London City Ballet's Firebird at York Theatre Royal

York Theatre Royal has a double bill of ballet coming in September, and it carries a fair bit of firsts with it. London City Ballet brings Glen Tetley's Firebird to the Main House on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September, and the York season is actually the UK premiere of the work, which the theatre co-produced alongside the Opera de Vichy in France. The whole thing is part of the centenary celebrations for Tetley, the American choreographer who lived from 1926 to 2007.

It is a mixed bill rather than a single story. Firebird was originally made for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1981, and the original designer, the Olivier Award-winning John MacFarlane, has come back to revisit his 1981 designs for this revival. Sharing the stage is John Neumeier's new version of Ghost Light, his 2020 creation, being performed here for the first time outside the Hamburg Ballet. The guest artist for the run is Alina Cojocaru, who dances in Ghost Light at every performance. She is a former Principal of The Royal Ballet and former Lead Principal of the English National Ballet, and she won the Prix de Lausanne in 1997 at the age of fifteen.

There are three performances in total. Friday 18 September is at 7.30pm, and Saturday 19 September has a 2.30pm matinee followed by another 7.30pm show. Each runs about an hour and fifty minutes, and the youngest audience members it is aimed at are aged five and over. Tickets start at £15, so it is not an expensive night out.

If you want more than just the performance, there are two extras worth knowing about. A post-show discussion with the company follows the Friday evening show, and on the Saturday there is an open class that gives you a look at how the dancers warm up, rehearse and prepare before they go on. Between the two, the Friday is the one for anyone who likes to ask questions afterwards, while the Saturday is for anyone curious about what goes on behind the scenes.

It is worth a bit of context on the company and the building. London City Ballet was revived in 2023 under artistic director Christopher Marney after a thirty-year hiatus, and it was formerly the resident company at Sadler's Wells. York is an early stop on its 2026 tour, which continues in Bath, Cambridge, London and New York. As for the venue, York Theatre Royal is a Grade II* listed building that dates back to 1744, owned by the York Citizens' Theatre Trust and seating 750 people. It is a proper old theatre, and a fitting place for a UK premiere. With only two evenings and a matinee, it is a short run, so it is the kind of thing to book rather than turn up to.