New York City Ballet’s 2026 Winter Season will open on Tuesday, January 20, and continue for six weeks of performances, through Sunday, March 1 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.
The season will feature 18 ballets including 2 World Premieres, which will be the 499th and 500th original works created for the Company since its founding in 1948. The first premiere, by NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck, will take place on Thursday, January 29. The second premiere, by NYCB Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, will take place on Thursday, February 5.
“In reaching this incredible milestone of 500 original ballets, which is a testament to the Company’s unparalleled history of creativity and its enduring contributions to the world of dance, we are thrilled that the 499th and 500th new works created for the Company will be choreographed by our current resident artists, Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky, and will premiere just one week apart this winter,” said NYCB Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan.
In addition to the 500 new works created for the Company since it was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1948, NYCB has also performed nearly 70 additional ballets created for other companies. These include masterpieces by the Company’s co-founding choreographers, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, that were choreographed prior to 1948, and ballets by additional choreographers that entered the NYCB repertory after first being performed elsewhere. With the addition of the 2026 Winter Season World Premieres by Peck and Ratmansky, NYCB will have performed a total of 571 works during its history.
The opening night program on Tuesday, January 20 will feature two early ballets by Balanchine, Serenade (1934) and Prodigal Son (1929). The program will also feature one of the newest additions to the NYCB repertory, Ratmansky’s Paquita, which premiered during the 2025 Winter Season. Ratmansky’s Paquita was originally paired with Balanchine’s Minkus Pas de Trois from 1951. For the 2026 Winter Season, only Ratmansky’s Paquita, inspired by the Grand Pas from Marius Petipa’s 1881 staging of the full-length ballet, will be performed.
The second program of the 2026 Winter Season, which will debut on Friday, January 23, will feature Balanchine’s Kammermusik No. 2 (1978), Le Tombeau de Couperin (1975), and Raymonda Variations (1961). The program will also include Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs (1984).
The second week of the 2026 Winter Season will be highlighted by the World Premiere of The Wind-Up by Justin Peck on Thursday, January 29. Peck’s new ballet, his 26th for NYCB, will be set to the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s landmark Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). The ballet will premiere on a program that will also feature Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet, August Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano Pas de Deux, and Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer.
The third week of the season will be highlighted by the World Premiere of The Naked King by Alexei Ratmansky on Thursday, February 5. Ratmansky’s new ballet, his ninth for NYCB, will be set to Jean Françaix’s Le Roi Nu, which was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes, and was composed in 1935 for a ballet by Serge Lifar that premiered at the Paris Opera Ballet the following year. The ballet will premiere on a program with two works by Justin Peck: Dig the Say and Everywhere We Go; and Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth.
The fourth and fifth weeks of the season will be highlighted by 14 performances of Peter Martins’ full-length production of The Sleeping Beauty, from Wednesday, February 11 through Sunday, February 22. Set to Tchaikovsky’s beloved score, the production was created in 1991. The ballet, which features more than 100 dancers, including students from the School of American Ballet, is one of NYCB’s largest and most lavish productions.
The final week of the 2026 Winter Season will be highlighted by a program that will debut on Thursday, February 26 featuring two masterpieces created for NYCB by the Company’s co-founding choreographers in the 1960s: Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering (1969) and Balanchine’s Diamonds (1967), the final section of the three-part Jewels.
All NYCB performances will feature the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra under the leadership of Music Director Andrew Litton and will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue.
Tickets are available online at nycballet.com, by phone at 212-496-0600, or at the theater’s box office. For complete program information visit nycballet.com.
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