International Women's Day

International Women’s Day 2022

Celebrate International Women’s Day with the Royal Opera House, and join us for performances, tours and online content across social media platforms designed to celebrate the work of female artists, creatives, and leaders who have shaped the history of opera and ballet.

Explore our celebrations

Lost and Found

On Tuesday 8 March, from 11am to 6pm, commuters can enjoy Lost and Found - performed in St Pancras International Station. These seven free, newly-commissioned micro-operas have been created by female composer and librettist teams following an open call from the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.

NHS Performance at the Royal Opera House ©2021 ROH. Photograph by Lara Cappelli

HerStory of the Royal Opera House

This new tour shines a much-needed light on some of the talented and innovative women who have directed, worked on, and performed in productions at Covent Garden. The tours – drawing attention to war-time leaders, pioneering choreographers, and composers defying gender conventions – will run on select dates from Tuesday 8 March 2022. Tickets are available now.

Insights: Interrogating the Ballerina

Join us for a panel discussion examining society's perception of the female ballet dancer, taking the image of the 19th-century dancer as the starting point for a wider discussion about preconceptions, prejudices and shifting representations of women in ballet up to the present day.

Engender

The Royal Opera’s Engender Network continues to grow, amplifying the work of women and non-binary people in opera and collectively working to transform gender representation on and off our stages. Find out more about the network.

International Women's Day 2021

Take a look back over last year's celebrations for International Women's Day.

Influence, challenge, and change: What next for women in the creative industries?

A distinguished panel of top figures in the arts world came together to explore what impact women have on the arts today, what needs to change and what active steps we can take to improve gender equality in the creative industry and society at large.

Women in Technical Theatre, Let’s Change Our Future

Royal Opera House Deputy Director of Technical and Production, Emma Wilson spoke to some of the industry’s technical workforce, highlighting areas of positive change in attitudes and approach, while signalling how much more there is to do. Read the article here.

Lauren Taylor, Flys and Automation:Mechanical Engineering ©2019 ROH. Photograph by Sim Canetty-Clarke

In conversation: Pam Tanowitz and Beatriz Stix-Brunell

Watch a unique conversation between American choreographer Pam Tanowitz and former Royal Ballet First Soloist Beatriz Stix-Brunell exploring the process of creating Tanowitz’s critically acclaimed 2019 work Everyone Keeps Me, her first work for The Royal Ballet. Available to watch via Instagram.

Beatriz Stix-Brunell and artists of The Royal Ballet in Everyone Keeps Me, The Royal Ballet © 2019 ROH. Photograph by Bill Cooper

Open Call for Women Composers and Librettists

The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme put out an opera call for team of women composers and librettists to create an original art song for solo classical voice and piano of about 5-minutes. The films were broadcast via Facebook as part of our celebrations.

Kind regards is a darkly comic piece to camera follows the narrator as she grapples with an email to a male colleague questioning his actions, created by composer Lillie Harris and librettist Laura Attridge. The piece is performed by Jette Parker Link Artist April Koyejo-Audiger and directed by TD. Moyo, a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists’ 2020 opera director training programme. Watch via Facebook.

I am not yours – Mother Nature explores the exploitative relationship between humankind and mother nature, told through the narrative of women's objectification, created by composer Anna Semple and librettist Susannah Pearse. The piece is performed by Jette Parker Young Artist Stephanie Wake-Edwards and Caroline Dowdle. Watch via Facebook.

Get involved!

Use the hashtags #BreakTheBias and #IWD2022 to get involved with International Women's Day 2022 on social media.

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