MANON Returns to Houston Ballet for First Time in Over a Decade

A 20th-Century Masterpiece Returning to Houston on September 24 – October 4, 2026

Houston Ballet brings back one of the most celebrated story ballets in history: Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, taking the stage September 24 through October 4, 2026 at the Wortham Theater Center.

Created during MacMillan’s tenure as Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet in London, Manon is set to a sweeping arrangement of music by Jules Massenet and follows the captivating anti-heroine Manon and her devoted but impoverished Des Grieux as they are drawn into a world of luxury, temptation, and heartbreak from the gritty streets of Paris to the bayous of Louisiana.

First staged by Houston Ballet in 1994, the production became a defining piece in the company’s repertoire before its last appearance in 2015. Its return marks a long-awaited reunion with Houston audiences.

“Manon asks dancers to be actors first,” said Artistic Director Julie Kent. “Every gesture has to carry the weight of desire, ambition, and consequence. Bringing it back after all this time feels like reintroducing Houston to one of its great love stories.”

The title role is widely considered one of the most demanding in the international repertoire, requiring a ballerina to move convincingly from naive convent girl to scheming Parisian courtesan to a woman undone by desperation, all within a single evening. The physical demands match the dramatic ones: Manon’s bedroom pas de deux and the ballet’s harrowing
final scene rank among the most technically and emotionally punishing partnered sequences in classical ballet.

Performance Details: Manon, September 24 – October 4, 2026 Schedule
7:30 p.m. on September 24 and 26 and October 2 and 3
2:00 p.m. on September 27 and October 4

Tickets available here.

Photo courtesy of Houston Ballet