Olga Balakleets’s annual gala, founded in 2006, opens its third decade with dancers from The Royal Ballet to American Ballet Theatre on one Coliseum stage.
Dancers from ballet companies across Europe and America share one stage at the Ballet Icons Gala, at the London Coliseum in Covent Garden on Sunday 21 February 2027.
The pianist and producer Olga Balakleets founded the gala in 2006. She trained at the Royal College of Music and organised classical concerts before she added dance to her programmes.
For many years each gala took a theme. The 2017 edition marked Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, and the 2018 edition the bicentenary of Marius Petipa’s birth. The evening has since become a single celebration of dancers, with world premieres in most recent years.
The 2026 gala marked its 20th anniversary, and 2027 opens its third decade. The programme mixes classical ballet highlights, rarely performed pieces and works by contemporary choreographers.
The dancers come from The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. Others join from the state ballets of Berlin, Vienna and Bavaria, American Ballet Theatre and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. The English National Ballet Philharmonic Orchestra plays live.