What can be created when young flamenco dancers and the expertise of older artists come together? That is exactly what world-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña will show you in Solera.

Enter their rehearsal room as they explore the genre together and then take to the stage with a unique performance that is both quiet and celebratory, soulful and full of life.

Flamenco is not a written tradition but one handed down from one generation to the next. The best performances incorporate part of what has been created before by the great practitioners of the past as well as the vibrancy and innovation of young dancers.

Peña’s passionate work, created with long-term collaborator, director Jude Kelly, debuted at Sadler’s Wells in 2022. Solera is an exploration of artistic wisdom and the fearlessness of youth in the search for new expression.

Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

Cursed by a wicked fairy, a beautiful princess pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep that can only be broken by true love’s kiss.

The Sleeping Beauty has been delighting audiences for well over a hundred years, sprinkling ballet magic on this favourite childhood story and its cast of familiar characters. All wrapped up with sparkling virtuoso dance from Birmingham Royal Ballet’s brilliant dancers, fairy-tale characters, dazzling spectacle, and Tchaikovsky’s glorious music played live by the acclaimed Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

BRB’s beautiful production was created by Sir Peter Wright, the genius behind the Company’s famous The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

Alina Cojocaru will play the role of Aurora on Thursday and Saturday evenings performances.

Running Time: 2 hours 55 minutes (including two intervals)

Audio Described Performance: Sat 27 April at 2:00pm
Touch Tour: Sat 27 April at 2:00pm

Hosted and curated by Jonzi D, the festival features the freshest works from your favourite artists.

Get bank holiday ready for jaw-dropping performances, live DJ’s, dance workshops, graffiti, emcees, and spontaneous cyphers all over Sadler’s Wells in an unforgettable experience. Welcoming all hip hop heads from the old school to the new school.

This year hip hop is bigger and bolder than ever with Breaking GB competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics and Academy Breakin’ Convention opening the doors to the UK’s first accredited course in hip hop theatre… this is how we do it!

Running Time: approximately 3 hours (including one hour interval of front of house performances and activities)

BSL interpreted Performances: Sat 4 May at 6:00pm and Sun 5 May at 6:00pm

This astonishing take on Tennessee Williams’ famous play is narrative ballet at its very best, with stunning dance, devastating drama, pitch-perfect period design and a sizzling score used to tell the iconic story.

In steamy 1940s New Orleans, fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois moves into her sister Stella’s apartment. Stella’s brutish husband Stanley sees that Blanche is not what she appears to be, and sets out to destroy her…

Scottish Ballet’s stylish production breathes new life into the classic tale, with graceful waltzes at the DuBois family home, electrifying lindy jives in a Louisiana nightclub, and intense duets in the caged heat of Stella and Stanley’s apartment.

Directed by Nancy Meckler and choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, with set and costume designs by Nicola Turner, and score by Peter Salem (The Crucible) performed live by members of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra.

Running Time: approximately 2 hours (including one 20 minute interval)

Please note this production depicts suicide, addiction, and domestic and sexual violence. For more information, please refer to the synopsis.

Recommended 15+

Marin’s powerfully theatrical work is based on the writings of Samuel Beckett, who unexpectedly offered his blessing to the then largely unknown choreographer to adapt his work. Echoing the relentlessness of Beckettian characters, the ten performers appear barely human – an ensemble of lost souls, their faces plastered in clay. Moving together and alone, their gestures are distilled to repetitive shuffles and their words garbled and replaced with rhythmic sighs and grunts.

At once awkward, ridiculous and comic, the hunched figures move in meticulous unison, but with expressive individuality – a tender gesture or a mischievous smile bringing each character’s personality to life.

May B is set to the romantic music of Franz Schubert and Gavin Bryars’ contemporary musical genius. This haunting work features one single line from Beckett’s play Endgame: “Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished” which Marin uses to give a pulse to her choreography.

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)

Sadler’s Wells Patrons’ Night: Tuesday 21 May

In the ultimate tale of forbidden love, two young people risk everything to be together. Adapted by Christopher Gable and Massimo Moricone from Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Romeo & Juliet is one of Northern Ballet’s most beloved and critically acclaimed productions – and it’s making a long-awaited return to UK stages next spring.

With glorious dancers, eye-catching sets and Prokofiev’s timeless score performed live by Northern Ballet Sinfonia, this is ballet at its most dramatic, romantic and intense.

Fans of Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby and Casanova will be sure to love this timeless classic.

Join us to discover whether love really can conquer all.

Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes (including two 20 minute intervals)

Audio Described Performance: Sat 1 June at 2:30pm
Touch Tour: Sat 1 June at 2:30pm

'She’s flamenco’s wildest radical – punk and glorious – a magnificent dancer whose range takes in the fiery intensity of traditional styles, surreal fantasy, and unpredictable humour' – The Independent

Dressed in black and torn between two guitars, the renegade choreographer Rocío Molina opens the Flamenco Festival 2024 in her subversive style. Using the original flamenco trio – dance, song and guitar – Al Fondo Riela is a piece about reflection and the loss of reality.

On stage, she is accompanied by two contrasting guitarists, Eduardo Trassierra with his traditional, technical skill, and Yerai Cortés with his innovative flair.

Molina returns after her appearance at the Flamenco Festival in 2019, the same year she won the Critics’ Circle National Dance award for outstanding female performance.

In 2022 the Venice Biennale has awarded the Silver Lion to Rocío Molina, the first flamenco dancer to be recognised by the prestigious Italian art festival.

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes (no interval)

UK Premiere

If music is the food for the soul, then Vicente Amigo is a feast.

Premiere flamenco guitarist and Latin Grammy Award winner Vicente Amigo is one of the most accomplished guitarists of his generation. His fleet and fluid style bridges classical and nuevo flamenco.

Vicente elevates flamenco guitar to new realms; fusing jazz, folk and South American rhythms into it without losing the essence and feel of flamenco.

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)

UK Premiere

A new alter ego is formed when two flamenco masters discover each other through dance.

Developed from a series of improvisations in the studio, virtuoso performers Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa throw away the rule book to explore personal connection.

Guerrero draws geometric figures with her dance. She dismantles her movements and recreates them anew. Losa develops new schemes without breaking the mould, builds without deconstructing, and stays true to his roots.

Alter Ego is flamenco stripped bare. It is pure passion, visceral movement and unfettered exploration.

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes (no interval)

UK Premiere

Feel the intensity and passion of Eva Yerbabuena’s 20-year career.

In Yerbagüena, Eva Yerbabuena takes to the stage to reflect on her 20-year career, with her musical director, guitarist and husband, Paco Jarana, as well as two singers and two percussionists.

Her career has included an invitation from Pina Bausch to perform at the Tanztheater Wuppertal 25th anniversary festival, choreographing Mi Niña Manuela for the Ballet Nacional de España, and worked with film director Mike Figgis, for the documentary Flamenco Women. She has previously collaborated with Manolete, Merche Esmeralda, Javier Latorre, Joaquín Cortés, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Yerbabuena is known for exploring the tension between traditional and nuevo flamenco, and most famously for her interpretations of the soleá – the dance of solitude.

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes no interval

UK Premiere

Israel Fernández is one of the most celebrated flamenco musicians of his generation. Born with flamenco in his blood, he was brought up in a gypsy family of Toledo. Now he presents his latest album – Pura Sangre (pure blood) – in collaboration with renowned Jerez guitarist Diego del Morao.

The most personal work to date, this is an intimate look at his surroundings and his way of interacting with the outside world. It is a plea for truth, the most vital expression of an artist who has composed all the lyrics and music which make up this album.

His album Amor won the Premio Odeón and he has also been nominated for Best Flamenco Album in the Latin Grammy awards.

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes (no interval)

UK Premiere

¡Fandango! is a masterpiece from a perfect duo, formed by choreographer David Coria and singer David Lagos.

Coria and Lagos converge in a contemporary interpretation of the fandango, a popular and festive musical style from Andalusia with more than 500 years of history. Co-produced with Chaillot Théâtre National de la Dance (Paris), ¡Fandango! takes us on a journey through Spanish history and tradition – from flamenco to contemporary movement, traditional song to electronic music, it draws on Iberian folk culture to celebrate a Spain that is liberated and intoxicating.

Coria has collaborated with numerous Spanish dance companies including Compañía Andaluza de Danza, Ballet Nacional de España, Rafaela Carrasco and Rocío Molina. Lagos won four awards at the Biennal of Flamenco in Seville in 2020: the award for the best performance, the best singing, the best guitar accompaniment and the award for young talent for a prominent young dancer.

Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes (no interval)

UK Premiere

Invocación features four works that cover the cornerstones of Spanish dance, from vibrant flamenco (De lo Flamenco) and traditional bolero (Invocación Bolera) to contemporary dance (Jauleña) and classical ballet (Eterna Iberia).

As one of the main cultural ambassadors of Spain to the world, Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) highlight Spain’s rich choreographic heritage. The National Ballet, founded by the Ministry of Culture in 1978, continues to set the standard for Spanish dance.

Artistic Director Rubén Olmo curates this all-encompassing evening of four pieces. De lo Flamenco is a tribute to the legendary dancer and choreographer Mario Maya. Olmo choreographs two works; Jauleña, performed by a different soloist from the company each night, and the colourful, ensemble piece, Invocación Bolera. Finally Antonio Najarro’s Eterna Iberia which features the signature elements of Spanish dance – castanets, the Spanish Cape, and the Cordobes Hat.

Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

UK premiere

'Five trumpeters and eight dancers scream, sing, and don masks, eventually joining in a mad, mesmerizing rendition of Ravel’s Boléro. Half carnival, half decadent variety show, this seductive “Bacchae” embodies the Dionysian spirit that drives the play, dark side and all.' – Marina Harss


In this wildly delirious work, Cape Verdean-born, Lisbon-based choreographer and performance artist Marlene Monteiro Freitas dares you to traverse the order and wild chaos of Euripides—and ultimately, the depths of the human psyche.

In 2017, Marlene was acknowledged by the government of Cape Verde for her cultural achievement. In 2018, she created Canine Jaunâtre 3 for Batsheva Dance Company and was awarded the Silver Lion award for dance at the Venice Biennale.

Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes (no interval)

UK premiere

Don José falls in love with Carmen and sacrifices everything to be with her. When Carmen becomes infatuated with the toreador Escamillo she loses interest in Don José, whose love quickly turns to violent jealousy.

Carlos Acosta now presents and features in his own adaptation of Georges Bizet and Prosper Mérimée’s story. In his new version, the story’s universal and timeless themes are laid bare in a sparse and powerful setting.

Bizet’s Carmen is one of the most powerful operas ever written. Its gorgeous melodies have secured the opera’s hold on the popular imagination – Escamillo’s Toreador Song, Carmen’s Habanera, Don José’s Flower Song and many passages for orchestra and chorus are among the most widely known pieces of Western classical music. Figures as diverse as Marius Petipa, Roland Petit, Alberto Alonso, Mats Ek and Richard Alston have all been drawn to this tale of jealousy and desire.

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

This production contains mild sexual references and a simulated stabbing.

UK premiere

If you spoke to Britain what would it say? We ask a group of young people from around England to tell us what they think – the good, the bad, the ugly. The old and new..

Ground-breaking choreographer Oona Doherty creates a brand new work in which the dancers keep getting up and keep showing us their real strength and beauty, in a repetitive movement of resistance, stamina and will. Their greatness in Britain.

Since 2013 NYDC has produced high-quality, critically acclaimed productions created with internationally renowned choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, Alesandra Seutin, Russell Maliphant, Botis Seva and more.

Running Time: 1 hour
Audio Described Performance: Sat 13 July at 7:30pm

New York City. 1975. On an empty Broadway stage, seventeen performers are put through their paces in the final audition for a new Broadway musical. Only eight will make the cut.

A Chorus Line is a musical masterpiece that revolutionised Broadway, with creator Michael Bennett using real-life testimonies from recording sessions with dancers. Celebrate the lives of theatre’s heroes, as they tell searing stories of ambition and shattered hopes.

Originally produced at Curve and Directed by Nikolai Foster, with a book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, A Chorus Line features iconic songs including One, I Hope I Get It, Nothing and the hit ballad What I Did For Love.

The legendary Adam Cooper (Singin’ in the Rain, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake) and Carly Mercedes Dyer (Anything Goes, Barbican Theatre, Dreamgirls, Savoy Theatre) reprising their roles as Zach and Cassie which they played to great critical acclaim at Curve in 2021.

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)

This production contains themes of bereavement, physical violence and abuse, mental ill health, discrimination, strong language and discussion of sexual abuse.

Captioned Performance: Sat 10 August at 2:30pm
Audio Described Performance: Sat 17 August at 2:30pm
Touch Tour: Sat 17 August at 2:30pm
BSL interpreted Performance: Sat 24 August at 2:30pm

The former resident company of Sadler’s Wells is making its long-awaited return to the world stage. Last seen 30 years ago, London City Ballet’s international company of dancers are touring the world in 2024, presenting acclaimed works including?the revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet?Ballade,?unseen in Europe for over 50 years. Internationally celebrated ballerina, Alina Cojocaru, will appear as a guest artist in this greatly anticipated revival.

Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz marks the ballet’s 30th anniversary, and Olivier award-winner Arielle Smith premiere’s a new work. Eve, a full company work by Christopher Marney, which premiered at Sadlers Wells in 2022 will close the evening.

Artistic Director, Christopher Marney has spent over a year rebuilding London City Ballet and these comeback performances remembers the Company’s roots in the form of rarely-seen archival footage.

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

Following acclaimed performances around the world, and sold-out shows in Manchester and Bristol in 2023, Akram Khan’s Giselle returns to Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London for the first time in five years.

As the curtain rises, dancers in shadow push against a forbidding wall. From that moment on, this ground-breaking production stuns with powerful images.

Mesmerising choreography, atmospheric lighting by Mark Henderson and a towering set by Academy Award-winner Tim Yip conjure up a condemned factory and the vengeful ghosts that appear in its shadows.

The ominous score by Vincenzo Lamagna – adapted from the original by Adolphe Adam and performed live by English National Ballet Philharmonic – intensifies the story’s emotional impact.

See the greatest romantic ballet and its story of love, betrayal, and redemption, boldly reimagined.

Running Time: 2 hours (including one 20 minute interval)

Audio Described Performance: Sat 28 September at 2:30pm
Touch Tour: Sat 28 September at 2:30pm

This performance contains stylised violence and references to death.

Crystal Pite created Angels’ Atlas for The National Ballet of Canada in March 2020. This Dora Award-winning ballet is a profound new work from one of the world’s leading contemporary choreographers.

islands: This is a unique pas de deux in which the two dancers are joined together with a belt, fusing their bodies together as one. Emma Portner’s work is set to an eclectic compilation of music by contemporary artists as well as original music by Forest Swords, which brings together hip hop, dub, guitar loops and electronic sampling for an avant-garde sound.

James Kudelka's Passion is a love story whose meticulous structure mirrors the music, the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano in D, Op. 61a. Two couples – one classical, the other contemporary – weave within the Corps de Ballet like musical themes, evoking complex relationships of passion.

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minute (including one 20 minute interval)

UK premiere

This new full-length evening will showcase?the physicality and complexity?of Hofesh Shechter’s choreography and his?inimitable dancers, as they take the audience on a wild?headfirst dive into the world of dreams.

Through Hofesh’s?ever-unfolding choreography, this new work will delve deep into the world of fantasy?and?the subconscious,?revealing fears, hopes, desires and?a myriad?of emotions that penetrates?not only the dreaming mind but also our waking thoughts.?From this uncontrollable wave of chaotic emotions and surreal events emerges a strange sense of clarity and reality – the mind is king.

The dancers’ bodies will bring to life on stage this interplay between poetry and reality, accompanied by live musicians and Shechter’s trademark cinematic?sound-score.?Hofesh will?reunite?with lighting designer, Tom Visser, to create a powerful, sculptured space to this?dreamscape.

Running Time: approximately 1 hour 10 minutes

Minimum age guidance: 13 years old.

UK premiere

Audio Described Performance: Fri 11 October at 7:30pm
Touch Tour: Fri 11 October at 7:30pm

Stay ahead of the curve and be one of the first to experience the work of these up-and-coming creatives. Our 2023/24 Young Associates share their work in a mixed bill, each showcasing their distinct and diverse creative worlds as they take the next step in their careers as choreographers.

After their sold-out debut in the Lilian Baylis Studio in 2023, the Young Associates are coming back for a one-night-only show at Sadler’s Wells Theatre this Autumn, giving a platform to a new generation of artistic voices.

Read more about our 2023/24 Young Associates: www.sadlerswells.com/about-us/supporting-artists/individual-artists/2023-2024-young-associates/#blue-makwana

Running Time: 1 hour 50 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

BSL interpreted Performance: Tue 15 October at 7:30pm

Radioactive Practice is a genre-bending new work, named one of New York Times’ ‘Best Dance Performances of 2022.’

Drawing influences from street dance, synchronised swimming, post-modern dance, tap, football, martial arts and contemporary African forms; Radioactive Practice from award-winning American choreographer Abby Zbikowski and crew, shatters movement expectations and explores our instincts for survival.

With audiences seated on multiple sides, this powerful piece incorporates the work of Sengalese dance artist Momar Ndiaye as dramaturge to interrogate the complexities of contemporary living.

Abby Zbikowski and her company Abby Z and the New Utility create contemporary dance works that pay homage to the effort of living. Zbikowski’s rigorous training in African and Afro-diasporic forms, playing sports and performing manual labour informs her craft.

Running Time: 1 hour

This performance contains flashing lights and intermittent loud music.

UK premiere

With an all-female, international creative team, including choreographers Iratxe Ansa (Spain), Wubkje Kuindersma (Netherlands), Seeta Patel (UK), Arielle Smith (UK), Thais Suárez (Cuba) and music composed by Kate Whitley (UK).

Luna is the final part of Carlos Acosta’s Birmingham trilogy (City of a Thousand Trades, Black Sabbath).

Running Time: 1 hour 50 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

This production contains haze and projection.

Lise has a choice to make. Loaded country bumpkin or penniless, hunky farmhand? Of course, there’s no contest, but her mum has other ideas. Heels are dug in and sparks fly, as a mother-daughter battle ensues.

Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) mixes spectacular classical ballet with slick comedy, a clog-dancing dame and a super-cute pony, as well as live music by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. This is sure to be fantastic entertainment for you, your friends, and all your family!

Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes (including two 20 minute intervals)

Audio Described Performance: Sat 26 October at 2:30pm
Touch Tour: Sat 26 October at 2:30pm

Walking is often one of our first milestones in movement. As a choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is known for taking the simplest of movements and adding her signature layers of complexity. EXIT ABOVE explores the tension between marching together and stepping out alone, as well as walking as a primary form of movement – so familiar that we hardly stop to think about it.

As a soundtrack to this exploration, De Keersmaeker returns to the roots of Western pop and blues music. The starting point for the performance is the song Walking Blues by legendary blues artist Robert Johnson. The journey then leads back to Der Wanderer by Schubert, the best-known singer-songwriter of the 19th century. Meskerem Mees, an upcoming Flemish singer songwriter with Ethiopian roots performs other variations of ‘walking songs’, composed together with Jean-Marie Aerts, sound architect of TC Matic, and with dancer and guitarist Carlos Garbin.

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)

This performance contains strobe and smoke.

UK premiere

“I am excited and humbled to be back on stage and direct six extraordinary soloist artists from all generations. Gigenis is a profound tribute to that reflection, a reconciliation between the past and the present times, a genuine celebration of our collective love for dance — boundless, timeless, as well as deeply rooted.” Akram Khan

A choreographer and dancer rooted in the tradition of his practice, and a creative interpreter of stories that need to be experienced – Akram Khan has revolutionised the world of dance.

Khan returns to his roots, to his traditions, and to his past – to a time when we were more connected with nature, Mother Earth and our mythology. Gigenis evokes the memories of our civilization.

In his new artistic chapter, Khan shares the stage alongside an ensemble of six renowned artists of Indian classical dance and seven live musicians.

Running Time: approximately 1 hour 30 minutes

UK Premiere

Teac Da?sa, the Dance and Theatre company based in Ireland’s West Kerry Gaeltacht bring together familiar and new collaborators to make NOBODADDY. An original work inviting audiences and performers on a journey to quieten some of the tyrannies that arrest us.
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Led by choreographer and Sadlers Wells Associate Artist, Michael Keegan-Dolan in collaboration with renowned folk singer Sam Amidon and an international company of dancers and musicians, NOBODADDY will confront the flat-line experience of cynicism, manipulation, exploitation and violence.

Matthew Bourne’s audacious, rule-breaking reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece caused a sensation when it premiered almost 30 years ago. It has now become the most successful dance theatre production of all time, creating new audiences and inspiring generations of young dancers. In celebration of that ongoing impact, Swan Lake will take flight once more in a major new revival for the next generation of dancers, and for audiences who will experience it for the very first time.

First staged at Sadler’s Wells in London in 1995, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake took the dance theatre world by storm becoming the longest running full-length dance classic in the West End and on Broadway. It has since been performed across the globe, collecting over thirty international accolades including the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and three Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design.

Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes (including one 20 minute interval)

Children under five are not allowed to attend this performance and some scenes may not be suitable for young children.

Audio Described Performance: Sat 11 January at 2:30pm
Touch Tour: Sat 11 January at 2:30pm