Sadler’s Wells East announces inaugural season including skateboarding performance, live welding and more

Sadler’s Wells has announced the programme for the inaugural season of its new venue, Sadler’s Wells East, set to open in February 2025.

The new theatre, located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is part of the East Bank cultural development. Its opening season will feature over 20 productions from February to July, including eight UK premieres and ten Sadler’s Wells co-productions and commissions, spotlighting a diverse range of artists from across the UK and beyond.

The season opens with Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu’s Our Mighty Groove, a production that celebrates the power of the dance floor and community. It will feature a cast from east London alongside professional dancers from Uchenna Dance. Igbokwe-Ozoagu, known for her work as Mass Movement Choreographer at the 2012 London Olympics, brings her longstanding relationship with Sadler’s Wells into this production.

The venue will collaborate with Stratford East on a new production of Romeo and Juliet, adapted by Kwame Owusu and featuring community casts. This co-directed production by Emily Ling Williams and Malik Nashad Sharpe (marikiscrycrycry) will include community casts of actors and dancers from the local area. The production forms part of Stratford East’s 140th anniversary celebrations.

Sadler’s Wells associate artist and Dagenham-born choreographer Botis Seva will present Until We Sleep. The work, created for his company Far From the Norm, follows a lone warrior guiding a wandering community through passages of time, offering a raw and immersive experience in contemporary dance. Artist and performance maker Eve Stainton will share their new choreographic work, Impact Driver, a Sadler’s Wells co-commission, which features live welding, movement and sound.

South London dance artist Ivan Michael Blackstock bring the award-winning TRAPLORD, a co-production with Sadler’s Wells. The piece reflects on life, death, and rebirth, exploring the stereotyping of Black men in contemporary society. Over and Over (and over again), commissioned by Candoco Dance Company, comes from Dan Daw Creative Projects and takes inspiration from rave culture.

East London-based choreographer Alexander Whitley will present a double bill that includes his radical interpretation of The Rite of Spring, utilising digital technology. Whitley’s innovative approach combines dance and digital media, and this double bill will also feature a new collaboration with Australian composer Ben Frost.

Sadler’s Wells East will also provide a platform for regional talent across the UK, with productions from artists based in Manchester, Birmingham, Ashford, Leeds, Newcastle, Leicester, and Cardiff.

BRB2, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s young company, will present Ballet Celebration, a programme that includes The Firebird, Spectre de la Rose, Les Sylphides, and Scheherazade. HUMANHOOD, a Birmingham-based company, brings ∞ {Infinite}, a dance theatre meditation exploring the elements of water, fire, air, and earth. Manchester’s Benji Reid presents Find Your Eyes, which blends photography and hip hop theatre to reflect on vulnerability and resilience.

Phoenix Dance Theatre from Leeds will mount Inside Giovanni’s Room, a work inspired by James Baldwin’s novel, exploring themes of love, sexuality, and self-acceptance. Leicester-based Aakash Odedra will present The Captive Bulbul, a work rooted in the Sufi tradition, blending kathak and Islamic poetry.

Other shows across the season include Skatepark by Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen features dancers and skateboarders in a unique exploration of movement, with local skate communities involved in prelude performances. US choreographer Trajal Harrell’s latest work, set to Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert and the music of Joni Mitchell, debuts in the new venue. She’s Auspicious by Los Angeles-based bharatanatyam artist Mythili Prakash will explore the interplay between worship and the treatment of women in society. Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal and London-based Young join forces for R.O.S.E., an immersive dance and music night, transforming the auditorium into a club-like atmosphere. Birdboy by Irish choreographer Emma Martin presents an introspective journey through the inner world of an outcast, performed by Kévin Coquelard.

Sadler’s Wells East will also host the YFX Youth Festival in summer 2025, which includes Making Moves, a choreography and performance project for school and youth groups across England. The festival will also showcase the work of the National Youth Dance Company, choreographed by Boy Blue, as part of the U.Dance National Showcase in collaboration with One Dance UK.

Fifty per cent of all tickets are priced at £25 or less and £10 tickets are available for under-30s.

The venue was hailed as a “gamechanger” by executive director Britannia Morton at a launch event today in the Olympic park. She highlighted that the venue was created expressly for both the local community, with open and accessible spaces, as well as dance makers, with six large rehearsal spaces as part of the new venue. Sadler’s Wells East also has a stage size to match that of the main Sadler’s Wells theatre in Angel, but now with a smaller capacity of 550 seats to enable work for mid-scale artists. The auditorium also has retractable seating for added flexibility.