From late July into early August 2026, Covent Garden makes space for two artists whose influence on ballet extends beyond performance. Each shapes a limited-run programme—curated not as a greatest-hits parade, but as an edited view of repertory, partnership and artistic priority. Full details arrive in February; public booking follows in March.
Summer Season 2026 was announced on 17 December 2025, with two distinct programmes scheduled at the Opera House between late July and early August. The appeal is immediate: two artists, two sensibilities, and a rare chance to see how a dancer’s life in repertoire and collaboration translates when the performer becomes curator.
Curated evenings tend to feel different from standard repertory runs. The promise is not simply “what will be danced,” but why these choices belong together: what the artist foregrounds, what they place in dialogue, what they return to, and what they offer the audience as a kind of personal map. It’s a subtle shift—less about spectacle, more about authorship.
The Season
Nuñez: Timeless (29 July–2 August 2026)
Nuñez presents Timeless, described as a personal selection drawn from The Royal Ballet’s repertory. The programme is expected to combine one-act ballets with divertissements—short, standalone excerpts that distil classical style into something concentrated: musicality, precision, and the pleasure of virtuosity without narrative weight.
That format matters. One-act works and divertissements are often where you see a company’s craft most clearly: how cleanly an ensemble moves as a single organism; how partnering reads at close range; how a dancer’s phrasing can turn a familiar passage into something newly alive. In a programme framed as “timeless,” the point is not nostalgia. It is continuity: the kind of repertory that survives because it can be re-encountered without losing its charge.
The programme will be performed with fellow Royal Ballet dancers, and the emphasis—by design—leans toward partnership and artistic relationship. Specific works and casting will be announced in February 2026.
Acosta: Myths and Modern Masters (5–9 August 2026)
The following week, Acosta returns with Myths and Modern Masters, a programme that spans classical and contemporary work. He will share the stage with guest artists from Birmingham Royal Ballet and Acosta Danza.
Even without the repertory list, the title tells you how the evening wants to be read: as a conversation between inheritance and reinvention. “Myths” can suggest archetype, story, tradition—the narratives that classical ballet has carried for generations. “Modern masters” points toward choreographic voices that reshape what ballet can look like now: different musical languages, different physical emphases, different ideas of drama and line. The pleasure, usually, is in the friction: how one style illuminates another when placed side by side.
As with Timeless, details of the works and casting will be announced in February 2026, with public booking in March.
Why This Matters
In a season crowded with premieres, tours and headline casting, it’s easy to treat programming as a calendar exercise: dates, titles, tickets, done. These two programmes invite a richer reading. They bring forward a question most audiences don’t get to ask: what does an artist choose to show when the choice itself is part of the performance?
Curatorship—when it is genuinely thoughtful—adds an extra layer to the evening. It asks the audience to watch for connective tissue: for musical through-lines; for shifts in tone; for the way one piece reframes another. It can also change the atmosphere in the house. A programme “hosted” by a dancer’s taste tends to feel more intimate, even in a grand venue, because the evening carries a sense of intention rather than routine.
And intention, for a London summer season, is the point. Late July and early August in Covent Garden come with their own rhythm: the city slightly rearranged by long evenings and visitors; the energy around the piazza sharpened by theatre schedules; the sense that culture is happening everywhere at once. These programmes fit that moment: short-run, specific, and designed to be booked like an event.
The Brivotie Edit
August in Covent Garden offers a particular pleasure: the light lingers, the pace changes, and the neighbourhood becomes theatrical in the best way—less rush, more ritual. Arrive early, not to “beat the crowds” but to give yourself the right kind of prelude. There is a distinct mood in the half-hour before curtain-up: a hush inside, a hum outside, and the sense that you are stepping into something deliberately composed.
After the performance, take the long way back. Not far—just unhurried. Covent Garden can feel entirely different once the audience disperses: quieter, more spacious, more architectural. The walk becomes part of the evening’s cadence, a gentle decompression that lets what you’ve seen settle.
If you’re staying overnight, choose somewhere within walking distance so the experience doesn’t end at the exit doors. Dress with intention (this is still the Opera House), but keep it effortless; August evenings can turn cool, and comfort matters for a full evening’s attention. If you’re travelling in from outside London, plan ahead—August tightens the city in small, practical ways.
Key dates for your diary
- February 2026: Full programme details and casting announced
- March 2026: Public booking opens
- 29 July – 2 August 2026: Timeless
- 5 – 9 August 2026: Myths and Modern Masters
Venue: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD
Essential Information
When do tickets go on sale?
Public booking opens in March 2026.
What will be performed?
Timeless will feature one-act ballets and divertissements from The Royal Ballet’s repertory. Myths and Modern Masters will include a mix of classical and contemporary work. Specific works and casting will be confirmed in February 2026.
Updates
Information as released by The Royal Ballet and Opera (rbo.org.uk).