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Sadler's Wells to expand into the West End
By Louise Jury, Evening Standard 01.05.07
Sylvie Guillem will perform Push, which has already played to sell-out houses at Sadler's Wells three times
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Dance stars Sylvie Guillem and Carlos Acosta and two companies not seen in London in decades are to star in a new international dance season in the West End.
Sadler's Wells has teamed up with promoters Raymond Gubbay and Askonas Holt to present some of the best dance companies in the world at the Coliseum, home of English National Opera.
The five-year plan kicks off next March with work from New York City Ballet which has not performed in London since 1983.
They will be followed by Stuttgart Ballet with a full-length ballet, Romeo and Juliet, to the score by Prokofiev. They have not been seen in London for 26 years.
The first season will conclude with two of Sadler's Wells biggest hits of recent years. Acosta will return with his Olivier award-winning show with guests from the Royal Ballet and Guillem will perform Push, the show she created with Russell Maliphant which has already played to sell-out houses at Sadler's Wells three times.
Gubbay said: "The Coliseum is a great dance house. Sadler's Wells has created this fantastic dance market but there are certain companies they can't invite there because of the size of the theatre."
Alistair Spalding, artistic director and chief executive of Sadler's Wells, said moving into the West End was a risk but also a potentially important new source of revenue.
"It feels like the right time to be expanding," he said.
Arts Council statistics suggest that dance is the fastest-growing art form in Britain. Audiences at Sadler's Wells have risen by 30 per cent in the last three years.
A combination of exciting new performers and choreographers and the growing internationalism of London were contributing to the boom, Mr Spalding said. Dance has no language problems to overcome.
This dance initiative is taking advantage of ENO's controversial plans to rent out the Coliseum for more weeks than it has in the past to raise money.
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