BALLET CENTRAL are back on tour this summer with a brand-new company of dancers and an exciting programme of classical ballet and contemporary dance.
Showcasing the extraordinary talent of Central School of Ballet’s graduating class of 2026, this year’s company consists of 35 young dancers – the future of dance.
Among those 35 rising stars – quite literally the future of dance – is Harrogate’s Freddie Button who will be performing around the country as part of this exciting national tour, which opens at The Theatre Chipping Norton on 14 May before visiting a further nine venues across the country.
It opened at The Theatre Chipping Norton on 14 May 2026 and is playing a further nine venues around the country.
Q&A Freddie Button
Can you tell us about Ballet Central 2026?
Ballet central is the group of pre professional dancers touring around the UK together as a company at the end of three years training at central school of ballet performing four pieces of diverse repertoire.
Ballet Central 2026 is performing Solitaire by Kenneth MacMillan, Bolero 18 by Cameron McMillan, Replica by Monique Jonas and Times Square Ballet by Ashley Page.
What can audiences expect from Ballet Central 2026?
An exciting showcase of young talent and hard work with different styles of dance throughout.
What are you looking forward to the most about the tour?
Dancing on many different stages across the country with my friends and experiencing the company life.
How old were you when you started dancing and what drew you to train in dance?
I was three years old when I initially started ballet and five years old when I started jazz and tap dancing.
When did you start to think about pursuing ballet/dance as a career?
When I joined the Hammond school in Chester at thirteen years of age.
Did you have any local/Harrogate/inspirational teachers? Please tell us more?
When I started dancing at Katrina Hughes’s dance school when I was very young, Katrina Hughes’s and Sophie Zealand were very inspirational to me and helped me a lot towards progressing in dance as I grew up and eventually in joining the Hammond school.
Have you performed locally and if so what was the show/ballet? How was it?
When I was at Katrina Hughes dance school, every two years we would perform a show at the Royal Hall in Harrogate and this was very fun and full of fond memories looking back.
What is a typical day like Central School of Ballet?
We always start the day with ballet class and then this is followed by more classes such as ballet coaching, contemporary, jazz, improvisation, choreography, singing or strength and conditioning.
What are your ambitions for the future – what’s next after you have graduated?
I would love to join a ballet or contemporary company in the UK or Europe as I am very interested is all types of repertoire.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to try as many different styles as possible as being an all-round dancer is very important in the new world of dance and ensures you are prepared for whatever comes your way.
The Ballet Central Tour is the perfect introduction to dance for audiences of all ages.
This year’s repertoire sees tradition meet cutting edge, combining classical ballet and Broadway buzz with contemporary innovative creation.
The 2026 programme presents one of Kenneth MacMillan’s earlier works, Solitaire. Revived for Ballet Central by Lynn Wallis, Solitaire presents a quirky, dreamlike world told through a montage of nine dances, knitted together by Malcolm Arnold’s enigmatic score.
Times Square Ballet, an excerpt from Ashley Page’s musical On the Town, is sure to delight audiences with its rhythm, glamour and romance. This hectic night of fun reflects the hustle and bustle of the famous Broadway theatre district during the 1940s.
Two exciting new commissions will take to the stage in this year’s tour, from distinctive choreographers Monique Jonas and MA Alumni Cameron McMillan.
Monique Jonas’s REPLICA is a series of mirrored realities played out through abstract storytelling – a physicalised exploration on perception; the external world versus internal thought, on truth and illusion. It reflects Jona Dance’s fusion with diasporic rhythms and contributions from the dancers themselves.
Cameron McMillan’s BOLERO 18 is inspired by the 18 cycles of the insistent, looping crescendo of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, re-imagining the iconic 1928 score through a contemporary lens and capturing the threshold and restless energy of youth and the tension between individuality and collective force.
Propelled by this new generation of dancers, it draws out the duality at the heart of the music – its mechanistic repetition and underlying magnetic power revealing both its rigorous structure and its surging emotional drive.
Ballet Central was created in 1984 as the touring company of Central School of Ballet to give Central’s graduating students the opportunity of professional performance experience.
The programme is formed around Ballet Central’s relationships with leading choreographers and provides the opportunity for students to experience performance in front of a ticket-buying audience.
Central School of Ballet is the only professional dance training school in the UK providing touring experience on such a scale.
Populated by the final year students of the BA (Hons) Professional Dance & Performance degree, joining the Ballet Central company forms a core part of the degree course and, most importantly, supports graduate employment.
Ballet Central graduates go on to dance in companies including Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Scottish Ballet, Ballet Black and Rambert Dance Company, as well as international dance companies across the globe.
www.balletcentral.co.uk/book-tickets/
www.centralschoolofballet.co.uk
BALLET CENTRAL TOUR – SUMMER 2026
14 May – The Theatre Chipping Norton
19 May – Newbury Spring Festival
23 May – Uppingham Theatre
5 June – The Dance Space, Brighton
9 June – New Futures, Cadogan Hall
13 June – Darlington Hippodrome
18 June – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
24 June – Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds
2 July – EM Forster Theatre, Tonbridge
15 & 16 July – Britten Theatre
