Shakespeare Ballets

Choreographers have been creating ballets and other dance works based on, or inspired by, Shakespeare’s plays since the eighteenth century (dates are premieres):

All’s Well That Ends Well 

  • 1869 – d’Auban and Warde troupes

Anthony and Cleopatra

  • 1765 – Jean-Georges Noverre, Antoine et Cléopâtre
  • 1808 – Jean-Pierre Aumer, Antony et Cléopâtre

As You Like It

  • 1981 – Paul Taylor, “Arden Court”
  • 1985 – John Neumeier
  • 2010 – Donna and Hannah Bontrager, As You Like It: A Wild West Ballet

Coriolanus

  • 1804 – Salvatore Viganò, Coriolano

Hamlet

  • 1788 – Francesco Clerico
  • 1816 – Louis Henry
  • 1934 – Bronislava Njinska
  • 1942 – Robert Helpmann
  • 1950 – Victor Gsovsky
  • 1970 – Konstantin Sergeyev
  • 1971 – Vakhtang Chabukiani
  • 1976 – John Neumeier, Hamlet-Connotations
  • 1976, 1985, 1997 – John Neumeier
  • 1988 – Kenneth MacMillan, Sea of Troubles
  • 1992 – Jonathan Taylor
  • 1993 – Barry Moreland
  • 1994 – Svetlana Voskresenskaia
  • 2008 – David Nixon
  • 2008 – Oksana Titova
  • 2015 – Radu Poklitaru and Declan Donnellan

Henry V

  • 2004 – David Gordon, “Dancing Henry Five”

Julius Caesar

  • 2005 – Lawrence Goldhuber, Julius Caesar Superstar

King Lear

  • 1957 – John Cranko, The Prince of the Pagodas
  • 1989 – Kenneth MacMillan, The Prince of the Pagodas
  • 1989 – Kerala Kalamandalam, Kathakali King Lear
  • 1994 –  Maurice Béjart, King Lear-Prospero
  • 2015 – Igor Dobrovolskiy

Macbeth

  • 1785 – Charles Le Picq
  • 1979, 1985 – Pina Bausch
  • 1980 – Vladimir Vasiliev

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  • 1876 – Marius Petipa
  • 1895 – Carlo Coppi, Titania
  • 1906 – Mikhail Fokine
  • 1913 – Lydia Kyasht [Kyaksht], Titania
  • 1962 – George Balanchine 
  • 1964 – Frederick Ashton, The Dream 
  • 1976- 1996 – Heinz Spoerli (four versions)
  • 1977 – John Neumeier
  • 1989 – László Seregi
  • 1990 – Harold Collins
  • 1993 – Bruce Wells
  • 1993 – Veronica Paeper
  • 1997 – Christopher Wheeldon
  • 2000 – Mauro Bigonzetti
  • 2000 – Jorma Elo
  • 2006 – Chrissie Parrott
  • 2008 – François Klaus

Othello

  • 1818 – Salvatore Viganò, Otello
  • 1949 – José Limón, The Moor’s Pavane
  • 1955 – Erika Hanka
  • 1956 – Tatjana Gsovsky
  • 1959 – Jiri Nemecek
  • 1957 – Vakhtang Chabukian, The Moor of Venice
  • 1968 – Gary Welch
  • 1985 – John Neumeier
  • 1994 – Dmitri Bryantsev
  • 1997 – Lar Lubovitch
  • 2007 – Kirk Peterson
  • 2010 – Marina Kesler
  • 2012 – Doug Elkins, “Mo(or)town Redux”

Pericles

  • 2009 – John Farmanesh-Bocca and Not Man Apart, Pericles Redux

Romeo and Juliet

  • 1785 – Eusebio Luzzi
  • 1811 – Vincenzo Galeotti
  • 1938 – Ivo Vana-Psota
  • 1940 – Leonid Lavrovsky
  • 1943 – Antony Tudor
  • 1955 – Frederick Ashton
  • 1962 – John Cranko
  • 1965 – Kenneth MacMillan
  • 1971, 1981 – John Neumeier
  • 1977 – Rudolf Nureyev
  • 1977 – Michael Smuin
  • 1979 – Yuri Grigorovich
  • 1985 – László Seregi
  • 1991 – Sean Lavery, the balcony scene
  • 1996 – Jean-Christophe Maillot, Roméo et Juliette
  • 2003 – Radu Poklitaru and Declan Donnellan
  • 2007 – Peter Martins, Romeo + Juliet 
  • 2008 – Krzysztof Pastor
  • 2008 – Mark Morris, also premiere of original Prokofiev score
  • 2009 – Cathy Marston, Julia und Romeo
  • 2011 – Alexei Ratmansky

The Taming of the Shrew

  • 1954 – Maurice Béjart
  • 1961 – Vera Untermüllerov
  • 1969 – John Cranko, Shrew
  • 1986 – Kai Tai Chan, The Shrew
  • 1994 – László Seregi
  • 2014 –  Jean-Christophe Maillot
  • 2018 – Marina Kesler

The Tempest

  • 1979 – Glen Tetley, Tempest
  • 1980 – Michael Smuin
  • 1982 – Rudolf Nureyev
  • 2011 – Crystal Pite, The Tempest Replica
  • 2013 – Alexei Ratmansky
  • 2016 – John Farmanesh-Bocca, Tempest Redux
  • 2016 – David Bintley

Titus Andronicus

  • 2008 – Dominic Walsh
  • 2010 – John Farmanesh-Bocca, Titus Redux

Troilus and Cressida

  • 2006 – Paul Taylor, “Troilus and Cressida (reduced)”

Twelfth Night

  • 1931 – Anthony Tudor, Cross Garter’d 
  • 1942 – Andrée Howard 
  • 1984 – Boris Eifman
  • 1996 – John Neumeier, VIVALDI or “What you Will”

The Winter’s Tale

  • 2014 – Christopher Wheeldon

Compilations and Collected Works

  • 1964 – Kenneth MacMillan, Images of Love
  • 1985 – John Neumeier, Shakespeares Liebespaare (Shakespeare’s Lovers)</li
  • 1999 – David Bintley, The Shakespeare Suite
  • 2013 – John Neumeier, Shakespeare Dances

 

The Sonnets

  • 1992 – Nigel Charnock, L.O.V.E.
  • 2019 – Paul Vasterling, Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux

 

Dance works based on the plays of Shakespeare’s contemporaries:

Edward II 

  • 1995 – David Bintley

Updated October 25, 2020.

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