Pina Bausch’s Sweet Mambo comes to Sadler’s Wells Theatre from Wednesday 11 February – Saturday 21 February 2026. First staged in 2008, the legendary choreographer’s penultimate work makes its long-awaited London premiere at Sadler’s Wells.
Human emotion is captured, questioned and torn apart in this moving piece. Bausch’s dancers-turned-collaborators bring years of experience to communicate in movement what can’t be said in words. Created in the renowned Tanztheater style Bausch made famous, this performance lays bare the sweetness and severity of life.
Seven of the dancers from Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch who danced in the 2008 premiere return to the 2025 production alongside new members of the company, continuing Bausch’s legacy.
Sweet Mambo is one of many pieces in Bausch’s repertoire representing a nearly 30 year-long collaboration between Bausch and Peter Pabst, the original set designer for the piece. Characterised by billowing drapes which were also used in Bausch’s 2007 piece Bamboo Blues, Sweet Mambo sees Bausch’s dancers interact with the curtains. Pabst’s set design maintains an active conversation with the choreography, which lends Sweet Mambo Bausch’s signature visceral quality. Costumes by longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch Marion Cito help to tell the story.
Dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch (1940–2009) renamed the Wuppertal Ballet the “Tanztheater Wuppertal” upon her appointment as director in 1973. Her idea of combining dance and theatre revolutionised dance as we know it today.
Sadler’s Wells and Pina Bausch first collaborated in 1982 with the UK premiere of 1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch. Tanztheater Wuppertal returned in 1999 with Viktor, and since then the company has brought Bausch’s groundbreaking works to Sadler’s Wells stages more than 30 times. Highlights include Nelken (2005 and 2023), the iconic double bill of Café Müller and The Rite of Spring (2008), and Kontakthof (2022). In 2012, as part of the London Cultural Olympiad, Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican co-presented ten Bausch masterpieces in the acclaimed World Cities series.
In April 2026, as part of the biannual Elixir Festival celebrating dance artists over 60, Sadler’s Wells stages Kontakthof: Echoes of ’78, Pina Bausch’s seminal 1978 work boldly reimagined by former company dancer Meryl Tankard. This new production is a collaboration between Sadler’s Wells, the Pina Bausch Foundation, and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive Sir Alistair Spalding CBE said: “It’s a great privilege to finally bring Sweet Mambo to Sadler’s Wells next February for its London premiere. Her penultimate piece, Sweet Mambo essentialises everything that fascinates us about Pina’s work – the melancholia, the morbid and the bittersweet, with an undercurrent of poignancy. I’m so looking forward to seeing another Pina work in its London home.”
Tickets for Sweet Mambo are on sale now from £15 at www.sadlerswells.com
