On 25 February we announced a 2027 tour of Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Wuthering Heights, a ballet by David Nixon CBE and a new immersive The Nutcracker-inspired experience.
The Wuthering Heights tour will open at Leeds Grand Theatre in March 2027 before performances at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, Nottingham Theatre Royal, London’s Sadler’s Wells, Norwich Theatre Royal and The Lowry in Salford throughout spring 2027.
The ballet was Nixon’s first creation for Northern Ballet during his time as Artistic Director (2001 - 2022), premiering in 2002 in Bradford and perfectly encapsulates our Yorkshire pride and storytelling style.
Adapted from Emily Brontë’s famous novel, this was also Nixon’s first collaboration with famed composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, a Golden Globe and Grammy award-winner best known for West End and Broadway hits Les Misérables and Miss Saigon.
Wuthering Heights has been the subject of many stage and screen adaptations, including 2026’s Emerald Fennell film starring Margot Robbie as Cathy. Nixon’s razor-sharp retelling gets to the heart of an untameable love story. Cathy and Heathcliff are inseparable as children but as their lives take different paths, their bond develops into a devastating force as unruly and dangerous as the Yorkshire Moors that surround them. Schönberg’s music and Nixon’s choreography set the stage to see Northern Ballet’s dancers at their dramatic best as they capture the spirit of Brontë’s headstrong Cathy and her love for the passionate, ruthless Heathcliff.
Wuthering Heights will be performed to recorded music and all venues will offer an audio-described performance to improve accessibility for those with visual impairments.
In December 2026 a Northern Ballet, 4Pi Productions, and Schwarzman Centre production Clara & The Nutcracker will premiere at the newly built Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities at Oxford University. Inspired by David Nixon’s The Nutcracker, this fulldome experience will be a world-first immersive presentation of an interpretation of the company's iconic ballet.
A 360-degree film captured on stage, in the studio and behind the scenes, Clara & The Nutcracker will feature our world-class dancers alongside richly animated fantasy scenes created by 4Pi Productions and Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and delivered in surround sound.
Our partnership with 4Pi and the Schwarzman Centre will allow audiences to explore dance in a whole new way, up close, all around, and beyond the stage. In the fulldome experience, shaped by humanities research at the University of Oxford with Professor Joanna Neilly and Professor Phillip Bullock, audiences will be seated in reclining chairs to enjoy a 30-minute 360 experience.
More from Northern Ballet
