This week has been a momentous one for Sadler’s Wells’ producing and touring department with Sylvie Guillem’s final dance tour Life In Progress on our home turf. After premiering in Modena at the end of March, Life In Progress travelled to Rome and Łodz before London as it begins its ten month tour, culminating in Japan in December.

At Sadler’s Wells the buzz reverberating through the sold-out audience was palpable as the curtain opened for Sylvie’s opening solo – technê choreographed by Akram Khan. Next was William Forsythe’s DUO performed by Riley Watts and Brigel Gjoka followed by Russell Malliphant’s duet Here & After performed by Sylvie and Emanuela Montanari, described as “pure sensuousness” (The Stage). Finally the show closed with Mats Ek’s solo; Bye creating an emotional and poignant climax before Sylvie received a full standing ovation from the entire audience.

Pictured here is one of our producers Sandra with Sylvie after the show.

Sylvie, we will miss you.

After a hugely successful weekend in London, Breakin’ Convention is preparing for its US tour. The world-renowned international festival of hip hop dance will fly straight in from Sadler’s Wells London to Charlotte and then on to New York this autumn. As always the show will feature dance artists from around the world and around the corner from each venue. To find out more information click here and here.

And it’s not just about the dance – as always there’ll be graff, DJs, MCs, and human beatboxers at each venue making sure that the decks keep spinning, the aerosol keeps spraying, the beat keeps playing, the MC’s keep spitting, and the dancers keep breaking.

James O’Hara and Daisy Phillips performed Faun three times this month as part of La Reunion’s Festival Danse Péi. At this small festival all three of the performances were free of charge and took place outside in public spaces. The outdoor stages certainly added to the forest-like feel of the story and were beautiful spaces for James and Daisy to move both elegantly and animalistically. This alongside the festival atmosphere and Adam Carree’s even more atmospheric lighting meant jam packed audiences surrounded the stages with people craning their necks to try and see the show.

This production of Faun is a reinvention of Nijinski’s ballet. It was made as part of the centenary celebrations of Ballets Russes by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui after Sadler’s Wells asked him to work on or draw inspiration from any piece of the renowned company’s repertoire.

Russell Maliphant Company was in Paris this week for two performances of Still Current at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The final night’s performance to a sold out audience was emotionally stunning and captivated the rapturous audience as Carys Staton, Thomasin Gülgeç, Dickson Mbi, and Alexander Varona exquisitely danced ‘Still’, ‘Afterlight’, ‘Two’, ‘Critical Mass’, and ‘Still Current’.

These performances were the final performances of Still Current this year. But worry not because Russell Maliphant Company are now concentrating on creating a new production, Conceal │ Reveal that will premiere this coming autumn.

It was all glitz and glamour at Koko Camden last week for the Latin UK Awards (LUKAS). Described by Carlos Acosta as “the hottest event in the Latin diary”, the LUKAS are an annual awards ceremony to honour the contributions of over a million Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese residents to British life.

And this year who better to present the awards for dance than Sadler’s Wells’ Producing and Touring team?  Executive producer Suzanne Walker and producer Sandra Castell-Garcia announced the winners adding their own charisma to the celebration of Britain’s diverse and lively Latin cultures.

Winners included Tango Fire at The Peacock, starring Nikito & Gisela of m¡longa fame, for the best theatre production of the year. See a full list of winner’s here.

Photo credit: Patricia Cuenca

Varmints headed up to Scotland as part of its regional UK tour. Up first was Eden Court Inverness where it was performed twice. The first performance for school kids was met with ‘whoops’, gasps, and joining in. Especially when New Wave Associate and choreographer Wilkie Branson got everyone doing the b-boy moves at the end.

After Inverness, Varmints went to Glasgow. Varmints was performed as part of Dance International Glasgow at the Beacon Arts Centre, where it was listed by Glasgow’s STV as one the events highlights.

Check out the picture above to see the Varmints set in the back of the lorry travelling between Scotland’s highlands to lowlands.

Russell Maliphant’s Still Current visited Germany and Austria at the end of April. First stop was the Burghof theatre Lörrach. The performance enraptured the crowd who were treated to an insightful post show discussion following the show.

Next up for Russell Maliphant Company was Linz’s Posthof: a one time heritage-listed farm and now a theatre. Here, Still Current dazzled the audience with its combination of award-winning and brand new solos and duets accompanied by Michael Hull’s masterful lighting. At the end of the show the Linz audience broke into a great thunderous applause.