Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre is giving dancers the spotlight with season premiere

Classical ballet is seeing a resurgence in today’s pop culture landscape, with influencers sporting slicked-back buns and trendy ballet flats. Music videos like Olivia Rodrigo’s “Stupid Song” and Sombr’s “Potential” also draw inspiration from ballet with tutu-clad backup dancers. 

Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre is embracing this meeting of old and new with its Lagniappe: Classical Masterpieces & Contemporary Visions ballet performance, which will take place at 7 p.m. on Oct. 1 at the Baton Rouge Magnet High School Auditorium. Lagniappe, the season premiere of BRBT’s 2026-2027 season, is a mixed bill combining both classical and contemporary forms of dance. 

Ballet companies have evolved over the years, and now dancers must embrace much more than the classics, says Jonna Cox, co-artistic director for BRBT. “You have to be well-rounded and have to be able to dance different styles of dance,” she says.

Cox oversees the entire production of each of BRBT’s shows alongside co-artistic director Rebecca Acosta. Together, they decide on the programming, book the venue, cast the dancers, oversee costumes and set design, and complete any other tasks to ensure an excellent performance. 

Lagniappe will feature a total of eight numbers, including an excerpt from the 1870 classical ballet Coppélia, as well as neoclassical pieces and a new work called Effects by guest choreographer Shannon Johnson Grayson, a Baton Rouge native and assistant professor of dance at the University of Southern California. 

About 35 dancers will take the stage in Lagniappe, including three professional dancers from BRBT’s new Artists in Residence program. Cox says that it has been a long-time dream for the ballet company to have professional-level dancers in house, and Acosta says these dancers add a depth of experience to the company. 

“To have these dancers that are older, it just brings something special to the performance and a matureness that we haven’t had quite so much,” Acosta says.

No matter the dancers’ skill level or years of experience, Cox and Acosta want to spotlight them as much as possible, which is what inspired them to create Lagniappe.

“We used to just do two performances—Nutcracker and a spring concert,” Cox says. “By adding a fall show, this is giving our dancers another chance to perform, learn more choreography, and also gives our audience a chance to see another show.”

In addition to Lagniappe, audiences can also expect to see two more shows this season. The first will be BRBT’s annual holiday special The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou, which is performed to the original Tchaikovsky score but has a “taste of Louisiana sprinkled throughout,” says Cox. 

The spring show, rather than being a famous classical ballet, will be an original staging by Cox and Acosta called Mary Poppins and the Match-man, An Original Ballet, inspired by P.L. Traver’s 1926 short story of the same name. 

These two shows have the name recognition that draws many people to a ballet, but Acosta believes that it is just as important for audiences to see shows like Lagniappe that not only expose audiences to a centuries-old art form, but also show how the art form has evolved. 

“Seeing all those genres and seeing these dancers go from one thing to the next, I find that to be magical and something that I feel like everyone would want to see,” Acosta says.

Cox also wants people to know that ballet is not just a big-city dream. Many dancers will let go of dancing after high school or move away to pursue it as a career, but Cox says there is a flourishing community of dancers right here in Baton Rouge.

“I hope that our audience leaves Lagniappe feeling a sense of pride knowing that Baton Rouge has a ballet company that is full of talented and beautiful dancers,” she says. “I also hope that our audience feels a sense of human connection with our dancers, that they see not just the technical skills, but feel the emotions of our artists as well.”

BRBT will perform Lagniappe on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s website.