Sadler’s Wells has announced its opening programme for Sadler’s Wells East, a new powerhouse for dance. Situated in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Sadler’s Wells East forms part of East Bank, the UK’s newest cultural and educational quarter, alongside the BBC Music Studios, London College of Fashion, UAL, V&A East and UCL East (University College London). The inaugural season will feature over 20 productions, including eight UK premieres and 10 Sadler’s Wells co-productions and commissions.
Sadler’s Wells East opens in February 2025, with Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s Our Mighty Groove featuring a community cast from east London alongside professional dancers. London-based artists will be championed throughout the opening season, which will culminate in a new collaboration with Stratford East.
The season will also showcase the best work being created across the country with artists from Manchester, Birmingham, Ashford, Leeds, Newcastle, Leicester, Cardiff all featured. Trajal Harrell, Mythili Prakash and Emma Martin will make their Sadler’s Wells debuts as programme spotlights leading international choreographic voices.
Audiences can expect a range of styles: everything from hip hop to bharatanatyam, ballet to dance theatre, vogue, house and waacking. The flexible auditorium will be transformed at various points into a skatepark, a club dance floor, a photography studio and an immersive rave experience.
Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells, said, “We are so pleased to be able to share the opening programme for Sadler’s Wells East. It reflects our vision for what we hope Sadler’s Wells East will be for many years: a cultural hub that has deep local roots, one that makes tangible national impact and has an international outlook. The season offers a kaleidoscope of dance styles, and there will be something for everyone. Whether you’ve visited one of our theatres many times before, or if this is your first introduction to Sadler’s Wells – you’ll get dance from every angle. Crucially, this is a space where dance can be created and shared, a space for the community to come and join in, and for dance artists to experiment and inspire the next generation.”
Britannia Morton, Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells, said, “Sadler’s Wells East is purposely built for dance and dance makers, we think it’s going to make such a difference. The building will contribute to a thriving local creative scene and the ecology of east London, we have committed to 50 percent of new roles going to residents from four local boroughs. We’re delighted to be collaborating with existing partners in the local area, including Stratford East, and our many community partners for the opening season. Accessibility is key to us, so we’re ensuring that 50 percent of all tickets across this season will be priced at £25 or less, with £10 tickets available to under 30s. Everyone is welcome, so please do come and join us in Stratford.”
Rob Jones, Associate Artistic Director of Sadler’s Wells, said, “My hope is that this theatre will become a really vital part of the dance ecology: a place where the community, the professional and the social all collide together in one big, beautiful cocktail that ultimately brings people into dance and act as a catalyst for developing choreographers. This first season is a fantastic mix of work, and we’re really excited that many artists from across the UK and around the world will be making their Sadler’s Wells debuts with us in our new building – this is an extremely special moment and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said, “The announcement of Sadler’s Wells East’s opening programme is another huge milestone in the East Bank story. It will give dance in the capital a huge boost, with a wide range of productions to enjoy and fantastic opportunities for local performers to work alongside professional dancers. We are creating a powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning at East Bank, and Sadler’s Wells East is a fantastic example of what it will achieve as we build a better London for everyone.”
Championing local artists
The season opens in February 2025 with Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s Our Mighty Groove, a celebration of community and the power of the dance floor. The Sadler’s Wells production sees dancers from the local area join Uchenna Dance. Igbokwe-Ozoagu worked as a Mass Movement Choreographer at the London 2012 Olympics and has a longstanding relationship with Sadler’s Wells.
In June, Sadler’s Wells collaborates with Stratford East for the first time on an ambitious production of Romeo & Juliet adapted by Kwame Owusu. The production is co-directed by Emily Ling Williams and Malik Nashad Sharpe (marikiscrycrycry) and features community casts of actors and dancers from the local area, assembled by Stratford East and Sadler’s Wells respectively. Romeo and Juliet forms part of Stratford East’s 140th anniversary celebrations.
Dagenham-born Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Botis Seva presents Until We Sleep, the latest work created for his company Far From the Norm. The Sadler’s Wells co-production sees a lone warrior lead a wandering community through shifting passages of time.
Multi-award-winning dance artist and cultural innovator Ivan Michael Blackstock from South London presents TRAPLORD, a Sadler’s Wells co-production, which ruminates on life, death and rebirth and questioning the stereotyping of Black men in contemporary western society.
Candoco Dance Company has commissioned Dan Daw Creative Projects to create Over and Over (and over again), a show inspired by rave culture, which looks at what happens when we dare to colour outside the lines to create our own dance floor utopia.
Alexander Whitley, whose company is based on Fish Island, adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, presents a double bill featuring his radical interpretation of The Rite of Spring using digital technology alongside new work made in collaboration with Australian avant-garde musician, sound designer and composer Ben Frost.
Platforming UK talent
Sadler’s Wells East provides a home for some of the most exciting dance being produced across the country, and its opening season includes work by artists and companies from Manchester, Birmingham, Ashford, Leeds, Newcastle, Leicester, Cardiff, as well as a showcase of new choreographic creations from young people across the country.
BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s company of some of the best young ballet dancers from across the globe, makes its Sadler’s Wells debut with a Carlos Acosta’s Ballet Celebration, a repertoire that includes The Firebird, Spectre de la Rose, Les Sylphides and Scheherazade.
Birmingham-based HUMANHOOD presents ∞ {Infinite}, a dance theatre meditation guiding audiences through a mystical journey within the elements of water, fire, air and earth.
From Manchester, hip hop theatre pioneer turned award-winning photographer Benji Reid draws from his life experiences in Find Your Eyes, a unique show exploring vulnerability, tragedy and triumph in which the stage becomes a photography studio.
Artist and performance maker Eve Stainton shares their new choreographic work, Impact Driver, a Sadler’s Wells co-commission, which features live welding, movement and sound to explore the methodologies behind constructing thriller-like suspense.
Manchester-based Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Dan Daw presents The Dan Daw Show, a peep into the shiny and sweaty push pull of living with shame while bursting with pride. This is a show about care, intimacy and resilience, about letting go and reclaiming yourself.
Phoenix Dance Theatre from Leeds, now headed up by Marcus Jarrell Willis, transpose a seminal work by James Baldwin to the stage in Inside Giovanni’s Room, tackling themes of love, sexuality, guilt and self-acceptance.
Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Jasmin Vardimon revisits iconic moments from her company’s 25-year history in NOW. The Kent-based company thread highlights from hits including Park, Yesterday, ALiCE and more into a new narrative work.
Celebrated dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra from Leicester interprets an ancient Sufi story about a captured bulbul, a common songbird throughout Africa and Asia, in an exchange between the Indian classical dance Sufi kathak and Islamic poetry.
Dance theatre company balletLORENT from Newcastle brings two takes on the classic tale of Snow White to Sadler’s Wells East over Easter: a family-friendly version performed during the day, and for one evening only, The Sacrifice, a reimagined version for older audiences that delves into the psyche of the Queen. Both are adapted by Carol Ann Duffy.
Brothers Anthony and Kel Matsena of Cardiff-based Matsena Productions bring a reimagined telling of Cain and Abel, a sibling rivalry that has rippled through time and imaginations. KABEL potently mixes text and movement, delving into feelings of jealousy, rage and redemption.
Celebrating international perspectives
The new building will also spotlight some of the most interesting and unique international choreographic voices creating work today.
Internationally acclaimed US choreographer Trajal Harrell presents his latest work, a collaboration with Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble set to Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert, the most successful piano solo recording of all time, and the music of Joni Mitchell. Harrell is also an artistic advisor on the Rose Choreographic School.
Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen, who is based in The Netherlands, presents Skatepark. Together with a group of skateboarders and dancers, Ingvartsen explores the speed and energy of movement on wheels – a passion from her youth. Prior to the performances, there will be a prelude from the local skate community.
Celebrated Los Angeles-based bharatanatyam artist Mythili Prakash assembles an all-female cast for She’s Auspicious, a production that blurs the line between Goddess and Woman to explore the intricate interplay between the worship and treatment of women in society.
The ever-inventive choreographer Sharon Eyal, a Sadler’s Wells Associate, and long-term collaborator Gai Behar from Israel join London based multi-arts company and record label Young for a night of dance and music in R.O.S.E, as the auditorium is transformed into an immersive club setting.
Birdboy from Irish choreographer Emma Martin is a tribute to all the weird kids left on the sidelines, which burrows inside the chaotic and vivid inner world of someone who doesn’t fit in. Featuring dancer Kévin Coquelard, the production presents an otherworldly landscape of isolation, fantasy and letting go.
Sadler’s Wells East is home to two educational facilities. Academy Breakin’ Convention, the UK’s first free Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performance and Production Arts specific to Hip Hop Theatre for 16 – 19 year-olds, which welcomes its first intake of students in 2025. The Rose Choreographic School is an experimental research project; its first cohort of 13 dance artists have already embarked on an intensive two-year course to develop their own choreographic practice.
The building, which will be open to the public throughout the day, features two catering spaces and The Dance Floor, a public performance space in our wrap-around foyer which gives a platform for community groups, guest artists and more. Six state-of-the-art studios will enable dance artists to develop their practice and create new work. The theatre will also be a new production base and opening venue for some of Sadler’s Wells’ own productions, many of which will be seen on the road, as Sadler’s Wells continues to grow its UK and global touring output.
Sadler’s Wells will host YFX Youth Festival in summer 2025 across Sadler’s Wells East and Sadler’s Wells in Angel. The two-week festival will include the national platform of Making Moves, a choreography and performance project that invites school and youth groups from across England to showcase their own choreography, a collaboration with One Dance UK on the U.Dance National Showcase, and the London premiere of National Youth Dance Company’s latest work, choreographed by Boy Blue.
Sadler’s Wells East and East Bank is generously supported by the Mayor of London, UK Government and the London Legacy Development Corporation. Sadler’s Wells East is also supported by private donors, including Humphrey Battcock, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, The Dorfman Foundation, Brenda Leff, and two anonymous major donors, and organisations including Backstage Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Wolfson Foundation.
Major funding from headline sponsor Barclays, and the Mohn Westlake Foundation will help to bring these new spaces to life. The Foyle Foundation is the Lead Donor of the Sadler’s Wells Creative Development Fund, which will support adventurous creative projects at Sadler’s Wells East.
Sadler’s Wells is also launching a public name-a-seat opportunity to help support the work it presents across its venues.
Tickets for the opening season of Sadler’s Wells East are now on sale. For more information, visit www.sadlerswells.com/your-visit/sadlers-wells-east/welcome-to-sadlers-wells-east.
