World Premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre

Copenhagen welcomes internationally acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan with a new full-length ballet created for the Royal Danish Ballet. Lady Macbeth marks a defining collaboration between one of the world’s most distinctive choreographic voices and one of its most historic ballet companies.

“It is a great honour to welcome Akram Khan to the Royal Danish Ballet. His artistic vision and unique choreographic language open up new perspectives for both our dancers and our audiences,” says Artistic Director Amy Watson.

Internationally, Khan is celebrated for his explosive and hypnotic productions, which leave audiences both breathless and deeply moved. In Denmark, he is best known for the audience favourite Vertical Road. With Lady Macbeth, Khan reimagines one of William Shakespeare’s most iconic and haunting tragedies: Macbeth.

“Where violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy.” — William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Khan transforms the tragedy into an exploration of power, complicity, and the voices history has often overlooked. Through his distinctive movement vocabulary, he shifts the focus towards the female perspective, revealing the psychological and supernatural forces that drive Lady Macbeth.

Akram Khan, Choreographer of Lady Macbeth, says: “In this work, we inhabit otherworldliness that exists within the human, seeking what lies beneath the cycles of power and violence in this ancient story, and also in our world today.  Our Lady Macbeth is not a story of individual ambition, but of an entire ecosystem pulled and shaped by competing forces: of thought, feeling, nature and the unknown. With the dancers, we draw on our different classical traditions and rituals to reveal the intangible. Because dance can do that – the body has the ability to embody something without saying it.”

Inspired by the Royal Danish Ballet’s strong narrative tradition, Khan revisits Shakespeare’s dark Scottish universe from a contemporary perspective. In his interpretation, the story unfolds through the eyes of Lady Macbeth – and the women around her. Who was she? How did she navigate the brutal structures of power? And who, in fact, were the mysterious witches?

The production’s set and costumes are created by Khan’s long-time collaborator, Academy Award-winning designer Tim Yip, widely known for his work on the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Lady Macbeth promises a sensual and intense theatrical experience, where classical ballet meets Khan’s distinctive choreography, and where Shakespeare is reimagined for a contemporary audience.

LADY MACBETH by Akram Khan premieres at the Opera House on 24 April and runs until 4 June.