows up” long before that was a thing.

“I got to know it a little bit this year and I think I might make a few tiny refreshments or something, just so it feels new to everyone in a new era.”

Swan Lake returns to the concert hall in March 2027 and, while the RWB’s costumes and sets will be familiar to audiences, the choreography will be Stowell’s.

His interpretation of Tchaikovsky-scored ballet blanc premièred in 2006 with Oregon Ballet Theatre and has been part of that company’s repertoire ever since, as well as that of the Orlando Ballet.

The season will close at the end of April 2027 with The Mix, a triple bill featuring George Balanchine’s Rubies, 5 Tangos by the late Dutch master Hans van Manen, who died in December, and a new work by Canadian choreographer Alysa Pires that will be a tribute to Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip, marking the 10th anniversary of frontman Gord Downie’s death.

“We’re still working out whether these are recorded songs or maybe newly orchestrated, but the soundscape will be inspired by Gord Downie,” Stowell says.

The RWB will also welcome a new music director this season, as Julian Pellicano moves on to the National Ballet of Canada. He’ll pass the baton to Ming Luke, the San Francisco-based conductor who has previously served as guest conductor for the RWB.

Beyond the mainstage productions, there will be other chances — and ways — for audiences to see the RWB, beginning in September with the debut of the Studio Series, which will be presented in the Founders’ Studio at RWB’s Graham Avenue campus.

“The idea here is: A) I want us to perform more, and B) I want us to perform in smaller venues where audiences can have a more intimate experience,” Stowell says.

In the inaugural instalment of the series, the company will perform Balanchine’s Who Cares?, choreographed to the music of George Gershwin.

The ballet’s songs — which include The Man I Love, My One and Only and I Got Rhythm — are typically performed by an orchestra. For this production, the RWB has teamed up with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Music’s Jazz Department. (Performances will take place at the Founders Studio at RWB, 380 Graham Ave. and at the Desautels Concert Hall at the U of M.)

“I have convinced the Balanchine trust that it will be interesting to do it with a jazz trio and a singer, so for the first time that I know of, the ballet will be done with the songs actually having vocal,” says Stowell, who, during his time as a principal dancer in the San Francisco Ballet, danced in almost every Balanchine work performed by the company.

With the Studio Series, Stowell wanted to give people an opportunity to come after work, relax, see some ballet, meet the artists and be home by suppertime.

“It’s just a commitment that maybe not everyone wants to make all the time, being at the concert hall from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. It’s also great for our dancers to have more things to dance and more audiences to connect with,” he says.

The Northern Lights Project, meanwhile, is a new initiative that will be delivered in partnership with the National Arts Centre, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Fall For Dance North Festival.

Canadian artists from across disciplines will have the opportunity to create a new work together, which will be presented in the Founders’ Studio at the end of March.

“The leaders of all those organizations are colleagues that I really admire, and they are all on board in wanting to create opportunities for Canadian artists to make work,” Stowell says.

“It’s also on my mind that Winnipeg is right in the middle of the country, and the RWB is the oldest dance organization. I want us to really step forward as a leader in what the dance ecology landscape of Canada needs and wants.”

That also includes addressing what happened with the Indigenous Advisory Circle.

Last February, the circle — composed of lawyer Danielle Morrison, two-spirit elder Albert McLeod and University of Winnipeg professor Kevin Lamoureux — resigned en masse, saying they were tokenized and boxed out of decision-making. RWB board member Tara Letwiniuk also resigned in solidarity.

The resignations happened shortly after Stowell was named the successor of outgoing artistic director André Lewis, a process the IAC says it was not included in. The RWB issued an apology on its website that said the company would be undertaking a third-party review.

“I’m very much in the conversation right now,” Stowell says. “We are working with Tipi Group, who is our consultant, and working on connecting with former members of the Indigenous Advisory Circle. Moving forward, we’re trying to do it slowly and thoroughly rather than rush anything, but it feels like the unfolding is going in a good direction.”

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