International Draft Works gives new choreography its earliest test, made on Royal Ballet dancers and shown once each in the Linbury Theatre.
International Draft Works shows new choreography in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, from Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 April 2027.
Choreographers learn their craft by being given dancers and a room. Few companies will risk a main stage on someone untested, and the Royal Ballet set up its workshop strands for that reason.
This is the outward-facing strand. The pieces come from choreographers in other companies and countries, are made on Royal Ballet dancers and are presented as unfinished. Each is performed once.
The Royal Ballet has run the strand for more than a decade. Several of its resident and associate choreographers were first seen in it. Some of the works that later reach the Main Stage started in a programme like this one.
The Linbury Theatre holds four hundred. The audience is largely dancers, choreographers and people who follow the repertoire closely, and the three nights show choreographers at the start of their careers.