Choreographer Pam Tanowitz and Royal Ballet principal William Bracewell make a new work together at the Linbury Theatre, built on him rather than for him.
Choreographer Pam Tanowitz and Royal Ballet principal William Bracewell open a new work at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, from Saturday 6 to Saturday 13 February 2027.
Tanowitz was born in the Bronx in 1969 and took her first ballet class in high school. For thirty years she has used the classical vocabulary without the story, the mime or the hierarchy that normally come with it.
Martha Graham’s company, Paul Taylor’s and New York City Ballet have all commissioned her. Her Four Quartets, set to Eliot, is the piece most often named as the reason she matters.
Bracewell came to the Royal Ballet from Birmingham and has spent recent seasons in the roles that define a principal’s range.
The commission is unusual because the two build the work between them. A choreographer of Tanowitz’s standing normally arrives with a piece and teaches it, so this one is made on Bracewell rather than for him.
The run is short and the Linbury Theatre holds 400, a scale for watching one classical dancer reworked by a choreographer from outside his tradition.