Run by Sadler’s Wells, the country’s flagship company for young dancers, National Youth Dance Company has selected its seventh intake of members sourced from 26 towns, cities and villages across England to join Guest Artistic Director Botis Seva to work on a new piece titled MADHEAD.
18 performance workshops took place from May to July to select the 28 new members—19 female and 9 male dancers aged 15 to 24—who will join the 10 dancers returning from last year to form a company of 38 that will première MADHEAD, which fuses contemporary dance, physical theatre and hip hop, at Dance East in Ipswich on Saturday 20 April 2019 followed by a UK tour.
Botis Seva's BLKDOG formed part of the Sadler’s Wells 20th anniversary commission, Reckonings, in October 2018. His other credits include InNoForm for the British Dance Edition & Laban Theatre, Woman of Sun for Greenwich Dance & Trinity Laban Partnership Compass Commission, outdoor work H.O.H for Without Walls, GDIF and Norfolk & Norwich Festival and TuTuMucky for Scottish Dance Theatre.
The dancers are mentored during four intensive residencies during school holidays to create and rehearse the new piece. NYDC has in past years been led by choreographers Sharon Eyal (2017-18), Damien Jalet (2016-17), Michael Keegan-Dolan (2015-16), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (2014-15), Akram Khan (2013-14) and Jasmin Vardimon (2012-13).
Graduates from NYDC have since danced in Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Teaċ Daṁsa, Hofesh II, BalletBoyz, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Cullberg Ballet, Ultima Vez, Russell Maliphant Company, Rambert2 and the Jasmin Vardimon Company.