Little Dancer

Little Dancer is a new dance-based musical staged at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, telling the story of the young dancer who posed for Edgar Degas's celebrated sculpture.

The show follows Marie van Goethem, a fourteen-year-old dancer from a poor background in Belle époque Paris, and her relationship with the painter and sculptor Edgar Degas, who made her the subject of his well-known work. The story explores ambition, art and the question of whether a person shapes their own destiny or is shaped by it, set against a city where beauty and hardship existed side by side.

The creative team includes Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the writers behind Anastasia, Ragtime and Once on This Island, with Susan Stroman directing and choreographing. The cast features Tiler Peck, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, alongside Julian Ovenden, Laura Pitt-Pulford and Josefina Gabrielle. The production is presented in a run of several weeks at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, a London theatre that hosts concerts and shows, ahead of a world tour.

The material aims the piece at anyone who has felt overlooked or has dared to dream beyond what they were told was possible. Its dance-led staging is central to the show, and it is presented as a new musical rather than a revival.