National Youth Dance Company (NYDC), the company for young dancers run by Sadler’s Wells, has selected its 10th intake of dancers, who will join Guest Artistic Director Alesandra Seutin to work on a new piece, which will première at Dance City, Newcastle on 16 April 2022.
Past Guest Artistic Directors since 2012 have included Jasmin Vardimon, Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Michael Keegan Dolan, Damien Jalet, Sharon Eyal, Botis Seva, Russell Maliphant and Alesandra Seutin. More than 270 dancers have joined the company, with over 80% going onto further dance training or working professionally.
In October 2021, workshops took place across all regions of the country to select the 22 new members for the 2022 intake, which includes 4 dancers who took part in the Sadler’s Wells x Candoco Dance Company Summer School in August 2021. These members join 11 returning dancers from last year’s cohort, creating an impressive cohort of 33.
NYDC Alumna and Sadler’s Wells Young Associate 2018–19 Ruby Portus said, “NYDC taught me how to step up to the individual responsibility you have within a dance company. It taught me how to work together not only on the good rehearsal days but also the tiring and challenging ones; how to help maintain good spirits in the group when we were knackered; when to be on full throttle and when take a step back; how to know when you need to put extra work in and then how best to do that; how to make sure you were fully prepared to come back to the creation/rehearsal process after long periods away and so much more.
"All of these skills helped me throughout my professional training and now in my freelance career as a dancer and choreographer. They are people skills, energy management skills, personal responsibility skills, all of which I believe are transferable to any profession!”
NYDC alumna and Hofesh Shechter company dancer Emma Farnell-Watson said, “in 2012 NYDC gave me the chance to form a relationship with Jamsin Vardimon and provided an invaluable insight into her work. Challenged and inspired not only physically but also artistically, I had a rich foundation to continue exploring from as I entered vocational training at London Contemporary Dance School and then into the industry working with Jasmin in a professional setting.”