The best dance and ballet shows in March 2026

Peter Wright’s production of ‘Giselle’ returns for the first time in a decade. The OG romantic ballet arrives just in time for Valentine’s day, telling the haunting tale of a peasant girl tricked into betrothing herself to a dallying prince, before killing herself and going off to seek revenge on all men as one of the Wilis. 

Scottish Ballet’s award-winning production about the complex relationship between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I comes to Sadler’s Wells. Created by Scottish Ballet’s choreographer-in-residence  Sophie Laplane and James Bonas , Mary, Queen of Scots puts a modern streak in classical ballet with its stark set and costumes inspired by haute couture and punk. Its original score is performed live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra.

Two acclaimed choreographers who you might expect to work together – the remarkable ballet creator Crystal Pite alongside commercial dancer and Taylor Swift collaborator Kameron N Saunders – have come together to create Body and Soul with ENB, which recieves its UK and world premiere at Sadlers Wells. Pite’s Body and Soul (Part 1) explores bereavement, featuring two dancers in funereal black suits and white shirts. Meanwhile Saunders presents a new work in three parts that looks at the quest to find our authentic self under crushing societal scrutiny, inspired by his own experiences.

In a ground-breaking new double-bill, Alexander Whitley Dance Company fuses dance, live motion capture and AI. Both works explore the relationship between the body and machines, while also drawing on mythology and ritual. In Mirror dancers come fact to face with intelligent machines, while Whitley’s take on The Rite of Spring promises to be a radical reworking of the Stravinsky masterpiece. 

Rose Prize-nominee Marco da Silva Ferreira and Place Prize-winner Adam Linder are coming together for this high-octane ultra-modern ballet, performed by French company Ballet de Lorraine. In Acid Gems, inspired by Ballanchine’s Jewels, dancers in neon costumes merge ballet, street dance and theatre. Ferreira’s a Folia takes the audience on a trip back to 15th-century Portugal for a folk party so wild it was named after the word for ‘madness’, with a style that mixes traditional folk steps and contemporary urban grooves.