Sadler’s Wells East revealed

September 9, and the good weather gods were not with us but everything else seemed set for a remarkable expansion of dance in London’s East Bank. Sadler’s Wells East will open on February 6 in the Olympic Park. It has artistic companions: the BBC music studios are right next door also London College of Fashion, V&A East with UAL and UCL East close by. Can we hope that the designation ‘East Bank’ will someday have the artistic cache of Paris’s famous Rive Gauche?

The project Sadler’s Wells East has been a long time in the planning. As artistic director Alistair Spalding noted, “We haven’t just landed!” The team seems to have all bases covered. There are six impressively large rehearsal rooms for hatching ideas, and with views of the Olympic Park. At performance level the auditorium is a model of versatility with many different configurations. There’s even a properly sprung dance floor in the foyer for local talent to use.

A panel of choreographers working across the UK gave examples of how this innovation space will bring the germ of ideas to fruition. Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu presents the premiere production, Our Might Groove, a celebration of the East London community. She said, “I have the ideas, now how do I make them possible? With Sadler’s Well behind me, I can make the ‘how’ of creation possible.”

Aakash Odedra made an interesting point when he commented how the freshness of a brand-new space released the artists from the burden of heritage. He will be presenting Songs of the Bulbul, an exchange between kathak dance and Sufi poetry, later in the season. In between there is an impressive range of choreographic voices of many diverse genres from across the UK and the world.

Spalding explained how the new premises will cover all bases from research to performance. There is the hip hop theatre training centre, Academy Breakin’ Convention, and the Rose Choreographic School. The theatre itself is highly adaptive and tickets are competitively priced with 50% priced at £25 or less. There will be £10 tickets available to under 30s.

Britania Morton, Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells who has led the project said their hope is that the building will contribute to a thriving local creative scene. To help this happen 50% of new roles will go to residents of the four local boroughs.

The presentation closed with a very brief dance performance on the outside stage (in the wet and cold) where a very brave Tzu-Chao Chou performed Valery Panov’s Liebestod and a local group gave us a fine quartet of street dance. The theatre will be operational all year round and the building will be open to the public at all hours. Adding this to Sadler’s existing programmes including The Peacock and the Lilian Baylis, don’t expect to have many free nights to sit at home!