PRESS RELEASE: SW MUSICAL WAH! WAH! GIRLS JOINS THE LINE UP FOR THE 2012 LATITUDE FESTIVAL

[Jan McNulty]

SADLER’S WELLS’ BRITISH BOLLYWOOD MUSICAL WAH! WAH! GIRLS JOINS THE LINE UP FOR THE 2012 LATITUDE FESTIVAL

 

Sadler’s Wells will present extracts from its new British Bollywood musical Wah! Wah! Girls at this year’s Latitude Festival on Saturday 14 July 2012, completing a diverse and exciting programme of dance events on the Waterfront Stage.

 

Wah! Wah! Girls is the first theatre collaboration between Sadler’s Wells, Kneehigh and Theatre Royal Stratford East (in association with Hall for Cornwall) as part of World Stages London and brings together the award-winning artistic director of Kneehigh, Emma Rice (The Red Shoes, Brief Encounter), and acclaimed playwright Tanika Gupta (Sugar Mummies Royal Court, Sanctuary National Theatre) with composer Niraj Chag and designer Keith Kahn, alongside choreographers Gauri Sharma Tripathi and Javed Sanadi.

 

Set in present day East London, the show tells a story of love against the odds, with music that combines Bollywood hits with contemporary pop-influenced songs. The Latitude performances will follow the world premiere run at the Peacock Theatre from 24 May to 23 June.

 

Also joining the line-up is French hip hop dance crew Serial Stepperz, who showcase house dance. House dance is a newer hip hop dance style, devised from the dance floor and born out of club culture. Serial Stepperz have competed in some of the most prestigious battles around the world and earlier in the year were part of Breakin’ Convention’sinternational line-up.

 

Serial Stepperz performs on Friday 13 July, seeing Sadler’s Wells programme performances at Latitude on the Friday as well as over the weekend for the first time.

 

The full programme presented this year compliment both Sadler’s Wells’ and Latitude’s artistic vision, appealing to audiences of all ages and reflecting the theatre’s reputation for exhibiting world class dance in all its forms.

 

Latitude Festival’s Curator of the Arts Tania Harrison comments: “As the UK’s leading dance house Sadler’s Wells brings the most exciting dance companies and performers to Latitude and this is a brilliant partnership for the festival. Whether it is hip hop, contemporary, ballet or kathak, the audiences at Latitude have embraced each and every bill. It has always been inspirational and absolutely worth it. Seeing new audiences discover the beauty and brilliance of dance at Latitude has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my festival programming career.”

 

Also included in the Sadler’s Wells line-up is an excerpt from the hugely popular Sadler’s Wells Production, The Most Incredible Thing on Sunday 15 July 2012.

A collaboration between pop legends Pet Shop Boys and choreographer/director Javier De Frutos, The Most Incredible Thing won the Evening Standard’s inaugural Beyond Theatre Award after its premiere in 2011, and recently enjoyed a return run at the theatre this Spring. The Latitude performance features soloists from the original production; South Bank Show Breakthrough Award winner Aaron Sillis and Clemmie Sveaas.

 

Featured in this year’s programme is Candoco Dance Company, the UK’s leading contemporary dance company of disabled and non-disabled dancers. They perform Set and Reset/Reset a restaging of the celebrated American choreographer Trisha Brown’s signature work, Set and Reset which was premiered in 1983. Using the original concepts from her playful choreography, the work is set to a score from Laurie Anderson’s album Long Time No See.

 

Completing the line-up for Saturday and Sunday is Aeroplane Man, a hip hop dance piece created by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist and hip-hop pioneer Jonzi D, Artistic Director and curator of Breakin’ Convention and Jonzi D Projects.

Aeroplane Man explores through hip hop dance the concept of ‘home’; based on the true story of a black man’s journey from East London on a global quest to find his spiritual homeland. With a unique fusion of rhyme, lyrically motivated movement, classical and modern black dance forms, plus live breakbeats; the universal theme of detachment is delivered with Jonzi’s trademark brazen, ironic wit.

 

Emma Gladstone, Sadler’s Wells Artistic Programmer and Producer comments: “We are excited to be returning to Latitude for our fifth year, to the cracking atmosphere, enthusiastic audience, and fine location of the Waterfront stage. Latitude Festival continues to provide us with a platform to present dance to a wider audience beyond our theatre and I hope this year’s exciting and varied programme of dance with its strong music influences, will appeal to all Latitude goers and dance enthusiasts alike.”

 

LISTINGS:

Latitude Festival

Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 July 2012

Sadler’s Wells at Latitude

Waterfront Stage

Friday 13 - Sunday 15 July 2012

Performance schedule

Friday 13 July 2012

Serial Stepperz

Saturday 14 July 2012

Candoco Dance Company

Jonzi D

Wah! Wah! Girls

Sunday 15 July 2012

The Most Incredible Thing

Jonzi D

Candoco Dance Company

 

Tickets: www.latitudefestival.co.uk

 

Notes for editors:

Sadler’s Wells Offsite

Sadler’s Wells first took dance to festivals in 2007 with a mixed programme at Glastonbury, followed by presentations at Glastonbury in 2008 and Latitude in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Committed to delivering dance to the widest possible audiences both at home and abroad, Sadler’s Wells has presented off site works in the UK at venues including Tate Modern, Roundhouse, Young Vic, Trafalgar Square, London Coliseum, Fabric nightclub and Village Underground. The theatre’s annual international festival of hip hop dance theatre Breakin’ Convention will embark on its fourth UK tour in 2012.

About Sadler’s Wells

Sadler's Wells is the UK's leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding the theatre’s cutting edge programme spans dance in all its forms, from contemporary to flamenco, bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Its international award-winning collaborative productions and commissions include Sutra, zero degrees, and PUSH. Sadler’s Wells also provides a home to world class Associate Artists and Resident Companies including Sylvie Guillem, Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and ZooNation.

Located in Islington in north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells.

About Candoco Dance Company

Candoco Dance Company was co-founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin; since then Candoco Dance Company has commissioned and performed work created by world-class choreographers for national and international touring. Choreographers include Rafael Bonachela, Hofesh Shechter, Nigel Charnock, Arthur Pita, Stephen Petronio, Wendy Houstoun and Sarah Michelson.

About Jonzi D

Jonzi D has been actively involved in British Hip Hop culture, rapping and b-boying since its genesis in the early eighties. After graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School, he has played a key role in the development of hip hop theatre, creating Lyrikal Fearta in 1995, and Aeroplane Man in 1999 and has performed and created dance theatre pieces all over Europe, North America, Russia, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba, Uganda, and Southern Africa. As an emcee Jonzi has worked with The Roots, Steve Williamson, MC Mell’o’, Wordsworth, Hymphatic Thabs, and toured europe with Jeru Da Damaja and Gangstarr in the early nineties.

About Breakin’ Convention

Still the only event of its kind in the UK, and curated and directed by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Jonzi D, Breakin’ Convention returned for its ninth year over the May bank holiday weekend this year.

Featuring some of the very best UK and international acts in hip hop dance, Breakin’ Convention offers audiences a range of different styles from breaking and popping to locking, b-boying and newer styles such as house dance, devised from the dance floors and born out of club culture. There are also dozens of extra events in the mix including workshops, film screenings, DJ demos, impromptu foyer freestyle sessions and even live aerosol art.

Since its inception in 2004 Breakin’ Convention has showcased over 400 UK and international companies, and a total of over 3,900 performers to audiences in excess of 75,000. For more information please visit: www.breakinconvention.com

About The Most Incredible Thing

Sadler’s Wells Production, The Most Incredible Thing is an award-winning collaboration between Pop legends Pet Shop Boys and choreographer/director Javier De Frutos. Premiering at Sadler’s Wells in March 2011, this modern fairytale based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fable, adapted by Matthew Dunster, centres on a contest to produce ‘the most incredible thing’, with a prize of half the kingdom and marriage to the princess at stake. The production features South Bank Show Breakthrough Award winner Aaron Sillis, and critically acclaimed Clemmie Sveaas. (only keep this in if they’re confirmed – I’m going on the basis Ivan definitely isn’t free so have removed him completely). The production was created by an impressive team including long-time Pet Shop Boys collaborator Sven Helbig, Tony Award-winning designer Katrina Lindsay (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), and BAFTA-winning film animator, Tal Rosner.

As the world’s most successful pop duo, Pet Shop Boys have sold over 50 million records worldwide and amassed 22 top 10 hits, three Brit Awards and six Grammy nominations.

For their live shows over the last 20 years, they have collaborated with directors, designers and artists including Derek Jarman, David Alden and David Fielding, Zaha Hadid, Sam Taylor-Wood and Es Devlin, but this new production signalled their first composition for a full-length dance work, their first collaboration with Sadler’s Wells, and became one of the most talked about cultural events of 2011.

Multi award-winning director and choreographer Javier De Frutos has directed a dynamic range of theatre productions as well as movement for TV and film. His work is in the repertoire of many ballet and contemporary dance companies including Rambert Dance Company and The Royal Ballet. In 2007 he received an Olivier Award for his choreography in Cabaret. His work for The Most Incredible Thing recently earned him a National Dance Award nomination for Best Modern Choreography.

About Wah! Wah! Girls and World Stages London

About Kneehigh

Kneehigh is celebrated as one of Britain's most innovative touring theatre companies. For 30 years it has created vigorous, popular and challenging theatre for a broad spectrum of audiences throughout the UK and beyond. Using a multi-talented group of performers, Director's, designers, sculptors, engineers, musicians and writers, Kneehigh perform with the joyful anarchy that audiences have come to expect from this groundbreaking theatre company. It uses a wide range of art forms and media as its ‘tool kit' to make new and accessible forms of theatre. A spontaneous sense of risk and adventure produces extraordinary dramatic results. Themes are universal and local, epic and domestic.

The company is now acknowledged as a defining theatrical force in the UK. Cornwall is its physical and spiritual home. The Company members draw inspiration from its landscapes, history, people and culture.

Wah! Wah! Girls Creative Team:

Emma Rice Director

Tanika Gupta Writer

Niraj Chag Composer

Keith Khan Designer

Javed Sanadi Choreographer

Guari Sharma Tripathi Choreographer

Malcolm Rippeth Lighting designer

Simon Baker Sound Designer

 

 

About World Stages London

World Stages London is an unprecedented collaboration between eight London producing venues and 12 UK and international co-producers. It is a celebration through theatre of the exhilarating cosmopolitan diversity of London. It is a series of exceptional shows created by leading artists, each drawing on the history and experience of one of London’s cross-cutting cultural communities. World Stages London has been jointly produced by Battersea Arts Centre, the Bush Theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Royal Court Theatre, Sadler's Wells, Somerset House, Theatre Royal Stratford East and the Young Vic.

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