One of South Africa's newest ballet companies is taking on the most famous ballet of them all. Cape Ballet Africa stages Swan Lake at the Teatro, Montecasino, from 7 to 21 August 2026, and demand for the run was strong enough that the company added weekend shows.1,2
The company is only two years old. Debbie Turner, who had led Cape Town City Ballet, founded it in March 2024 with a stated aim: To reimagine how ballet can look in Africa, holding to classical discipline while carrying South African heritage.3,4 Its inaugural season, SALT, was a sold-out triple bill of new South African choreography at the Baxter;3,4 The Nutcracker and Giselle were billed for 2025.3
Swan Lake is the ballet that companies measure themselves against: Tchaikovsky's score, the double role of Odette and Odile, and a corps that has to move as one body. Cape Ballet Africa fields a 50-strong company, with choreography and staging by Elena Glurjidze, a Georgian-born former principal of English National Ballet.1 Marcel Meyer and Michael Mitchell, the design team behind a Naledi-nominated Nutcracker, return for the costumes and sets.1
If you are weighing whether to go: This is an ambitious young company on a big stage, dancing the work most likely to test it. Tickets run from R220 to R720.
