Sadler’s Wells’ Spring 2018 season includes many highlights, primarily reflecting the venue’s long-term relationships with artists such as Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and its most recent Associate Artist, Crystal Pite. Supporting artists at every stage of their career is at the heart of what Sadler’s Wells does, and this begins with its commitment to nurturing the next generation of talent. The world premiere of National Youth Dance Company is a clear highlight each spring season, with the latest cohort of young dancers working with Sharon Eyal.
UK premieres include Carmen La Cubana featuring Bizet’s classic score, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan’s much-anticipated Formosa, and award-winning duo Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud’s DFS. This is the result of Bengolea’s immersion in Kingston, Jamaica’s defiant dance scene, and Chaignaud’s study of traditional medieval vocal polyphony repertory, stretching back hundreds of years. Candoco Dance Company will also present its commissioned double bill including Sadler’s Wells New Wave Associate Hetain Patel’s riotous Let’s Talk About Dis.
Sadler’s Wells Associate Company English National Ballet will present a mixed progamme featuring two works by one of dance’s leading figures, William Forsythe. There will be a world premiere of a new work created for the Company and Approximate Sonata 2016, a series of pas de deux deconstructing the vocabulary of classical ballet, performed to a score by Thom Willems.
For young audiences, Newcastle-based balletLORENT returns with another of its fantastical dance-theatre fairy-tale adaptations, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells. Directed by Liv Lorent, and retold by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Rumpelstiltskin has a score by Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, costumes designed by Michele Clapton (Game of Thrones), and narration by actor Ben Crompton.
From abroad, International Associate Company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch performs Viktor, and Canada’s most cutting-edge dance company Ballet British Columbia brings a triple bill of works by female choreographers. Work by Sharon Eyal, Emily Molnar and Olivier Award-winning Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, Crystal Pite, will all be performed, as part of a Dance Consortium tour.