Sadler’s Wells and BBC Arts has announced details of a new collaboration celebrating outstanding dance talent as it returns to the stage, in an all-day digital, live and pre-recorded broadcast, Dancing Nation. 

 

 

A festival of world-class dance taking place at Sadler’s Wells, Dancing Nation will be streamed on BBC iPlayer for audiences in the UK, and on Sadler's Wells' website for viewers outside the UK, throughout the day on 14 January. The event features new works and audience favourites from a diverse line up of the UK’s best-loved dance artists. All performances are staged and filmed in strict compliance with current Covid-19 health and safety guidelines. 

 

 

Dancing Nation features fifteen live or pre-recorded performances, artists inhabiting spaces throughout Sadler’s Wells, across stages, studios and foyer spaces in an all-day ‘take-over’. The event will be streamed at three points throughout the day in hour-long segments. After the broadcast, each programme will be available for 30 days, followed by a 90-minute highlights programme available for 12 months. 

 

 

Featured works include: Matthew Bourne’s early piece Spitfire (1988); two of the world’s most celebrated dancers, Akram Khan and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova, performing together for the first time; English National Ballet with Hollow by Stina Quagebeur; Candoco Dance Company’s Face In, a contemporary piece by Yasmeen Godder; Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Lazuli Sky, choreographed by Will Tuckett, alongside an interview with Artistic Director, Carlos Acosta; and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s Contagion. 

 

 

The programmes also include hip-hop theatre and pop-contemporary works, with Boy Blue in an extract from its Olivier-nominated hit, Blak Whyte Gray; Rambert’s Rouge from choreographer Marion Motin; Far From the Norm, blending hip-hop and contemporary dance styles in an extract from its Olivier Award-winning BLKDOG; and Jonzi D take us Window Shopping, transforming Sadler’s Wells public spaces with a meeting of popping, voguing, flamenco and ballet.