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Go behind the scenes at Sadler’s Wells with #DancePassion

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We’re excited to be part of #DancePassion – a new festival organised by BBC Arts in collaboration with One Dance UK, showcasing extraordinary dance from the four corners of the UK. As part of the live streaming day on Friday 5 April, we’re taking you behind the scenes at Sadler’s Wells to join exceptional dance-makers as they create and rehearse three works at different stages of development. We’ll be live streaming all the action on the Sadler’s Wells Facebook page and at www.bbc.co.uk/dance


Live from Sadler’s Wells
Friday 5 April

1.30pm
Akram Khan Company

Our Associate Artist Akram Khan invites you in to a rehearsal for his new company production, Outwitting the Devil. Drawing inspiration from the most recently discovered tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Akram and his collaborators are creating the narrative of six characters seeking to make whole the fragments of ancient knowledge lost and forgotten over time.

3pm
English National Ballet

Dancers from our Associate Company English National Ballet rehearse Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings, based on the life and art of Frida Kahlo. It’s one of three pieces featured in She Persisted, a programme of work by female choreographers performed at Sadler’s Wells on 4 – 13 April. She Persisted continues English National Ballet’s commitment to showcasing women’s voices in dance, and follows 2016’s celebrated She Said programme.

4pm
National Youth Dance Company

National Youth Dance Company is made up of 38 talented young dancers from all over England who are keen to make their mark on the dance world. Eight dancers from the company rehearse their new work MADHEAD with Olivier-nominated choreographer Botis Seva, this year’s Guest Artistic Director. Drawing on Botis’ unique movement language of physical theatre and hip hop, and on the exuberant, impulsive energy of youth culture, MADHEAD makes its world premiere at Ipswich’s DanceEast on 20 April, followed by a national tour culminating at Sadler’s Wells.

You can watch all the action live on the Sadler’s Wells Facebook page and see the full #DancePassion schedule on www.bbc.co.uk/dance

Akram Khan Company, English National Ballet, One Dance UK and Sadler’s Wells are among Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations. National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) is supported using public funding by the Department for Education and Arts Council England.

Award-winning Betroffenheit at Sadler’s Wells broadcast on BBC4

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Sadler’s Wells’ co-production Betroffenheit, created by Associate Artist Crystal Pite and author and actor Jonathon Young, will be broadcast on BBC4 this Sunday 7 May at 9pm.

Described as “an astonishingly ambitious, brilliantly realised, tender-hearted meditation on the nature of bereavement, grief, and the coping strategies of the mind”, the production is a sensitively and exceptionally crafted mix of choreography and theatre that investigates the state of shock, speechlessness and confusion experienced by an individual following traumatic events.

As well as having authored the script, Young performs in the central role, for which he won the Outstanding Performance in Modern Dance award at the 2016 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Pite’s choreography demonstrates her absolute command of the dance-making territory at the intersection between narrative and abstraction.

The work received plaudits from critics and public alike during its two successful runs at Sadler’s Wells, and in April won the 2017 Olivier award for best new dance production. Betroffenheit is an extraordinary and affecting work – watch it on BBC4 on 7 May, or catch the production on iPlayer for the 30 days after the broadcast.

 

Image: Betroffenheit. Photo: Micheal Slobodian.