New Generation Foundation announces the creation and launch of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes

The Company will make its debut at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in March 2027 with the world premiere of a new production of Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Marking 150 years since the ballet’s first performance, the production will feature choreography by Xander Parish, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes, and will be conducted by James Conlon.

Auditions for the Company’s corps de ballet will be held on 26 September at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with the majority of candidates coming from Italy.

Florence, 25 September 2026 – The New Generation Foundation announces at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino the creation of the Nouveaux Ballets Russes, a new international ballet company brought together, supported and fully funded by the New Generation Foundation. The Company brings together some of the most distinguished dancers with international careers and training.

The Nouveaux Ballets Russes draw inspiration from the international and multidisciplinary spirit of the Ballets Russes, founded in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev. At the time, the Ballets Russes revolutionised the arts by bringing together some of the leading creative figures of the era, breaking down boundaries between artistic disciplines and expanding the expressive possibilities of ballet. Their groundbreaking collaborations with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Coco Chanel left a lasting mark on twentieth-century culture.

The Nouveaux Ballets Russes seek to bring that spirit into the modern era, reinterpreting the classical repertoire through bold, visually striking productions in which dance, music, visual arts, fashion and technology come together within a unified creative vision.

The Company is also committed to supporting the next generation of artists, creating tangible opportunities for young dancers at a pivotal stage in their careers and investing in the pursuit of artistic excellence. By building a bridge between leading dance schools and the professional world, the Company offers emerging artists the opportunity to gain experience, develop artistically and perform on prestigious stages. 

The Company will make its debut in Florence, at the Teatro del Maggio, on 14 March 2027 with a reinterpretation of one of the most iconic, celebrated and beloved works in the ballet repertoire: Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Produced in co-production with the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the production will be presented almost exactly 150 years after the ballet’s first performance, which took place at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 4 March 1877.

The choreography is by internationally acclaimed ballet star Xander Parish, with James Conlon conducting the Orchestra of the Maggio. The production is directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini. Set design is by Bruno de Lavenère and video design by Étienne Guiol, both members of the artistic team behind the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games; costumes are designed by Alain Blanchot. The principal cast includes internationally renowned dancers such as Joy Womack, Vsevolod Maievskyi, Boris Zhurilov and Anastasia Matvienko.

Auditions for the Company’s corps de ballet will be held on 26 September at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with the majority of candidates coming from Italy.

Set during the Belle Époque, the production develops a visual language drawing on Surrealism, the legacy of Russian ballet and folklore, incorporating the work and imagery of artists such as Ivan Bilibin, Natalia Goncharova and Léon Bakst. Innovative projection mapping techniques, digital imagery and holographic scenography will be integrated with live performance to create an immersive world shaped by illusion, in which light, reflections, movement and imagery are in constant flux, challenging the audience’s perception of reality.

Following its Florence performances, the production will embark on an international tour, travelling to stages in Venice, Monte Carlo, Paris, London, New York and San Francisco, with further engagements in Asia.

“With this important project, the New Generation Foundation is opening a new chapter in its history, expanding its commitment to opera, music and theatre through the creation of a new international ballet company, entirely privately funded and with long-term ambitions for new productions and international tours,” says Roger Granville, President and Co-Founder of the New Generation Foundation. “This important new Company was created together with Xander Parish, an exceptional artist and dancer, with whom we wanted to establish an organisation of the highest artistic calibre, capable of bringing together classical technique with contemporary choreography, design, fashion and technology.

“Parish, formerly a Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet, was the first British dancer to attain that position. At the heart of this project is the belief that art continues to have the power to transcend the divisions of history, bringing together different peoples and cultures through a shared ideal of beauty and humanity. In times of historical fracture, culture gathers in the city of light. Magnificent Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, where ballet itself was born in the Renaissance courts, provides a natural setting for this renewal.

“It is deeply significant that the Company’s baptism should take place at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, an institution synonymous with excellence in music and the arts, where the performing arts find their fullest expression and new projects are given an extraordinary opportunity to flourish.”

“I am particularly pleased that such a significant chapter of the Maggio’s 2027 programme will be devoted to dance,” says Superintendent Carlo Fuortes. “With the new production of Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the Nouveaux Ballets Russes will be born: a new dance company bringing together leading Russian, Ukrainian, British, American, Italian and other international dancers.

“Just as Paris was the city where the Ballets Russes were born in the 1920s, Florence will become the birthplace of this new Company in 2027. This is a project of extraordinary symbolic significance, produced in co-production with the New Generation Foundation, which looks to the future while further enriching the Maggio’s multidisciplinary vocation and reaffirming the role of dance within its artistic programme.”

James Conlon, who will conduct the Orchestra of the Maggio for the six scheduled performances, says:

“I have conducted very few ballet productions throughout my career, focusing almost exclusively on the symphonic and operatic repertoire and on oratorios. As for Swan Lake, which until now I have never conducted in its entirety, but only the suite and Act II, both in staged productions and in concert form, I accepted immediately because it is a great masterpiece that I have always loved. I also saw this invitation as an extraordinarily fascinating opportunity, with an almost symbolic significance, given that the production will be presented exactly 150 years after its first performance in Moscow.

“At the same time, I was very attracted by the idea of collaborating with a new international organisation such as the Nouveaux Ballets Russes, while also returning to the podium of the Orchestra of the Maggio. I believe that Tchaikovsky’s music for Swan Lake is not simply a magnificent score for dance, but a true symphonic architecture: powerful, dramatic and, quite simply, a masterpiece.

“Working with the new Company and with the Orchestra of the Maggio, whom I have known for more than forty years, will allow us to approach this work from a perspective free of clichés, supporting a modern, energetic and internationally minded choreographic interpretation.”