Sir Peter Wright , Credit: B Cooper
Birmingham Royal Ballet will celebrate Sir Peter Wright’s centenary on 18 June 2026 with a gala at Birmingham Hippodrome featuring highlights from Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia. The evening will also include The Green Table, with Carlos Acosta dancing the role of Death for the first time.
What do you give a ballet giant who has shaped generations of dance? In Birmingham Royal Ballet’s case, the answer is a gala fit for a centenary.
This June, Birmingham Royal Ballet will honour Founding Director Laureate Sir Peter Wright with a special one-night gala at Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday 18 June 2026, celebrating 100 years of one of ballet’s most influential directors and choreographers.
And honestly, if ever a ballet figure deserved more than a polite round of applause and a fond handshake in the foyer, it is Sir Peter.
Sir Peter established the company in Birmingham in 1990, bringing it to the city from its former life as Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and helping to build the global reputation Birmingham Royal Ballet enjoys today. His legacy can be seen across some of the company’s most cherished productions, including The Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.
The centenary gala on 18 June will open with a défilé by members of Elmhurst Ballet School, before Birmingham Royal Ballet performs highlights from some of Sir Peter’s most beloved works. Audiences can expect excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty, including the Act III Polonaise and Grand Pas de Deux, Coppélia’s Pas de Deux and Franz solo from Act III, Giselle’s Act II Pas de Deux, and major moments from Swan Lake, including the Black Swan Pas de Deux.
That is not so much a line-up as a ballet treasure chest being tipped gently onto the stage.
The evening will close with Kurt Jooss’s 1932 ballet The Green Table, staged at Sir Peter’s own request. Last performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet in the early 1990s, the work remains strikingly relevant, with its themes of war’s futility and political failure still cutting sharply through the present day.
Sir Peter has previously spoken of Jooss’s influence on him, saying it taught him that choreography must communicate something meaningful to an audience, and that dance is about ideas as much as steps.
In a major one-night-only moment, Birmingham Royal Ballet Director Carlos Acosta will dance the role of Death in The Green Table for the first time in his career during the gala performance.
Carlos Acosta said: “There are no words to explain the scale of Sir Peter’s contribution to the heritage, history and legacy of not only Birmingham Royal Ballet, but the art form as a whole. We couldn’t let his 100th year pass us by without celebration, and this very special evening will feature a sample of some of his most cherished productions that have been enjoyed by audiences across the globe since BRB’s beginnings back in 1990.
“At Sir Peter’s request, we will also be staging one of his favourite works – The Green Table – to mark the occasion. For the first time in nearly 35 years, it is an honour for BRB to be staging this extraordinarily relevant work. For one night only at the gala performance, I look forward to dancing the role of Death in this brave work.”
The celebrations will continue on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 June with 20th-Century Masterpieces, a triple bill bringing together three landmark works from the last century.
The programme includes Sir Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, created in 1956 for the then Sadler’s Wells Ballet to mark its 25th anniversary, and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, first created in 1947, a dazzling tribute to classical ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s music. The Green Table will also return as part of the triple bill, giving audiences another chance to see this powerful work on stage.
For Birmingham Royal Ballet, it is a salute to the man who helped define the company’s identity, shape its artistic standards and leave behind productions that still shimmer in the repertoire. And with gala favourites, historic works and Carlos Acosta taking on Death himself for one night only, this promises to be a celebration with real weight as well as beauty.
For more information and to book tickets visit brb.org.uk
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