Shaping the Future of Dance Our year in review 2025-2026
November 5, 2026
Sadler’s Wells believes in the transformative power of dance – for artists, audiences and communities.
We commission, produce and present more dance than any other organisation globally. Through long-term investment in the people who make and create dance we are nurturing artists from classroom to international stage and creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds to grow and sustain professional dance careers.
As a cultural charity we work locally and nationally to collaborate with schools, youth groups and communities to ensure people of all ages have meaningful opportunities to dance – improving health and wellbeing, employability and skills, creativity, connection, self-expression and confidence.
2025–2026 marked a major step in driving forward the future of dance, building upon the opening of Sadler’s Wells East in February 2025 at East Bank. Our new fourth venue has enabled work to be developed from studio to stage, strengthened pathways for emerging talent, deepened engagement with local communities and provided a shared resource for UK and international artists to come together.
At the heart of Sadler’s Wells East is The Dance Floor, our vibrant community performance space. This year, participation in our free programmes increased by 23%, as more people than ever joined us for community takeovers, classes, performances, workshops and school sessions.
None of this would have been possible without the artists, producers, companies, audiences, donors, funders, colleagues and partners who have worked alongside us this year. Thank you for your continued support and collaboration.
This is a wonderful time to celebrate the richness of dance and recognise the many individuals and organisations who help bring groundbreaking dance, in all its forms, to audiences across the UK and around the world.
With ticket sales up 8%, a record 23% increase in our participation activity, a clutch of awards, a distinctive international programme, 50% of tickets under £25 at our new venue, and our new festival for young dance, this has been a year of innovation and impact.
We created and shared world-leading dance with more people than ever before
Across our four London venues, we presented 100 productions and 750 performances, welcoming over 561,000 audience members an 8% increase on the year before. 65,000 people experienced dance on stage with us for the first time.
Highlights included 20 years of Flamenco Festival, Sadler’s Wells East transformed into a skatepark for Mette Ingvartsen’s Skatepark, a 3 week run of Quadrophenia – A Mod Ballet, Akram Khan Company’s final touring work, a collaboration with Stratford East for Romeo and Juliet, the penultimate work of legendary choreographer Pina Bausch with Sweet Mambo, and a bumper Christmas with three shows and upwards of 20 performances each week across our venues for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures The Red Shoes at Angel, The Snowman at The Peacock, and Ebony Scrooge at Sadler’s Wells.
Ebony Scrooge – Image Credit: Pamela Raith Photography
New Adventures: The Red Shoes – Image Credit: Johan Persson ft-Ashley Shaw
Our homegrown productions – The Rite of Spring, Kontakthof – Echoes of ’78, Sutra and Quadrophenia – toured globally. We presented 97 performances at 19 venues in 17 cities across 11 countries.
Kontakthof – Echoes of ‘78 was presented at Berlin’s prestigious Theatertreffen; The Rite of Spring closed its tour at the iconic Théâtre des Champs-Elysées where Nijinsky’s original premiered in 1913, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Pina Bausch’s choreography. Over the last 4 years this production has visited 24 cities in 18 countries, playing to 73,726 people across 121 performances. This is our largest ever production Sadler’s Wells, with 52 people on the road.
We created two Sadler’s Wells productions from scratch, developing from studios at Sadler’s Wells East to tour national and global stages
Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia – A Mod Ballet premiered in Plymouth before a UK tour and Broadway run, and Ebony Scrooge with ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company. Building upon the success of Our Mighty Groove, created as our opening show for Sadler’s Wells East in 2024/2025 which went on to win Best Dance Production at the Black British Theatre Awards 2025.
Credit: Johan Persson
For the first time, Breakin’ Convention toured to Asia with performances at Hong Kong Cultural Centre, bringing two dance international companies alongside eight local companies.
We strengthened our global reach, showcasing award-winning dance films, documentaries, live performance captures, workshops and podcasts for free with 3 million views of our Digital Stage content.
We produced 18 new dance films and 10 collaborations with leading international artists – establishing Sadler’s Wells as a global platform for dance film with the new Dance Digital film festival attracting 415 submissions from 55 countries.
Three of the four nominated works for the 2026 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production were presented on Sadler’s Wells stages: Sharon Eyal Into The Hairy; Alessandra Seutin Mimi’s Shebeen; Mythili Prakash She’s Auspicious.
Sharon Eyal, Into the Hairy, Image Credit: Katerina Jebb
We nurtured artists from every region of the UK and internationally, at every stage of their career
We supported 69 dance artists and companies from across the UK and internationally to present their work on our stages.
We nurtured 507 artists through our inclusive artist development programmes.
Sadlers Wells East – Image Credit: Nick Guttridge
Supporting artists has been at heart of our work for over 20 years, this year we built upon this foundation to step up our offer for next generation of dance makers with the launch of new programmes.
Academy Breakin’ Convention (ABC) at Sadler’s Wells East, the UK’s first free Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performance and Production Arts specific to Hip Hop Theatre. 19 students enrolled in their first year to receive high-quality training in all areas of hip hop culture, from performance to production and an opportunity to develop as emerging professionals. ABC builds upon 20 years of hosting Breakin’ Convention, the world’s biggest hip hop dance theatre festival, enabling partnerships with established crews for training, mentorship and showcasing.
Five Dances – an eighteen-month development programme supporting five artists to create an original midscale work for a building wide takeover festival at Sadlers Wells East in 2027. Each choreographer will receive a development commission, dedicated studio space, mentoring, dramaturgical and production support to create their work. The five artists were selected through a national nomination panel made up of a mix of dance organisations, independent artists, and companies.
Rob Jones, Associate Artistic Director at Sadler’s Wells
ABC Open Day Image Credit: Ki Media
This year also saw a milestone for the National Youth Dance Company, with cohort thirteen travelling to Berlin for their first international tour date since the start of the company in 2013. They performed their piece, Gravity, co-created with Guest Artistic Director Boy Blue, at the Berliner Festspiele. For the last decade, NYDC has sought out the most talented young dancers in England to create, perform and tour a new piece every year. 90% of alumni progress onto further dance training and careers. Many return to our stages as professional artists in world-renowned companies including New Adventures, BalletBoyz, Teac Damsa, Tanztheater Wuppertal. The year continued with cohort fourteen, formed of 32 dancers from across the country, working with Guest Directors Sadé and Kristina Alleyne.
We commissioned and supported production of young person-led and emerging artist work through Breakin’ Convention’s Homesick, working with 12 young people between the ages of 18-23.
NYDC, Boy BlueElly – Image Credit: Wel Photography
NYDC Dancer
We connected communities nationwide with the transformative power of dance
We connected over 41,000 people at every stage of life with the power of dance, from every corner of the country through over 2300 learning and engagement workshops, events and theatre visits. That’s an increase of 23% participants compared to last year, with strong emphasis on inclusive participation across ages and backgrounds and opportunities for community participants to perform alongside professionals.
Our programmes supported pathways and progressions for the next generation of talented dancers and choreographers, with the NYDC Nationwide Schools Programme – expanding this year to deliver 58 free workshops reaching over 1,160 young people. All sessions were led by NYDC alumni, supporting their professional development as teaching artists, while participants from Associate Schools and Making Moves have progressed into NYDC and Academy Breakin’ Convention, continuing their development as young dancers.
Making Moves Group Leader
Breakin’ Convention Family Day
We launched YFX: A Festival for Young Dance – engaging 800+ young people and practitioners. Our first YFX spotlighted youth dance created up and down the country, partnering with One Dance UK and bringing National Youth Dance Companies of England, Scotland and Wales together in Stratford.
We continued to welcome people of all ages and backgrounds to The Dance Floor, our welcoming, vibrant and community-led performance space at Sadler’s Wells East. More than 6,600 people took part in our free programme of community takeovers, lunchtime classes, family workshops and school sessions.
Get into Dance, Sylvie Belbouab, Dance Floor
Alongside dance organisations nationwide we celebrated the National Day of Dance, as the London Hub for Angela Rippon’s Let’s Dance campaign. We hosted workshops with our resident Company of Elders, for dancers over 60, who regularly recount to us the extraordinary superpower they feel after coming out of a rehearsal. Alongside, we welcomed world-leading researcher Professor Daisy Fancourt to discuss her research into the science behind how the arts improve our health and longevity.
Production photo of Company of Elders’ Mixed Bill, part of Elixir Festival 2026: Survival Kit by Charlotta Öfverholm, Lilian Baylis Studio. ©2026 Foteini Christofilopoulou.
Company of Elders Dancer
We invested in welcoming, sustainable cultural venues that make people proud
We built upon a successful opening of Sadler’s Wells East – a national powerhouse for dance with a 550-seat auditorium, six studios, two educational facilities shaping the future of dance – Rose Choreographic School and Acdemy Breakin’ Convention – and a public performance space. We presented 32 productions with 50% of tickets £25 of under and launched our free programme of Lates at Sadler’s Wells East, bringing performances from our stages to life in new ways, for new audiences at night.
Our newest venue was nominated for The Stage Awards Theatre Building of the Year and a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London Award.
We continued to progress our sustainability journey to Net Zero by 2050 and sector leadership as active contributors to the Theatre Green Book.
Our partnership with local people, V&A, BBC, UCL, UAL and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at East Bank continued to flourish. We collaborated on shared cultural experiences – with The Walk Productions to bring climate activism performance The Herds to Stratford on their way to the North pole, staging an East Bank wide performance procession lead by Associate Artist Alesandra Seutin. Hosting Get in Dance Festival, The Great Get Together and Dancing City.
We hosted events with Hunger Games, Roberto Bolle & Friend Gala, Midnight Musical, Clyde Best, Polish Stand-up Comedy, Adidas, BakerHicks, the Mayor of Newham and LLDC and built relationships with local partners and businesses including Stratford Cross, FCA, Wicks, TfL and Cancer Research.
We invested in and grew our cultural and creative workforce with a 15% increase in our total permanent workforce and a 127% increase in contractual/freelance workforce, working in line with our Freelance Charter. Over 50% of new roles at Sadler’s Wells East were taken up by local residents of the four Olympic growth boroughs.
We increased our offer of paid internships and formal apprenticeships for local people to 9, working in partnership with East Bank through the STEP programme alongside furthering awareness of careers within creative industries through the East Summer School and employability programmes with our Associate Schools. Collectively across East Bank, we are creating 2,500 jobs and generating £1.5bn for east Londoners.
In celebration of our work over the last year and our 200th session on The Dance Floor at Sadler’s Wells East, we welcomed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy MP to our new national home for dance.
Britannia Morton and Sir Alistair Spalding, Co-Chief Executives of Sadler’s Wells