Press Release: New film celebrates 10 Years of National Youth Dance Company while Oona Doherty is announced as next Guest Artistic Director

[Jan McNulty]

Press release: Monday 10 July 2023    New film celebrates 10 Years of National Youth Dance Company while Oona Doherty is announced as next Guest Artistic Director

Sadler’s Wells today releases a film on Digital Stage celebrating the first 10 years of National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) and announces that acclaimed choreographer Oona Doherty will be Guest Artistic Director for 2023/24. The company are currently on a UK tour including Latitude Festival.     Featuring interviews with all the Guest Artistic Directors including Wayne McGregor, Alessandra Seutin, Akram Khan, and Jasmin Vardimon, the documentary follows the current cohort of dancers as they prepare for the world premiere of Novacene, choreographed by McGregor, at the Lowry in Salford in April 2023. The film is directed by longtime NYDC collaborator Ben Williams.    To date, over 300 young people have been part of NYDC, with over 7000 young people taking part in workshops and projects. Nine out of ten young people who join NYDC go on to some form of work or further training in dance or the performing arts. The company has become known for its diversity, with company members coming from across the country, from different dance styles and backgrounds. Dancers come from across the socioeconomic spectrum with one quarter (24%) coming from the 30% most deprived postcodes nationally (source: Index of Multiple Deprivations).    Many NYDC alumni are currently performing around the world including Robbie Ordoña (NYDC 2017-18) in Kate Prince’s Message In A Bottle, Blue Makwana (NYDC 2015-16) in New Adventures’ Romeo and Juliet and a current Sadler’s Wells Young Associate; Folu Odimayo (2013-14), Fern Grimbley (2013-14), Seirian Griffiths (2017-18), Jahmarley Bachelor (2014-15), Luigi Nardone (2013-14), Sharol Mackenzie (2013) in Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City; Rory Clarke (2020-22) in Far From The Norm’s BLKDOG; Emma Farnell Watson (2013), Zakarius Harry (2016-17) and Oscar Li (2016-17) with Hofesh Shechter Company; Conor Kerrigan (2014-15) and Archie Wood (2016-17) in Rambert’s Peaky Blinders.    Oona Doherty becomes Guest Artistic Director for the 2023/24 cohort of NYDC. She was born in 1986 in London and moved to Belfast when she was 10. Doherty’s ground-breaking choreography has earned her multiple awards and prestigious opportunities in Ireland, Europe and beyond. Her solo work Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015) earnt her Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival Best Performer Award in 2016 and won the Total Theatre Dance Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Her first group piece Hard to Be Soft – A Belfast Prayer was voted no.1 UK dance show of 2019 by The Guardian. Oona Doherty was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale Danza in 2021.    Hannah Kirkpatrick, Head of National Youth Dance Company, said:  "We feel so proud of everything that has happened over this first decade of NYDC. We have been lucky to work with some of the world's best choreographers and have been given a totally unique insight into their world as they made the company their own. What feels really special is 10 years on, seeing the alumni return to Sadler's Wells as professional artists or as part of the NYDC artistic teams, or being invited to run a school workshop where the head of dance used to be in the company! And it's not just dance, alumni have gone on to so many different careers showing how transferable the skills are that you learn from a practical experience like this. We feel like this is only the beginning and are looking forward to working with Oona Doherty next year as our Guest Artistic Director. We have loved her work for a long time and feel like she will be a perfect match to challenge and inspire young artists."    Darren Henley CBE, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said:  “Happy 10th anniversary to National Youth Dance Company. Over those ten years the team have supported 300 brilliant role models – and isn’t that amazing, if you’re ten years old and you see them and think ‘yes, I could do that’. Because that is what we want to do through our investment, we want to inspire people to be creative – whether that is professionally or personally. And in another ten years, some of those dancers might become directors, producers, or choreographers, while another 300 young people will have followed in their footsteps. What could that group of 600 people achieve and how could their success inspire others – that’s really exciting.”    Oona Doherty, Guest Artistic Director for 2023/24, said ‘I'm super excited to work with NYDC. To have a big cast like this of young people from across England is daunting and cool at the same time. Can’t wait to get going and share ideas together.’    Wayne McGregor CBE, Guest Artistic Director for 2022/23, said ‘I would have loved to have been in National Youth Dance Company at 17 because it’s contemporary work. It’s about expressing yourself. And it’s not about inheriting a form that you have to become, a specific form of theatre-making. It’s about finding what that constellation of young people want to say. And I would love to have been part of that. So, when I’m reincarnated, I hope that I have that opportunity to come back and join a project like this’.    Novacene is currently on a nationwide tour with future dates at The House, Plymouth (15 July), De Montford University, Leicester (18 July), Latitude Festival (22 July) and Northern Stage, Newcastle (23 July).    Barclays is the Associate Partner of the National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) and the headline sponsor of the 10th Anniversary Celebrations      NOTES TO EDITORS      About NYDC    Founded in 2012, and hosted at Sadler’s Wells, NYDC is an exciting young company that creates and performs innovative and influential dance, drawing together some of the brightest young talent from across the country.     NYDC is jointly funded by Arts Council England and the Department for Education. Since NYDC’s inception in 2012:       310 dancers have joined the company, working intensively with renowned dance artists including Guest Artistic Directors: Jasmin Vardimon (2012-13), Akram Khan (2013-14), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (2014-15), Michael Keegan Dolan (2015-16), Damien Jalet (2016-17), Sharon Eyal (2017-18)  Botis Seva (2018-19), Russell Maliphant (2019-20) and Alesandra Seutin (2020-2022). These 310 dancers come from over 80 different towns and cities in England.    Over 7000 young people have worked with the company       NYDC has reached an audience of over 50,000 people      NYDC has featured in 94 performances, visiting 25 different venues across the UK, including some leading theatres in the country         About Sadler’s Wells   Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance organisation. We strive to make and share dance that inspires us all. Our acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap.   We commission, produce and present more dance than any other organisation in the world. Since 2005, we have helped to bring close to 200 new dance works to the stage, embracing both the popular and the unknown.     Each year, over half a million people visit our three London theatres - Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Lilian Baylis Studio and Peacock Theatre. Millions more attend our touring productions nationally and internationally or explore our digital platforms, including Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage. In 2024 we’re opening a fourth London venue in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Sadler’s Wells East will house a 550-seat mid-scale theatre, as well as facilities for the Choreographic School and Hip Hop Theatre Academy.      Supporting artists is at the heart of our work. We have associate artists and companies, which nurture some of the most exciting talent working in dance today. We host the National Youth Dance Company, which draws together some of the brightest young dancers from across the country. Sadler’s Wells Breakin' Convention runs professional development programmes to champion and develop the world’s best hip hop artists, as well as producing, programming and touring groundbreaking hip hop performances.      Around 30,000 people take part in our learning and engagement programmes every year. We support schools local to our theatres in Islington and Stratford, designing experiences for children and young people to watch, explore and critically engage with the arts. We also run Company of Elders, a resident performance company of dancers aged over 60 who rehearse with renowned artists to make new work for public performances locally, nationally and internationally.     Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.      www.sadlerswells.com      Stay up to date with everything Sadler’s Wells on social media   Facebook: @SadlersWells   Twitter: @Sadlers_Wells   Instagram: @sadlers_wells   YouTube: Sadler’s Wells Theatre    About Barclays   Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by our service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com