Xander Parish to Lead Nouveaux Ballets Russes, Debuting in Florence

Xander Parish, the first British principal dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet, will lead a new company called Nouveaux Ballets Russes, the Florence-based New Generation Foundation has announced. The company debuts March 14–21 next year with a reimagined Swan Lake at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, followed by an international tour that includes performances in New York City and San Francisco.

The venture takes its name and its ambition from Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the company that upended European dance in the early 20th century. Like its predecessor, Nouveaux Ballets Russes aims to collaborate with what the foundation describes as bold visionaries in art, fashion, music, and technology.

The project grew out of an invitation. For its annual summer festival last year, the New Generation Foundation asked Parish to curate a performance built on the repertoire of the Ballets Russes. "The show went down very well, and the producers invited me to work with them to go a step further and create a new production of Swan Lake, which would form the foundations for a new company," Parish tells Pointe over email.

Parish made history at the Mariinsky before leaving Russia in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. He then spent two years dancing with the Norwegian National Ballet and has since directed several galas.

The principal cast for Swan Lake includes Joy Womack, Anastasia Matvienko, Vsevolod Maievskyi, and Boris Zhurilov. Parish is choreographing the production, though he plans to preserve some of the most famous passages of the Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov choreography, especially for the principals. He is relocating the setting to Paris during the Belle Époque, and the narrative will take liberties with the familiar story. The new version "turns many things upside down," Parish says. "I hope the result will be a fresh and exciting reinterpretation."

The creative team carries significant operatic credentials. Set designer Bruno de Lavenère and video director Étienne Guiol both count the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games among their credits. Alain Blanchot has been commissioned to design the costumes, and Jean-Romain Vesperini, whose background is in opera, will provide stage direction. That emphasis is deliberate. "The producers, having most of their experience in opera, have approached this production in that vein," Parish explains.

The production will lean heavily on technology. Projection mapping, digital imagery, and holographic scenery are all intended to create what the foundation describes as a surreal, immersive experience. For Parish, the collaboration itself is part of the draw. "I hope to learn and be stretched in my own understanding and approach to ballet by observing and collaborating with [this creative team]," he says.

Auditions for the company's corps de ballet, which Parish will oversee himself, take place September 26 in Florence. Whether the artistic director will also dance with his new company remains an open question — he calls it tempting, but not his main priority. "I'm excited to take on this new challenge, and, as artistic director, to help younger dancers develop and grow in this beautiful art form," he says.

If the Florence debut and the American tour deliver on the Diaghilev comparison, Parish's company could become a rare thing: a new European troupe built from scratch with an international touring circuit already in place.