The best Christmas dance shows and ballet in London

Matthew Bourne has had a fresh stab at his 2005 take on Tim Burton’s ultimate outsider’s tale for this year’s Sadler’s Wells Christmas offering. There is some new choreography, music and design, but the essentials remain unchanged: this is Bourne showing off his masterful storytelling skills for a great piece of entertainment.

English National Ballet is bringing back Wayne Eagling's foggy, atmospheric take on 'Nutcracker' for Christmas 2021. It fills the Coliseum's huge stage with a gloomy vision of Edwardian London, complete with king rat's army and child dancers. Yes, it's not the most chocolate box pretty take out there, but it's immaculately danced by the ENB and is full of family-friendly fun.

Sure, ‘The Nutcracker’ is a family-friendly show, but there are limits to that: see it at the Royal Opera House and it’s still a couple of hours long and you can’t take very young kids along. This take from the Let’s All Dance Ballet Company is as inclusive as it gets, however: the show is a mere 55 minutes in length, and all ages are genuinely welcome, with babies and toddlers younger than 18 months able to sit on a lap for free. 

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without ‘The Nutcracker’. Tchaikovsky’s 1892 piece, with its dancing dolls, feisty mice and fairies, all sugared over with snowflakes and delicious music, is probably the most popular ballet in the world. Everyone should go at least once, preferably with children. And if you’re going to splurge on tickets then the Royal Opera House’s production, now 21 years old and still going strong, is the one to see.

If you’re looking for a camp Christmas show, this is for you. With sexy snowflakes, some very tiny shorts, and a gender-non-conforming action man, ‘Nutcracker’ at the Tuff Nut Jazz Club (aka the Southbank Centre) is a snowstorm of fun. Just be wary of cringe. 

Birmingham Rep’s ballet spin-off of Raymond Briggs’ dreamy Christmas classic is back in London once again. Unlike the ageless book and TV animation that inspired it, it’s creaking a little – but it is a classic in its own right, and still inspires rapture in the two-to-eight-year-old target audience and nostalgic sniffles in their middle-aged parents.