Now in its second year, the National Youth Dance Company returns to the Sadler’s Wells main stage on Wednesday 16 April to perform a new double bill by Akram Khan. The performance will be followed by a UK tour, including Nottingham and Glasgow.
The evening, which follows NYDC’s sell-out debut performance and national tour last year, features the world première of The Rashomon Effect, directed by Khan and choreographed by Andrej Petrovic. It also contains a restaged excerpt from Khan’s Vertical Road (Akram Khan Company, 2010).
The Rashomon Effect will be performed by the 30 Company members who joined NYDC in September 2013, comprising dancers aged 16 to 19 from Bristol to Newcastle, Cambridge to Liverpool.
It features a newly commissioned score by composer and Hofesh Shechter Company band member Vincenzo Lamagna, which will be performed live by nine musicians aged 15 to 20 from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
The re-worked Vertical Road will be performed by the 13 existing Company members from NYDC’s inaugural year. To date, the young members of NYDC have been chosen from a total of 27 experience workshops that, combined, saw over 500 young people take part. The chosen members come from over 20 towns, cities and villages across England.
Khan’s role as Guest Artistic Director of NYDC for 2014 marks the first time he has worked with young, non-professional dancers. Of his experience to date he said, “I am learning so much from this talented group of dancers. What is exciting to me is the immense possibility we have to nurture and develop with them a personal movement vocabulary that is drawn directly from their bodies.
"With the high standards demanded of these young dancers, I feel this opportunity will allow them to grow further in their own development as an artist, and will hopefully give them the confidence to question the dance that they perform in the future.”
Alistair Spalding (CBE), Chief Executive & Artistic Director at Sadler’s Wells said, “The future strength of the whole dance industry depends on there being a pipeline of new talent coming forward.
"The NYDC is one way in which Sadler’s Wells can offer a unique opportunity for young people right across the country to work with the best of the UK’s choreographers and give them an experience that will help them on their way to a career in dance.”
Cate Canniffe, Director Dance, Arts Council England said, “The NYDC’s work with Akram Khan as Guest Artistic Director is a wonderful example of how nurturing talent and enabling access to this kind of inspirational experience is at the heart of what the Arts Council does.
"It is a vital part of connecting established artists with a future generation of emerging artists.”
National Youth Dance Company is funded jointly by Arts Council England and the Department for Education, from the National Lottery and Grant in Aid funds.