They may have been born outside Scotland, but when Sophie Martin (France), Constance Devernay-Laurence (France) and Eve Mutso (Estonia) step onto the Theatre Royal stage in Glasgow, it will be a homecoming of sorts. All three spent years dancing with Scottish Ballet and graced that same stage on countless occasions. Back then, however, they were one of many; this time they’ll be stars of the show. 

Conceived and directed by Jamiel Devernay-Laurence, Ballet Nights is a new concept that aims to put dance and dancers exactly where they belong: in the spotlight. A former dancer with Scottish Ballet himself, he quickly discovered upon leaving the company that the life of a freelance dancer isn’t easy. And, despite the enormous amount of training required, the strict lifestyle and short career, the recompense is in a different universe to comparable careers like football. 

Devernay-Laurence’s aim with Ballet Nights is to showcase young, up-and-coming talent alongside seasoned dancers, in a way that lets the audience know exactly who’s on stage and how they can follow them. ‘Very rarely does anyone stand up and actually tell people what they’re seeing, who they’re seeing, and where they can see them next,’ he says. ‘So, we’ve become this kind of taster platform, that should have already existed and that’s present in every other ecology and economy but doesn’t really exist in dance in the same way yet.’ 

Alongside the three former Scottish Ballet principals mentioned before (who’ll be performing works by David Dawson, Christopher Wheeldon, Peter Darrell and Kenneth MacMillan), we’ll also see Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae dancing his own piece, ‘Czárdás’. They’ll be joined by Caspar Lench (who recently won Emerging Artist at the National Dance Awards), contemporary dance duos Ekleido and BlacBrik, and this year’s graduates from the BA Modern Ballet Programme at the Royal Conservatoire Of Scotland. 

‘I’m looking for balanced curation and we’re definitely a platform that experiments and tries new things,’ explains Devernay-Laurence. ‘The ballet gala format, which is the only real comparison found across the world, tends to be pas de deux after pas de deux, and it can become repetitive. You don’t actually want to see the best bits of Don Quixote or Giselle back-to-back; it doesn’t balance the palate. And there’s so much more to the dance story and the dance fabric. So, we have emerging artists, legacy classics, modern masterpieces and world stars. And we celebrate new voices alongside big names like Sophie Martin and Steven McRae.’

As for his role as compere, Devernay-Laurence fell into it by accident when they couldn’t afford printed programmes for the first edition of Ballet Nights back in 2021. Discovering that audiences responded to his introductions, and that it helped convey just who the talented artists on stage are, he built it into each performance. The concept has come a long way since then, attracting financial investors, receiving the backing of the UK’s big ballet companies, and branching out into theatres across Europe.

‘The format is king because it protects the audience from having to sit through too much of one thing,’ says Devernay-Laurence. ‘It’s quite a big ask to say to someone that’s never been to dance before: you’re going to sit through a three-hour Sleeping Beauty. So how do we edge audiences towards that? Well, we introduce them to a taste of everything. That’s why we have such support from dance companies, because we’re not there as competition.’ 

Ballet Nights, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Friday 4 July; Cadogan Hall, London, Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 September.