American Ballet Theatre has announced its summer 2025 season, featuring five full-length ballets across six weeks, June 10-July 19, 2025, at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The season will be bookended by two weeks of Swan Lake, June 10-14 and July 14-19. Kevin McKenzie’s production of Tchaikovsky's ballet, a staple of the company’s repertoire, celebrates its 25th year this season. The July 18 performance will also be the farewell performance of Gillian Murphy, the company’s longest-standing current dancer, concluding a 23-year stint as Principal Dancer with a final performance as Odette/Odile.
Counterbalancing that continual classic will be the New York premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale. Based on the romance by William Shakespeare, Wheeldon’s ballet with a score by Joby Talbot had its world premiere at the Royal Ballet in 2014. The award-winning production features scenic and costume design by Bob Crowley, lighting design by Natasha Katz, video design by Daniel Brodie, and silk design by Basil Twist.
Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, which had its ABT and New York premieres last year, will be revived this season. The three-act ballet, set to an original score by Max Richter, is inspired by three works by Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. There will be a special Pride Night performance of Woolf Works June 20.
Rounding out the season are two standards of French classical ballet: Adolphe Adam’s Giselle and Léo Delibes’ Sylvia. Giselle, one of the earliest ballets in the standard repertoire, tells the tragic story of a young woman with a heart condition which causes her to be unable to dance lest she overexert herself—no light fate for a character in a ballet. Sylvia, known for its rich symphonic score, which Tchaikovsky himself regarded as being a greater work than Swan Lake, tells a mythical love story between Sylvia, a huntress and follower of the goddess Diana, and Aminta, an Arcadian shepherd.
For more information about the upcoming season, including ticketing, visit ABT.org.
