Following performances in New York, Lyon and Sydney, and its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells in 2018, and Natalia Osipova’s Pure Dance returns from Tuesday 22 – Saturday 26 October.
Produced by Sadler’s Wells, and commissioned for the theatre’s 20th anniversary, Pure Dance is a hand-picked programme of dance works exploring both contemporary and classical ballet repertoire rarely seen in the UK.
The eclectic programme includes an original solo for Osipova created by Yuka Oishi, Ave Maria, following Oishi’s win of the Rolf Mares Prize for Outstanding Creation of the Year alongside Orkan Dann in 2012. Special guest, American Ballet Theatre Principal David Hallberg, performs a specially-commissioned solo In Absentia, choreographed by Olivier Award-winner Kim Brandstrup.
Osipova and Hallberg perform two duets over the course of the evening, including a pas de deux from Antony Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading, one of the last works by the British choreographer; as well as Valse Triste, a new commission by artist in residence at American Ballet Theatre, Alexei Ratmansky.
Dancers Jason Kittelberger and Jonathan Goddard complete the company. Kittelberger, who performed alongside Osipova in her eponymous programme for Sadler’s Wells in 2016, appears in Israeli choreographer Roy Assaf’s Six Years Later – now extended for this year’s programme. Goddard joins Osipova in Flutter, a new work by Rose D’Or and Golden Prague award-winner (for BalletBoyz’ Young Men) Iván Pérez, set to music by Nico Muhly.
The return of Pure Dance to Sadler’s Wells follows a busy summer for Osipova. Alongside performing the Pure Dance tour, she appeared in Arthur Pita’s The Mother with Goddard at Southbank Centre, and a film of her dance career, Force of Nature Natalia, was premiered on 6 June, followed by UK-wide cinema release and broadcast on Sky Arts TV.