About Ballet Modern
Ballet Modern is an independent editorial site covering contemporary and modern ballet - the choreographers, companies, and works that have reshaped the art form since roughly the 1980s. It's the companion site to BalletClassics.com, which covers the Romantic and Imperial repertoire - Swan Lake, Giselle, and the rest of the classical canon.
Where classical ballet is largely a fixed, historical repertoire, contemporary ballet is still being made. This site exists to make sense of who is making it, what ideas and techniques connect their work, and where to start if the vocabulary is unfamiliar.
"Classical ballet preserves a tradition. Contemporary ballet argues with it - and that argument is still happening."
What You'll Find Here
- Long-form profiles of contemporary choreographers, tracing their training, style, and signature works
- Company profiles covering the houses that shaped contemporary ballet's identity
- Deep dives into individual landmark works
- Guides for new audiences, plus a timeline and two-part history of how contemporary ballet developed
- A glossary bridging classical and contemporary vocabulary for readers coming from the classical repertoire
Who Writes Ballet Modern
Ballet Modern is run by Stuart Mathieson, an independent web developer from Scotland with a lifelong interest in ballet and the theatre. I also run its companion site, BalletClassics.com, which covers the classical repertoire. Ballet Modern picks up where that one leaves off: contemporary ballet is a fascinating world with its own language, and this site is my attempt to map it - the choreographers, companies, and works shaping ballet today.
My first contemporary ballet in the theatre was Scottish Ballet's production of Helen Pickett's The Crucible, which I saw at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen on the company's spring 2025 tour of Scotland - my account of it is on that page. Beyond that, the profiles here are built from published sources - reviews, interviews, and company archives - rather than first-hand viewing, which is why each one lists the sources behind it and shows when it was last updated.
Because the site is a one-person project, corrections, questions, and suggestions sent through the contact page come straight to me - and if you spot something wrong, I'd much rather hear about it than not.
How Profiles Are Researched
Every choreographer, company, and work profile is written from published sources - reviews and features in the arts press, interviews with the artists, and the companies' own archives and repertory histories - and checked against more than one of them before it goes up. Where sources disagree on a date or a detail, the profile goes with the most authoritative one (usually the company or choreographer's own record) rather than the most repeated one.
Each article shows when it was first published and when it was last updated, and lists its key sources at the end, so you can read further or check a claim yourself.
Independence & Corrections
Ballet Modern is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to any choreographer, dance company, or arts organization featured on this site. Content here is original editorial writing based on publicly available information; it is not sourced from, or intended to reproduce, any company's press materials or program notes.
Premiere dates, casting, and programming are announced and can change - always confirm details on the relevant company's own site before making plans. If you spot an error, please get in touch.