10 Reasons to Travel with Tours en l'air (2024)

1) Come back with enriched knowledge and appreciation. You, like more and more people, find that you get more out of your holidays if they have a theme and can be shared with like-minded people. I will share with you my in-depth knowledge of and love for ballet, and you will expand your own experience of the art form greatly. Become one of the ballet cognoscenti!

2) So much ballet, so little time. There is way more fantastic ballet out there in the world than you can see with your home ballet company, often limited to only 5 or 6 programs in a year, or even fewer. Each ballet company has its own repertoire, so you won't be seeing the same ballets you see at home (for instance, on our recent trip to Germany, out of 21 ballets, only 2 were also in the repertoire of the National Ballet of Canada). Some great ballets are performed only by one company and never toured, so the only way to see them is to go where they are performed (for a very good example of this, see my "Why travel for ballet?" post). Other ballets are performed with a particular style unique to the company where they were created. Some famous ballet companies, and the world's current top ballet stars, are just must-sees for the true balletomane.

3) See as much ballet in as little time and as efficiently as possible. I maintain a master calendar of the major companies' performing schedules which allows me to identify the “most ballet for your buck” travel opportunities. However, I know you don't want your holiday to feel like work. Thus I plan the trips with plenty of “breathing room” so that you're not too tired to enjoy a performance and don't get that “If this is Tuesday it must be Swan Lake” feeling!

4) Get fantastic seats to see ballets you love performed by top-notch companies. I have an in-depth knowledge of the world's ballet companies and dancers, and the international repertoire. I plan each trip with the same care as an artistic director designing a company's season, to ensure that you will enjoy it. My years of travelling on my own personal ballet holidays mean that I know the opera houses so I make sure you get great seats, usually before tickets are released to the general public. Get that "ballet insider" edge as you discover those "best-kept-secret" companies, dancers, and repertoire that the true aficionados know about, or rising stars before they become household names.

5) Behind-the-scenes “can't buy” experiences. Thanks to my connections in the ballet world, I can often arrange meetings with dancers and musicians, opportunities to watch class, etc. -- events you just couldn't arrange as an individual travelling on your own. Among those participants have enjoyed so far:

Dinner with Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Nehemiah Kish

Lunch with Birmingham Royal Ballet Soloist Steven Monteith

Dinner with Dutch National Ballet Music Director Ermanno Florio

Dinner with 4 Royal Ballet of Flanders dancers

Watching company class at Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, and Dutch National Ballet

Dinner with former National Ballet of Canada Principal Johan Persson
"Meet the Dancer" Q&A's with Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Robert Parker (click here to read my report), First Soloist Celine Gittens, and First Artist and choreographer Kit Holder
Dinner with Stuttgart Ballet dancers Demis Volpi, Brent Parolin, and Heather MacIsaac

Dinner with Bavarian State Ballet dancer Shawn Throop
Watching the creative process as choreographer Young Soon Hue set her new Carmina Burana on Ballet Augsburg
Lunch with Ballet Augsburg Artistic Director Robert Conn
Dinner and a Q&A with Joffrey Ballet Principal Dancer Fabrice Calmels
Backstage tour of the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House with San Francisco Ballet Technical Director Chris Dennis
Watching rehearsals at Smuin Ballet
Dinner with Hamburg Ballet dancers Chris Evans, Graeme Fuhrmann, Natalie Ogonek, and Sara Coffield
Watching boys' Bournonville class taught by retired Royal Danish Ballet star, Bournonville expert and director of the Royal Danish Ballet School Thomas Lund
Q&A with Principal Dancer Daniel Ulbricht of New York City Ballet
Watching Vienna State Ballet backstage warmup before a performance of Swan Lake
Watching rehearsal at Brno National Theatre Ballet (twice) and lunch with dancers Camille and Radim Kafka and Artistic Director Mario Radacovsky
Dinner with Dresden Semperoper Ballet Artistic Director Aaron Watkin
Dinner with Vienna State Ballet dancers Ryan Booth, Greig Matthews, and James Stephens
Dinner with Dutch National Ballet dancer Martin ten Kortenaar
Watching class and rehearsal at Dresden Semperoper Ballet
Dinner with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens principal dancer Hervé Courtain
Attending a performance and having dinner and brunch and Q&A with Evelyn Hart

Guided tours of the David H. Koch theatre with the following New York City Ballet Dancers: Jared Angle, Troy Schumacher, Ashley Laracey, and Unity Phelan

Dinner with Czech National Ballet dancers Alexandra Pera and Tudor Moldoveanu

Watching Swan Lake rehearsals at Ballett Zurich

Dinner with Ballett Zurich dancers Cohen Aitchison Dugas, Patrick Foster, Wei Chen, and Elizabeth Wisenberg, and Bavarian State Ballet dancers Henry Grey, Brandon Demmers, and Freya Thomas

Private post-performance chat with Ballet Augsburg Artistic Director Robert Conn and dancer Eveline Demmen.

Lunch and Q&A with former dancers Robert Tewsley and Thomas Gallus at their lovely home at http://chateaumathias.com/

Dinner with Ballet du Capitole Toulouse dancers Jackson Carroll, Lauren Kennedy, Matthew Astley, and Evangeline Ball

Dinner with Ballet de l'Opera National de Bordeaux dancers Austin Lui, Ash Whittle, Marc-Emmanuel Zanoli, Marina Guizien

Dinner with Dutch National Ballet dancers James Stout, Martin ten Kortenaar, Khayla Fitzpatrick, Lauren Ostrander, Erica Horwood, and Nadine Drouin

Watching company class at Gyori Ballet, Hungary

Dinner with Hungarian National Ballet dancers Danielle Gould and Mark James Biocca

Dinner with Royal Danish Ballet dancers Ji Min Hong, Wilma Giglio , Liam Redhead, Ryan Tomash, Bryant Steenstra, James Clark, Elenora Morris, and Heather Dunn

See Also

Travel Tips for Ballet Lovers

Watching Mariinsky Ballet Le Corsaire in the company of The Washington Ballet Studio Company Samara Rittinger and Jessy Dick.

Dinner with Stuttgart Ballet dancers Jason Reilly, Anna Osadcenko, Elisa Badenes, Matteo Crockard-Villa, and Jessica Fyfe, and Ballet Mistress Yseult Lendvai.

co*cktails with Gauthier Dance dancer Robert Stephen.

Tours en l'air group watching Royal Ballet of Flanders Company class with

Artistic Director Kathryn Bennetts (second from right)

Reid Anderson, Artistic Director of the Stuttgart Ballet, with Tours en l'air group members

Dinner with Stuttgart Ballet dancers Heather MacIsaac, Demis Volpi, and Brent Parolin

Joffrey Ballet Principal Dancer Fabrice Calmels captivates the Chicago Tours en l'air group
talking about studying at the
Paris Opera Ballet School and his career as a dancer.

Martin ten Kortenaar at dinner

Chatting with Igone de Jongh

Chatting with Erica Horwood and James Stout

6) All the trip planning details are taken care of for you! You don't have to spend your precious time planning the trip in advance. It's not unheard-of, for instance, to have to be in an online queue for an hour in the middle of the night to be sure of getting Paris Opera Ballet or Royal Ballet tickets. Consider this recent apology from the Royal Opera House (January 2013), and this second one in April 2013.: "We do understand the incredible frustration for everyone who encountered a problem and who were unable to complete their purchases on Tuesday, especially since the high demand meant that tickets rapidly became unavailable." ... and this third one in January 2014 ("Those of you who have felt the pain of booking days in the past may fear that this is more of the same.") and this fourth one in June 2014 ("We are working hard to ensure that the problems visitors experienced today will not be repeated.").. Meanwhile here's a comment from a ballet chat site: "Boy, I've had some bad booking experiences on the Paris Opera site but nothing quite like this. Drupal, Secutix errors and more - and that's after a waiting room. Then lots more error messages flying, shopping cart continually emptied, being constantly logged out... No idea yet if I've got tickets." Neither do you have to spend time finding a place to eat before a performance, lining up to pick up your tickets, figuring out how to get to the theatre from the hotel, etc. Free of these mundane details, you can enjoy every minute of your trip.

8) Only unpack once, or at most twice. You don't want to spend your holiday packing and unpacking. I guarantee you will only have to unpack once, or at most twice, and that you will have at least 3 days in any one city (at least 4 in European cities). Day trips (maximum 2 ½ hours by luxury coach or train) allow you to visit other cities without having to move everything with you.

9) Balance of free time and guided tours. When appropriate (unfamiliar destination, language barrier, difficulty of getting to an interesting destination on your own), I arrange coach excursions and private group tours provided by knowledgeable local guides so that you can get the most out of your visit. We focus on quality rather than quantity so that you don't feel rushed from one monument or performance to another. But I also leave you free time to explore and discover on your own.

10) Personal attention. It makes me happy to make people happy. I personally care that you enjoy yourself fully, and I do whatever it takes to ensure that you do, by sharing great ballet experiences and discovering beautiful destinations.

BALLET MAKES LIFE BETTER - GET MORE BALLET OUT OF LIFE WITH TOURS EN L'AIR