Ballet Icons Gala Tickets at the London Coliseum
Principal dancers from the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera, La Scala and American Ballet Theatre on one stage for one night, with a live orchestra. Last year's gala brought Marianela Núñez and Vadim Muntagirov. Sunday 21 February 2027 only.
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What It Is
A gala, not a ballet. No story and no single company: a programme of short pieces danced by principals flown in from the world's major companies, with the English National Ballet Philharmonic playing live.
The 2027 programme mixes famous classical highlights, rarely performed pieces, and work by contemporary choreographers, so it is not three hours of tutus.
Dancers are drawn from the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Bavarian State Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, alongside younger dancers.
Who It Is For
Anyone who wants to see a lot of the best dancers in one sitting. Seeing this many principals from this many companies would otherwise mean several trips and several countries.
Anyone who likes technique for its own sake. A gala is dancers doing the hardest things they know, one after another.
Less good if you want a story. For that, English National Ballet's Romeo & Juliet is at this theatre in January, full length with the same orchestra.
Know Before You Book
It runs three hours, including a 20-minute interval. That is a long evening for a programme with no plot running through it. Two halves of short pieces, not a quick starry night.
The line-up is not announced yet. Galas confirm their dancers closer to the date, and injuries and company schedules move names late. You are booking the event, not a particular dancer.
Practical
Sunday 21 February 2027, 7pm. One performance, and there is no second night to fall back on.
Tickets from around £40. Age guidance is 5 and over, and children under 5 are not admitted to the auditorium at all.
Book Your Tickets
There is no matinee, no second week and nothing to move to, so if the date works, take it.
We sell with all-in pricing, so the price you see is the price you pay. Call 020 7193 9050.
FAQs
Not confirmed yet. The gala draws principals from the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, American Ballet Theatre and Monte-Carlo, and names are announced nearer the date.
Yes. The English National Ballet Philharmonic play the whole evening.
Yes, Sunday 21 February 2027.
Age guidance is 5 and over. Under-5s are not allowed in the auditorium, so this is not one for a toddler.
No. It is a programme of short pieces, classical and contemporary, with an interval in the middle.
Higher than you would for a play. Dance reads better from above. See our London Coliseum guide.
No, and they are close to opposites. The Fonteyn final is young dancers competing in front of a panel. This is established principals from major companies, with nothing at stake but the evening.
No. One performance, 7pm on Sunday 21 February 2027.
It helps. A gala is highlights, so it assumes you know why a given five minutes is famous. If this would be your first ballet, a full-length story piece is the better start.
Where to Sit
Sit higher than you would for a play. Dance is judged on the whole body and on the patterns feet make on the floor, and both read better from above than from close up. The front block of the Dress Circle is the pick.
The Balcony is a good ticket for this, and cheap, because there is no surtitle screen to read and nothing to miss at close range.
The circles here wrap round the Stalls rather than hanging over them, which is why the end seats sit nearer the stage than the middle ones and still cost less.
Avoid the front Stalls. On a gala you want to see the shape of what is happening, and the first rows are too close and too low for that.
No lift to the Upper Circle.
Seating plan
Dates & tickets
Booking now
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The London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES, three minutes from Charing Cross and Leicester Square. Around 2,380 seats over four levels, the largest theatre in the West End. Buses 24, 29 and 176 run along Charing Cross Road and stop a couple of minutes away. Full detail in our London Coliseum guide.
Arrive 20 to 25 minutes before, no later, because around 2,380 people arrive at once. It is a Sunday 7pm start, and a three-hour evening finishing around ten means checking your last train before you book, not afterwards.
Address
St Martin's Lane, London WC2N 4ES
Nearest Tube
Leicester Square and Charing Cross
The Dancers
Not yet announced. The gala's line-up is confirmed nearer the performance, and it changes: this is an event that gathers principals from separate companies with their own seasons running, so late substitutions are normal rather than a warning sign.
Companies represented in the 2027 announcement include the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala Theatre Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Bavarian State Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.
Live accompaniment by the English National Ballet Philharmonic.
About This Event
The gala has run for twenty years, and the 2027 edition is billed as the start of its third decade. It is an annual fixture at the London Coliseum rather than a tour date.
What the Last One Looked Like
The line-up for 2027 has not been announced, so here is what the 20th anniversary gala on 15 February 2026 was.
Who danced: Marianela Núñez, Vadim Muntagirov, Fumi Kaneko, Marcelino Sambé, Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Reece Clarke from the Royal Ballet; Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko from La Scala; Eleonora Abbagnato and Paul Marque from Paris Opera; Iana Salenko from Berlin; and Daniil Simkin, Lucía Lacarra, Matthew Golding, Edward Watson, António Casalinho, Margarita Fernandes and Francesco Gabriele Frola among others.
What was on the bill: two of the most famous pas de deux in ballet, the Black Swan and the Tchaikovsky, plus a Nutcracker duet, sitting alongside Wayne McGregor's Chroma and three contemporary duets, Spring Waters, Finding Light and an extract from Le Parc. Roughly half nineteenth-century showpieces and half modern work, which is the balance the 2027 programme describes as well.
Maria Seletskaja conducted, with the English National Ballet Philharmonic.
Reviewing it, Bachtrack called the evening "stunning in the quality of interpretation, both technically and artistically".
None of those names are confirmed for 2027. This is what a year here looks like, not a preview of the next one.
Ballet Icons Gala 2027
London Coliseum