Following a highly successful tour in 2024, Ballet Central returns to Newbury Spring Festival in 2025 with a brand-new programme of classical ballet and contemporary dance.  

The repertoire includes Frederick Ashton’s miniature masterpiece Foyer de danse (1932). Animating Edgar Degas’ iconic paintings and pastels of Paris Opera Ballet dancers, this will be the first staging of the ballet in over 90 years, following its recreation by Ursula Hageli for The Frederick Ashton Foundation. Principal Character Artist of The Royal Ballet, Kristen McNally, presents a vibrant modern ballet with a glorious new musical composition by Central’s Tabor Music Director, Philip Feeney. FEAST allows the audience to catch a glimpse of a colourful community where conversation is punctuated and interactions explode with character.  

In contrast, Ballet Central presents contemporary works by Dickson Mbi and Thick & Tight. Thick & Tight’s theatrical work Keeping Up with the Apocalypse will combine dance, theatre and mime. The piece is a meditation on greed, vanity and the absurdity of a species bringing about its own undoing. Dickson Mbi’s work depicts the energetic ambition and perseverance required to pave new pathways in dance theatre and performance. Drawing from the Earth’s vibrations and warmth, this piece explores the practices of ritual and shared human experience. 

Sponsored by Mrs Katherine Astor, and Mr and Mrs Malcolm Kimmins