The National Ballet of Canada’s 2025/26 season is off to a strong start with a pair of contrasting productions that showcase the company’s range and up-and-coming stable of talent, though one is far more inspiring than the other.

First at bat was what’s sure to be the season MVP (I saw it the night of game 7, forgive me). Idiosyncratic, athletic, and immense, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber’s Procession is a triumphantly intense opening to a season of energetic work. It’s being framed by the company as something totally new and different and, though I appreciate that the work is creative and exciting, I do think that overlooks some of the genuinely bold contemporary programming at the company in the last decade (Neumeier, Pite, and Ekman all felt just as invigorating on first viewing). But don’t let its slightly oversold uniqueness undersell Procession‘s impact. Filling the massive stage with a slew of NBoC’s boundlessly energetic young company members, Smith and Schraiber thrill with striking fine art visuals and demanding technique that stirs the imagination as much as it impresses on the level of pure physicality.

The contrast doesn’t do many favours for Christopher Wheeldon and the return of his much-celebrated Winter’s Tale which seems dowdy and simple in comparison. Performative eccentricity and mime-y movement distract from technical dance content in the dramatic scenes of this Shakespeare adaptation while charming but usual big group numbers dominate the plot-light central act. Ben Rudisin (Leontes) and Heather Ogden (Paulina) are fine theatrical performers who thankfully carry the complex emotion of the Sicilian tragedy but only the Perdita/Florizel (Tirion Law/Naoya Ebe) pas de deux contains much in the way of actually interesting dance. The set design (Bob Crowley) is beautiful (the final statue reveal is particularly effective) and silk effects (Basil Twist) and projections (Daniel Brodie) add extra interest but little details like costume fabric that shows sweat stains give the production a strange not-fully-thought-through element. Joby Talbot’s music is samesy and emotional prescriptive though, at the very least, I was happy to see that the play’s tricky pacing is wrangled into a well-structured three acts. I’m being hard on this production because it’s very well regarded and I remember liking it more but Wheeldon’s work left me uninspired, especially in the shadow of Procession‘s artistry (though I always appreciate a narrative/non-narrative contrast in programming and am usually here for the story ballets). The National Ballet’s ensemble equips themselves well, the material just lacks the depth necessary to really let them shine.