At this year's Coachella, New York City Ballet soloist India Bradley accompanied Giveon on the main stage, while Sombr performed "Potential" at the Outdoor Theatre backed by a troupe of ballet dancers. Days later, rising star Adéla released the music video for "KGB," opening with a full prelude on pointe. Rosalía featured ballet heavily throughout her LUX tour. And in June, Olivia Rodrigo unveiled the video for "Stupid Song," choreographed by NYCB principal Tiler Peck, who performed in it alongside seven other professional ballet dancers.

Musicians from Sting to Taylor Swift to Prince to Debbie Harry have collaborated with ballet dancers for decades through music videos and live performances. What distinguishes 2026, according to the dancers at the center of these collaborations, is the scale of the boom — and the care pop artists are now taking with the art form.

Trends, technology, and social media

Kara Covaleski, who danced with Sombr at Coachella and in the "Potential" video, credits the balletcore trend with laying the groundwork for a dancer-led impact on pop culture. "Balletcore started a few years ago, and at the time, I thought, Okay, this is interesting. This is my lifestyle and it's becoming a trend," she says. "But then people started to tune in to ballerinas as a whole and it brought more light to our artform."

Grace Scheffel, an NYCB corps member who also danced in "Stupid Song," points to social media visibility. "With social media, you can hear ballerinas speak, you're able to see what their days look like," Scheffel says. Pop collaborations extend that accessibility. "This was an opportunity for ballet as a whole to be experienced by people who wouldn't have seen it in the first place," she says.

Rommie Tomasini, another NYCB corps member featured in "Stupid Song," identifies a stronger force: technology. The proliferation of AI-generated content, she argues, has led viewers to prize authentic performance. "In ballet, you're just as much an actor as you are a dancer, and nothing will beat the true emotion of live performance," Tomasini says. "It's impossible to replicate through artificial intelligence, and I think that's something people are having a greater appreciation for."

Getting ballet right

When balletcore first gained popularity, many dancers worried audiences would treat ballet as a passing aesthetic rather than engage with its reality. The dance community's response to pop's current embrace of ballet has been resoundingly positive, largely because of how carefully musicians have showcased it.

Houston Ballet principal Harper Watters experienced this firsthand when Rosalía selected him for the "Confessions" segment of her recent Houston concert. "It's really clear that Rosalía has surrounded herself with people who are immersed in the dance world," he says. Her LUX tour was partially choreographed by (La)Horde, the French collective currently directing the Ballet National de Marseille, and former members of Marseille and Nederlands Dans Theater partner her onstage.

The difference shows in the details, Watters says. "A lot of times, in music and fashion, people will slap on a pointe shoe because of the aesthetic, and it's clear to the trained eye that they're not meant to be in it," he says. "But with Rosalía, the knees were crossed, the feet were shaped, she was on her box. She put in the work, which highlights the work we do on a daily basis."

Madison Olandt, associate choreographer for "Stupid Song," credits Rodrigo and her team with similar diligence. "Even when it came down to the costumes that they were wearing, they used NYCB rehearsal tutus that had been handsewn," Olandt says. "They were really diligent about honoring the aesthetic, but also in hiring true ballerinas and a ballerina to choreograph it."

Scheffel recalls that the video's stylists studied the Instagram account Models Doing Ballet to avoid balletcore missteps. "They wanted to make sure this looked as authentic as possible, and even though we were in pink, we all took leotards and legwarmers home because it's stuff we wear," she says.

NYCB dancer Kennedy Targosz, who also performs in "Stupid Song," says the reach of such projects is what matters. "It had millions of views within its first week; to be able to reach that many people is amazing," Targosz says. "Music videos like this are so helpful for the art form. This is just a sneak peak of what ballet truly is."

Whether driven by balletcore, algorithms, or a backlash against AI content, no single force explains the surge. What the dancers make clear is the ambition behind it: they want the momentum to keep showcasing ballet's versatility — on stadium stages as much as in the theater.