Sadler's Wells Announces Autumn/Winter 2017 Season

Sadler's Wells' new season features a world first for artistic research

Tickets are on sale from Monday 22 May at 10am for Sadler's Wells' Autumn / Winter 2017 season, which features a host of new shows by the theatre's Associate Artists and companies produced or co-produced by Sadler's Wells, including a highly personal new production by Wayne McGregor that, in a world first for dance and the arts, has genetic sequencing at the heart of its choreographic research.

These productions include a total of five world premieres by Wayne McGregor and BalletBoyz, a UK premiere by Hofesh Shechter and the much-anticipated UK premiere of International Associate Company Acosta Danza. Audiences will also have another chance to see work by Jasmin Vardimon, along with award-winning productions by Matthew Bourne (performed by Resident Company New Adventures), Michael Keegan-Dolan, and Akram Khan (performed by Associate Company English National Ballet). Khan also curates the dance programme of the Darbar Festival, which Sadler's Wells hosts this year for the first time.

Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Wayne McGregor is a multi-award winning British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance that have radically redefined dance in the modern era. Beyond the dance stage, he has been in demand as a choreographer for theatre, opera, TV and film including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Sing, music videos (Radiohead, Thom Yorke, The Chemical Brothers) and fashion shows (Gareth Pugh, New York Fashion Week 2014). In over 20 years of collaborative multi-disciplinary works he has partnered with artists such as John Tavener, Audrey Niffenegger, Jamie xx, Max Richter, Olafur Eliasson, Thom Yorke, Mark Wallinger, Jon Hopkins, John Pawson and Mark-Anthony Turnage.

The visionary contemporary choreographer has led his own Sadler's Wells Resident Company, Company Wayne McGregor onto ever more radical and challenging innovations. For the world premiere of his aptly titled Autobiography (4 to 7 October 2017) followed by a UK and world tour), he embarks on his boldest and most intimate collaboration to date, as he allows world-leading geneticists to sequence his entire genome.

His personal biological archaeology laid bare will dramatically alter McGregor's viewpoint on his own life-story, tracing patterns back into the ancestral past of our species and illuminating what creates our individuality. Combining memoir, documentary, and a re-processing of nature's code through an act of human imagination, this new work charts McGregor's adventure into his autobiography, and asks how to understand a life.

Autobiography marks the first piece he will create in his own recently opened space, Studio Wayne McGregor. Located in the heart of technology and media centre Here East, the space embodies McGregor's life-long interest in research and collaboration with science and technology research, and will be his centre for experimental creative projects in biology and genetics, AI, VR and new technologies.

For Autobiography, his creative team includes set design by Hackney-based artist and designer Ben Cullen Williams whose clients include Calvin Klein, Erdem and The Serpentine Gallery. Music is by electronic musician Jlin, a former steel mill worker from Gary, Indiana, credited with bringing a unique sound to the Chicago-born footwork genre. She began producing music in 2008, and her track Erotic Heat featured on the 2011 Planet Mu compilation Bangs and Works Vol. 2. The song was later used to accompany a 2014 Rick Owens fashion show, and her debut album, Dark Energy, was released in 2015 to critical acclaim. Her long-awaited second album is released on 19 May 2017. Lighting is by long-standing collaborator and award-winning lighting designer Lucy Carter, and dramaturg is Uzma Hameed, with whom he worked on the award-winning 2015 production for The Royal Ballet, Woolf Works. Autobiography is a Sadler's Wells co-production.

Other highlights by Associate Artists and companies include, BalletBoyz presenting a quartet of world premieres that demonstrate the range and ability of their versatile dancers. Showcased in one evening as part of 14 Days (10 - 14 October), choreographers Javier De Frutos, Craig Revel Horwood, Iván Pérez and Christopher Wheeldon have teamed up with composers Scott Walker, Charlotte Harding, Joby Talbot and Keaton Henson to create their pieces for the company of 10 male dancers, in 14 days.

Fallen forms the second half of the evening, choreographed by Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Russell Maliphant and set to a powerful score by French film composer Armand Amar. FAllen Won the award for Best Modern Choreography at the 2013 National Dance Awards and features lighting from Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Michael Hulls.

Following an exceptional career of more than 20 years as one of the world's leading ballet dancers, international star Carlos Acosta launches his new company, Acosta Danza from 27 - 30 September, followed by a UK tour.

Made up of the best dancers Cuba has to offer, the company includes dancers trained in both ballet and contemporary dance styles. Performing new and existing pieces by Cuban choreographers rarely seen outside the country, Acosta Danza will also commission new pieces from international choreographers taking inspiration from their iconic nation. For Debut, in which Acosta himself makes a guest appearance, they perform works by Cuban choreographer Marianela Boán, Spanish dance-maker Goyo Montero, New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck and Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

For the first time, Sadler's Wells hosts the Darbar Festival (9 - 12 November), with Associate Artist Akram Khan curating a celebration of classical Indian music and dance, and performing in the opening evening on 9 November. Alongside revered musical masters of the Indian subcontinent, and new talents, Darbar comes to Sadler's Wells to offer a classical dance programme for the first time since the festival launched over ten years ago. The Festival will continue to present a programme at its regular home, the Southbank Centre, while this year expanding to include Sadler's Wells and the Barbican Centre.

Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Hofesh Shechter's work is part dance, part gig, pArt Theatre and is instantly identifiable. Balancing the comic and the bleak, the anarchic and the violent, for the UK premiere of Grand Finale (12 - 16 September) ten dancers from Hofesh Shechter Company share the stage with a band of musicians, playing an original score to the backing track of Shechter's trademark cinematic electronic sounds and vocal chants.

Three critically acclaimed productions by Sadler's Wells Associate Artists return; Akram Khan's Giselle, for English National Ballet (20 - 23 September), relocates the classic tale of love, betrayal and redemption to a community of migrant garment factory workers, kept apart from the lavish lives of their landlords by a high wall, featuring stunning costumes and set design by Academy Award-winning designer Tim Yip (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Best Production award-winner (Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards), Michael Keegan-Dolan's magical adaptation of one of the most famous ballets in the world returns (30 November - 2 December), with the company of 13 world-class performers including acclaimed actor Mikel Murfi. Swan Lake/Loch na hEala is interwoven with storytelling, song and live music. Dublin based band Slow Moving Cloud's score combines Nordic and Irish traditional music with minimalist and experimental influences. With powerful imagery, this Swan Lake is rooted in the Midlands of Ireland where ancient mythology and the modern world collide.

Following the sold-out, critical and recent Olivier award-winning success of The Red Shoes, New Adventures returns to Sadler's Wells this Christmas with a thrilling love story set in London during the Second World War, which forms part of the company's 30th anniversary celebrations. Matthew Bourne's Cinderella (9 December 2017 - 27 January 2018) takes the audience into the heart of Prokofiev's magnificent score, with surround sound designed by Paul Groothuis, and a specially commissioned recording of a 60-piece orchestra, Lez Brotherston's Olivier Award-winning designs and lighting by Olivier Award-winning Neil Austin.

Alongside works by established artists, the Autumn / Winter 2017 season introduces three distinguished dance-makers to Sadler's Wells for the first time; Shobana Jeyasingh, Meg Stuart and Kyle Abraham.

Seasoned choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh presents Bayadère - The Ninth Life, a work inspired by the famous 19th century ballet. Born in Chennai, India, with roots in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, London-based Jeyasingh creates an inventive, hybrid world which draws from a variety of dance styles both classical and contemporary.

American choreographer Meg Stuart comes to Sadler's Wells for the first time via Berlin and Brussels, her home for the last 20 years. Stuart is a major dance artist at the forefront of choreographic developments, her work crossing different territories from theatre to visual arts. UNTIL OUR HEARTS STOP questions many norms, not without humour and sees her charismatic performers surrendering to a seemingly chaotic universe with striking commitment and risk.

As part of the Sadler's Wells Debut series, introducing rising dance names to audiences, with a special ticket price and a free post-show talk, American choreographer Kyle Abraham presents the poignant Pavement (17 & 18 November). From New York City, his company Abraham.In.Motion's distinctive interdisciplinary style, commonly referred to as 'post-modern gumbo', combines balletic and hip hop movements, and is both sensual and provocative, putting the emphasis on human personalities. Inspired by the 1991 John Singleton film, Boyz N The Hood, the writings of American civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois and Abraham's own childhood, Pavement takes seven dancers through a culture plagued by discrimination and genocide in Pittsburgh's historically black neighbourhoods, set to an eclectic mix of Bach, Benjamin Britten, Sam Cooke and Donny Hathaway.

Multi-award winning Abraham has been described as the "best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama" (OUT Magazine) and in 2012, he was named among a group of 54 artists from nine creative disciplines around the US as a United States Artists Fellow, an award acknowledging remarkable artists for their influential work.

This Autumn Sadler's Wells' work supporting young talent will be in evidence, with two alumni Emma Farnell-Watson and Molly Walker from the National Youth Dance Company - run by the theatre, performing in Jasmin Vardimon's Pinocchio and Michael Keegan-Dolan's Swan Lake/Loch na hEala respectively.

Sadler's Wells' Artistic Director and Chief Executive Alistair Spalding says:
"At Sadler's Wells, we believe dance can mirror and shape contemporary culture. Our theatre is not just a place where dance is presented, but a producing house that makes dance happen through supporting artists and commissioning and producing work. Importantly, we do this both to develop the art form and to offer our audiences the chance to experience great dance - to learn, experiment, be enthralled and inspired.

These productions reflect the vibrantly diverse spectrum of ideas, choreographic voices, curatorial perspectives and dance styles finding a platform on our stage today, as well as our ongoing commitment to open up the theatre in order to widen and enrich our own and our audiences' views."

Other seasonal highlights include Birmingham based Rosie Kay's award-winning choreographic representation of her time spent with the 4th Battalion The Rifles, watching and participating in full battle exercises, and visiting the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre for the Armed Forces, performed offsite at Yeomanry House, Bloomsbury (7 - 9 September). 5 SOLDIERS: The Body is the Frontline offers no moral stance on war, but instead questions what it is that we ask of our soldiers and explores how the human body remains essential to war, even in the 21st century, using Kay's trademark intense physical and athletic dance theatre.

As part of the London-wide annual Dance Umbrella festival, three acclaimed choreographers each create inimitable dance works to the same piece of music, Beethoven's Grande Fugue op. 133. In a welcome return for the world class dancers of Lyon Opera Ballet who last performed at Sadler's Wells more than a decade ago, Trois Grandes Fugues, (19 & 20 October) presents three different responses to Beethoven's impassioned score. Lucinda Childs' interpretation exemplifies her meticulous precision and cool, complex classicism. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker responds with an uninhibited, masculine and non-classical vocabulary, whilst Maguy Marin creates an exhilarating whirlwind where life is reduced to a race against death.

This Christmas marks 20 consecutive years of The Snowman enchanting young audiences at The Peacock (23 November - 31 December), with a magical mix of exquisite dancing and live music - including Howard Blake's much-loved Walking in the Air.

Sadler's Wells' commitment to taking the highest quality dance elsewhere in the UK and abroad sees the first major tour of Carlos Acosta's new company Acosta Danza following its UK premiere at the theatre (27 - 30 September), as part of Sadler's Wells' regional touring initiative The Movement, with The Lowry, Salford and Birmingham Hippodrome, while also visiting Brighton, Southampton and Edinburgh (3 October - 11 November). The Movement, is a dance producing partnership between Birmingham Hippodrome, The Lowry in Salford and Sadler's Wells. Supported by Arts Council England, The Movement aims to nurture talent and bring large scale dance productions to even wider audiences.

Internationally, the theatre takes its globally acclaimed international festival of hip hop dance theatre, Breakin' Convention to four US locations (13 October - 5 November); for the first time to Miami and Denver, and following hugely successful inaugural tours, a third visit to Charlotte and a return to Harlem, the birthplace of hip hop.

The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commissions at Sadler's Wells

Tickets for the Autumn / Winter 2017 season are on public sale from Monday 22 May at 10am via www.sadlerswells.com and 020 7863 8000. Booking opens to members from Wednesday 17 May at 10am.

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