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ABT’s Summer Season Has Stars, Farewells, and Celebrations in Store

June 4, 2025

With six weeks of full-length ballets performed in the grandeur of the Metropolitan Opera House, American Ballet Theatre’s summer season is always a highlight for ballet fans. But this year’s Met season promises to be among the most festive—and bittersweet—in recent memory.

The 2025 season begins with Swan Lake on June 10 (running through June 14), with a double celebration honoring the company’s 85th anniversary and the 25th year of the production, created by former artistic director Kevin McKenzie. Each following week brings a different ballet for a mix of other mainstays and new works: Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works (June 17–20) returns after its successful company premiere last season, followed by Giselle (June 21–28), the New York premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Shakespeare-inspired The Winter’s Tale (July 1–5), and Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia (July 8–12), which returns to ABT for the first time in nearly a decade. The season wraps up with a reprise of Swan Lake July 14–19.

  • Cassandra Trenary, as Giselle in Act 1, jetés forward widly, reaching up to the sky as she looks past her top hand. Her hair, left down, flies around her head as her blue peasant dress billows. Behind her, corps members dressed as villagers stand and watch with worried expressions.
    Cassandra Trenary in Giselle. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy American Ballet Theatre.
  • Onstage, three dancers perform in front of a set of huge square windows made from large wood beams. On the left, a couple dances together, the man in plié as he holds his partner on his forearms. She arches back, her stomach facing down, and tucks her legs in as she arches back to look at him, smiling. On the right, the third dancer rests her hand gently on the set, back turned to the audience as she looks down contemplatively, as if trespassing on the scene.
    From left: Joo Won Ahn, Sierra Armstrong, and Gillian Murphy in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy ABT.
  • Onstage, a massive tree dripping with moss and medals suspended by colorful ribbons, stands tall onstage. Two men lounge in the massive roots, one playing a flute. Downstage right, a dancer in a violet dress stands in tendu devant facing profile.
    Skylar Brandt and Jake Roxander in Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale. Photo by Marty Sohl, courtesy ABT.
  • Onstage, Isabella Boylston poses in a low arabesque on point, holding hands with two dancers knelt on either side of her. She leans forward using their grip as a counterbalance. The two dancers hold hands with a chain of other dancers posed in two mirroring lines behind them. The back-most pair pose in arabesque on flat.
    Isabella Boylston (right) and ABT dancers in Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy ABT.

Also this summer, two storied ABT careers are coming to an end. On July 5, principal dancer Cassandra Trenary will give her final performance with the company, as Hermione in The Winter’s Tale, before joining the Vienna State Opera Ballet. And on July 18, principal dancer Gillian Murphy will bring her famed 29-year career to a close with her farewell performance as Odette/Odile, opposite Thomas Forster.

Onstage, Gillian Murphy flies in a sauté arabesque, arms raised as if in flight, wearing an ornate black tutu with gold details.
Gillian Murphy in Swan Lake. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy ABT.

In addition to her Swan Lake swan song, Murphy will appear in ABT’s summer season as the leads in Woolf Works and Giselle. Her expansive repertoire includes a wide range of roles in classical and contemporary works across the ABT canon. Murphy has also built an influential teaching career, and since 2021 she has served as American Repertory Ballet’s artistic associate.

Trenary, like Murphy, has danced classic roles like Giselle, Juliet, and Aurora over her 15-year career at ABT, as well as new ones like Tita in Wheeldon’s Like Water for Chocolate. She’ll make one last debut in her final season as the lead in Woolf Works. Trenary sees parallels between her growth as an artist and ABT’s as a company: “ABT has a history of uplifting new voices, and holding space for new voices to come in has allowed the company to evolve with the times,” she says.

Cassandra Trenary transfers her weight to one leg, on pointe, as her other leg extends downward on the diagonal. She lifts her arms up, tucking them back behind her head to rest there. She wears a long white dress, and behind her two rows of corps dancers sit or stand to watch solemnly.
Cassandra Trenary in The Winter’s Tale. Photo by Marty Sohl, courtesy ABT.

As two beloved stars depart, two guest principals will take the stage: Dutch National Ballet’s Olga Smirnova as Giselle, on June 21, opposite Daniel Camargo, and The Royal Ballet’s Reece Clarke, who makes his ABT debut as Aminta in Sylvia on July 9, partnering Christine Shevchenko. Additional festive evenings include Pride Night on June 20, which features an additional ticketed event on the Met’s Grand Tier after Woolf Works, and a celebration of Hee Seo and Cory Stearns’ 20 years with ABT after their June 27 performance of Giselle. Then, the corps gets its flowers with a post-Sylvia toast on July 11 honoring its members’ artistic contributions.

For Trenary, there is wonder as well as sorrow in her final season on the Met stage. “Coming back to the Met every summer, you have a lot of emotions—I get nostalgic each time. There are so many memories—joys and heartbreaks, wonderful shows, shows I’d like to forget!” she says with a laugh. “I’ll never forget the first time I felt that curtain rise, the weight of it. It makes a sound, and you feel a breeze from the audience almost hit you, like a wave.”

american ballet theatre christopher wheeldon cory stearns giselle kevin mckenzie olga smirnova reece clarke swan lake woolf works