Vail Dance Festival 2026 season announced

The Vail Valley Foundation’s Vail Dance Festival announces Alexei Ratmansky—one of today’s most celebrated ballet choreographers —as its 2026 artist-in-residence. A defining voice in ballet, Ratmansky has created critically acclaimed works for many of the world’s leading ballet companies and is currently artist-in-residence at New York City Ballet. Continuing on as the Leonard Bernstein composer-in-residence for her 10th year at the Festival, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award winning composer and performer Caroline Shaw will join Ratmansky as a creative driver of the 2026 Festival. The 2026 season will take place July 31–Aug. 10 throughout the Vail Valley, with 11 performances and 30+ events in Vail, Beaver Creek, Avon.

Under the leadership of artistic director Damian Woetzel, the Vail Dance Festival will present a dynamic lineup celebrating excellence in dance and music including headlining performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company as part of the company’s centennial anniversary, Philadelphia’s Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater in a Vail Dance Festival debut and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and Colorado Ballet representing the dynamism of dance in Colorado today.

The 2026 Festival marks the 20th anniversary of Woetzel’s tenure as artistic director, celebrating two decades defined by the commissioning of over 130 new works from established and emerging choreographers for dancers across the spectrum of the art form, collaborations with extraordinary composers and a wide range of musicians, and growth of the festival to include numerous educational and community events.

“This season reflects what the Vail Dance Festival has become over these past twenty years: a place for collaborative adventure, for next steps at every stage of an artist’s career, for presenting a range of dance companies in a spirit of creative exchange,” Woetzel said. “Welcoming Alexei Ratmansky as artist-in-residence to our creative lab in the Rockies during this milestone year brings the energy of what dance is today, and the catalytic possibility of what it can be into the future.”

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Ratmansky is of Ukrainian descent and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow prior to becoming a principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. From 2004 to 2008, he was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. He served as artist-in-residence at American Ballet Theatre from 2008 to 2023, and in 2023 became artist-in-residence at New York City Ballet. He is also associate artist with Dutch National Ballet, and his work is performed by nearly all major international ballet companies.

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Choreographers making new dances this season will include artist-in-residence Alexei Ratmansky, Robert Battle, Michelle Dorrance, Larry Keigwin, Tiler Peck, Pam Tanowitz and in Vail Dance Festival choreographic debuts, Chun Wai Chan and Amanda Treiber. New dances will be featured throughout the festival and on the NOW: Premieres closing night performance, which focuses on new work exclusively.  

Festival artists will include Broadway and ballet star Robbie Fairchild; tap dance icon Michelle Dorrance; New York City Ballet’s Dominka Afanasenkov, India Bradley, Preston Chamblee; Chun Wai Chan, Naomi Corti, Sara Mearns, Roman Mejia, Mira Nadon, Tiler Peck, Unity Phelan, Ryan Tomash, Indiana Woodward; appearing courtesy of American Ballet Theatre Herman Cornejo, Catherine Hurlin, Chloe Misseldine, Takumi Miyake, Calvin Royal III, Yoon Jung Seo, Brooks Landegger, Kayla Mak; Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Adji Cissoko, modern dance force Melissa Toogood; street dance pioneer Lil Buck; former New York City Ballet principal dancer Lauren Lovette, Royal Danish Ballet’s Philip Duclos; BalletX’s Savannah Greene and Jerard Palazzo; and independent dancer Daisy Kate Jacobson. Other celebrated artists will be announced as the festival draws closer.

Composer-in-residence Caroline Shaw will perform as well as compose throughout the festival. Musicians collaborating with Shaw include returning quartet-in-residence Brooklyn Rider (violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Michael Nicolas), bass-baritone Davóne Tines, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Danni Lee Parpan, pianists Michael Scales, Derek Wang, and Tony Siqi Yun, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kate Davis, musical director Shelbie Rassler, a jazz ensemble led by pianist Joel Wenhardt and the National Repertory Orchestra under the baton of Michael Stern.

The performance schedule will include Opening Night (July 31) featuring dance stars and companies in a sample of what’s to come at this year’s Festival; a headlining performance of Martha Graham Dance Company (Aug. 1) as part of its 100th anniversary celebration; UpClose with Damian Woetzel (Aug 2); an evening of ballet tradition and innovation entitled State of Grace (Aug. 3); the popular low-priced Dance for $20.26 (Aug. 4); Watching Dance with Heather Watts (Aug. 5); the festival debut of Rennie Harris Puremovement American Street Dance Theater (Aug. 5); the free Dancing in the Park in Avon (Aug. 6), the starry International Evenings of Dance series (Aug. 7 – 8); Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and Colorado Ballet at the Vilar Performing Arts Center (Aug. 9); and the closing night performance of all new works entitled NOW: Premieres (Aug. 10).

Tickets go on sale to the public on March 12. For information about the event or becoming a donor, call 970.777.2015 or visit VailDance.org.