It would be misleading to describe Sadler’s Wells’ new autumn season as cautious. The programme features plenty of new and ambitious work, not least the world premiere of Gravity Fatigue, a production that will see fashion designer Hussein Chalayan make his dance-theatre debut, in collaboration with choreographer Damien Jalet and that’s sure to be visually astonishing. But in general, the emphasis in this autumn season is less on the surprising than on on the tried and trusted, with much of the work presented either by the Wells’ associate artists or by regular guests.
Among the quartet of associates’ premieres, the headline event will probably be Akram Khan’s Until the Lions. It’s a work that sees Khan returning to his classical roots, based in kathak technique and inspired by the Mahabharata – the epic drama in which Khan made his debut as a child performer, touring in the legendary Peter Brook production. While it will be taking Khan into the new territory of the Roundhouse stage, Until the Lions will be created with some of his familiar collaborators including the writer Karthika Naïr, visual artist Tim Yip, lighting designer Michael Hulls and dramaturg Ruth Little.
Fellow Wells associate Hofesh Shechter presents his new trilogy, Barbarians. The first part, Barbarians in Love, was previewed at the Wells earlier this year and admirers of Shechter choreography will be hoping that the full evening will lift his work back to the level of productions like Political Mother. Russell Maliphant marks the 20th anniversary of his collaboration with the lighting genius Michael Hulls, in a special showcase of works. Vintage pieces such as Broken Fall are revived alongside brand new ones, including a solo that brings the excellent Dana Fouras back to the stage. Finally, from Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui comes Genesis, a characteristically ambitious meditation on life and death, which he’s created in collaboration with Yabin Wang, the Chinese dancer featured in the film House of Flying Daggers and one of three choreographers who will feature in English National Ballet’s forthcoming programme of all–female work.
Kahn’s choreography gets a second showing in Chotto Desh, a version of his masterly solo DESH which has been specially adapted for young children. This production forms part of the Wells’ increasingly imaginative strand of family-oriented works, and this season there is a Christmas rerun of Arthur Pita’s marvellously funny and fantastical The Little Match Girl as well as Tiger Tale by Barrowland Ballet (a fine Scottish company whose adult works also deserve UK-wide exposure).
The Lilian Baylis Studio, where most of these family works are presented, is itself being nicely used this season, with a programme that includes Falling in Love, Caroline Bowditch’s meditation on the life and career of Frida Kahlo; Clare Cunningham’s Give Me a Reason to Live, a powerful assault on the abuse suffered by disabled people; and a marvellous experiment in which the drolly subversive work of Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion is reimagined for two female dancers, Eleanor Sikorski and Flora Wellesley Wesley.
Back on the main stage, the new association between English National Ballet and the Wells is marked by a revival of ENB’s masterful Lest We Forget programme, with war-themed work by Khan, Maliphant and Liam Scarlett (George Williamson’s Firebird, which used to sit rather uncomfortably in this programme, has now sensibly been dropped). There’s a week-long season from Birmingham Royal Ballet, which includes the London premiere of David Bintley’s new Louis XIV-inspired work, The King Dances. Rambert also make their regular autumn visit with new works from Didy Veldman and Kim Brandstrup, the latter a setting of Schoenberg’s hauntingly strange score, Transfigured Night.
Given this concentration of work by British and associate companies, there are fewer standout foreign guests. But the German choreographer Sasha Waltz brings Sacre, her tensely angular setting of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; there’s a welcome chance to see Borderline, by the fascinatingly hip hop-inspired choreographic duo Sebastian Ramirez and Honji Wang; the Shaolin Monks return with their heartstopping mastery of Kung Fu; and Les Ballets Trockadero des Monte Carlo also return with their own heartwarming mastery of the camp comic classical sublime.
- Tickets for the autumn season are available from Monday 11 May
