Winter Ballets

Choreographer: Peter Wright
Premiere: 1990, Birmingham Royal Ballet
The Australian Ballet premiere: 18 September 2007, Melbourne

This holiday classic begins its story on Christmas Eve, when young Clara is gifted a nutcracker doll from the mysterious Drosselmeyer. As the clock strikes midnight, a magic spell falls over the household; the Christmas tree grows, a battle breaks out between mice and toy soldiers, and the nutcracker toy transforms into a prince who takes Clara on a fantastical journey.

One of the most memorable scenes takes place in the Land of Snow, where Clara dances with the Snow Fairy and attendants in a swirling flurry of crystals and white tutus before flying away, borne on the winter winds. Paired with Tchaikovsky’s glittering score, the sparkling beauty of winter represents a magical landscape of transformation and wonder, carrying Clara along on her coming-of-age journey.

Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Premiere: 2019, The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago
The Australian Ballet premiere: 9 July 2021, Adelaide

Based on Leo Tolstoy’s tragic novel, Anna Karenina is infused with the chill of dark Russian winters, both literally and emotionally. The story follows Anna as she embarks on a passionate but ill-fated affair, her estrangement from society, and eventual psychological unravelling.

Possokhov’s staging emphasises the starkness of winter through harsh lighting, projected snowfall, and enveloping smog, mirroring the isolation and emotional coldness in Anna’s life. Even draped in luxurious ermine-lined coats, she cannot keep winter out. Eventually she is driven by despair back to a snow-covered train station where she abandons herself to the darkness.

Significantly, the ballet does not end with Anna’s tragic demise but with a warm day in a countryside field. Winter here is not magical but a setting of loneliness and doom, and as with all dark times, the promise of spring dawns on the horizon.

Choreographer: Matthew Bourne
Premiere: 2005, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London

Inspired by the 1990 film by Tim Burton, this contemporary dance work tells the story of Edward, an artificial man with scissors for hands, who is taken in by a suburban family. The town is a 1950s façade of pastel perfectionism, and Edward is a bizarre Frankenstein’s monster who tries his best to fit in, falling in love with a beautiful young woman, Kim. Initially an object of fascination and fear, he is eventually driven away by society and forced to live in isolation.

As in the film, the winter here is created artificially through Edward’s artistry, a snowstorm created through the energetic ‘pruning’ of ice sculptures by his mechanical hands. The shimmering white flakes enchant Kim and envelop the town in nostalgic wonder, a quiet tribute to unexpected beauty, the melancholy of the outsider, and the fragility of love.

Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Premiere: 1937, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London
TAhe Australian Ballet premiere: 23 March 1970, Adelaide

This joyful non-narrative ballet is all about vibes, capturing the festive atmosphere of an Edwardian skating party on a frozen pond. The choreography recreates gliding, spinning, and stumbling over an ice rink in a series of vignettes with skaters of varying skill and style. Unlike other ballets that use winter as a symbol or background setting, Les Patineurs is a pure celebration of a crisp, bright winter’s day, a silly, sparkling day with friends, frozen into a perfect moment.

Choreographer: Christopher Hampson CBE
Premiere: 2019, Scottish Ballet

This fairytale ballet is an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s fable of the same name. It follows two sisters, the Snow Queen and the Summer Princess, whose jealous relationship entangles and endangers the lives of two mortal lovers, Kai and Gerda. When Kai is enchanted by the Snow Queen’s magic mirror to hate all that is beautiful, Gerda must go on a perilous journey through a frost-bitten forest to save him.

The Snow Queen’s realm is beautiful and glittering but also cruel and sharp, evoking the alluring danger of winter’s power. Gerda is besieged by wintery monsters, including Jack Frost, Snowflakes, and Snow Wolves, on her journey to the Ice Palace.

Winter in The Snow Queen is a mighty force of majesty and vengeance, one that must be thawed by courage and love. Ultimately, the spell is broken, and the lovers are reunited. Likewise, the two sisters, Summer and Winter, learn to ‘let it go’ and live in peace together once more.

Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon
Premiere: 2014, Royal Ballet, London

Wheeldon’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play masterfully uses its winter setting to weave together the story’s themes of jealousy, redemption, and the passing of time. The ballet opens with a bleak winter scene, both visually and emotionally stark and cold, as Leontes succumbs to irrational jealousy and destroys his family. Act II shifts to the bright warmth of a bohemian summer before returning to a wintery temple for the final act.

Winter, on its return, is no longer a symbol of emotional frigidity and cruelty but one of stillness and reflection. It is a time of death and dormancy that, alongside the character’s story of restoration, must prepare the ground for the healing of spring.