Press Release: Sadler’s Wells announces UK Tour Dates for Sylvie Guillem’s Life in Progress. Guillem is honoured with an Olivier Award

[Jan McNulty]

Sadler’s Wells announces UK Tour Dates for Sylvie Guillem’s Life in Progress. Guillem is honoured with an Olivier Award

 

 

In addition to the previously announced international tour, Sadler’s Wells presents world renowned dancerSylvie Guillem’s final dance programme, Life in Progress, at the London Coliseum (Tuesday 28 July - Sunday 2 August

 

), Edinburgh International Festival (Festival Theatre, Saturday 8 - Monday 10 August) andBirmingham Hippodrome (Tuesday 8 & Wednesday 9 September 2015).

 

 

The newly announced UK dates follow Guillem’s final performances at Sadler’s Wells, from 26 - 31 May 2015, where she has been an Associate Artist since 2006 and where she announced her retirement from the stage in November 2014. Life in Progress receives its world premiere in Modena on 31 March 2015, and the final performance is in Tokyo in December 2015.

 

Sylvie Guillem is also today announced as the recipient of a special award at this year’s Olivier Awards, celebrating her achievements over the course of her career. The Olivier Awards with Master Card, run by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT), take place on Sunday 12 April 2015. Highlights from the awards will be broadcast on ITV.

 

Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director and CEO Alistair Spalding said: “When we announced Life in Progress as part of our spring programme last November, tickets for Sylvie’s final performances at Sadler’s Wells sold out within five days. Since then, we have seen an unprecedented demand for tickets not just in London, but throughout the country. We are so pleased now to be able to offer more opportunities for people to see her in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. These additional dates reflect our ongoing commitment to providing access to as large an audience as possible to world-class dance, by touring productions around the UK as well as internationally.”

 

A dancer renowned the world over with an extensive career at the Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Tokyo Ballet, Guillem has played many iconic roles in ballets by Kenneth MacMillan, Maurice Béjart, Frederick Ashton, William Forsythe and Mats Ek. She has also diversified as a dancer into the world of contemporary dance, performing acclaimed works such as PUSH, Sacred Monsters and 6000 miles away.

 

Life in Progress features both existing and new works by choreographers who have influenced her contemporary career. The new works include a solo by choreographer and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Akram Khan. Titled techne, Kahn says of the piece: “My work grows out of the questions I don't know how to answer. I ask questions and tell stories through the body. I use technology to connect with more people, more often. But are we more connected now than we used to be? Or are we connecting with the technology itself rather than with people? No computer can answer this question. But perhaps the body can...”

 

Guillem also performs a pas de deux with Italian dancer Emanuela Montanari from La Scala, choreographed and directed by Russell Maliphant with lighting by Michael Hulls, both of whom are Associate Artists of the theatre and who choreographed and lit the award-winning PUSH. In the piece, Here & After, Maliphantacknowledges his past works and experiences with Sylvie, whilst moving on and exploring a vocabulary that shows contrast, with a female duet partnership.

 

Existing works that feature in Life in Progress are Mats Ek’s touching and poignant solo, Bye, which was made especially for Guillem and has been performed previously as part of the 6000 miles away programme, and William Forsythe’s Duo (performed by two male dancers), which premiered in 1996.

 

Widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest dancers, Sylvie Guillem CBE, was born in Paris. As a child, she trained in gymnastics under the instruction of her mother, a gymnastics teacher. In 1977 aged 11, she began training at the Paris Opera Ballet School, and in 1981 joined the company's corps de ballet. She was promoted to the rank of "Etoile" by Rudolf Nureyev at the age of 19. Since then she has performed all the leading roles of the classical repertoire with the world's leading companies including The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov, Tokyo Ballet, Australian Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and La Scala.

 

Her first contemporary performances at Sadler’s Wells were in 2004 for Broken Fall - the collaboration with fellow Sadler’s Wells Associate Artists Russell Maliphant, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt. It was followed by the multi-award winning Sadler’s Wells production PUSH, which premiered at the theatre in 2005. She collaborated with celebrated dancer and choreographer, Akram Khan for Sacred Monsters, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2006, the same year she became an Associate Artist there.

 

In 2009 she collaborated with Robert Lepage and Russell Maliphant for the Sadler’s Wells productionEonnagata, with costumes by Alexander McQueen. Most recently, she devised and performed in the 2011 Sadler’s Wells / Sylvie Guillem production 6000 miles away. It featured works by three of today’s most important choreographers; Mats Ek, William Forsythe, and Jiří Kylián. All the productions have toured internationally to full houses and critical acclaim.

 

Her awards include the Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, Commander dans l’Ordre National du Mérite, Officier des Arts et Lettres, and, in Britain, an honorary CBE. She is the only dancer to have been awarded a Leone D’Oro at Venice Biennale.

 

Life in Progress is a Sadler’s Wells Production, co-produced with Les Nuits de Fourvière and Sylvie Guillem

 

The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commissions at Sadler's Wells

 

Sylvie Guillem Circle of Support has supported the creation and touring of Life in Progress

 

 

Notes to Editors:

 

 

TOUR SCHEDULE

31 March 2015

Teatro Communale, Modena, Italy

 

2 April 2015

Equilibrio Festival, Sala Santa Cecilia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy

 

15 & 16 May 2015

Lodz International Ballet Festival, Lodz, Poland

 

26 – 31 May 2015

Sadler’s Wells, London, UK

 

3 & 4 June 2015

Athens & Epidauras Festival, Athens, Greece

 

23 – 26 June 2015

Chekhov Festival, Moscow, Russia

 

29 June – 2 July 2015

Les Nuits de Fourvière, Lyon, France

 

5 July 2015

Genova Opera House, Genova, Italy

 

28 July – 2 August

London Coliseum, London, UK

 

8 – 10 August 2015

Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, UK

 

8 & 9 September 2015

Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham, UK

 

3 & 4 October 2015

National Theatre, Taipei

 

2 December 2015

Festspielhaus, St Polten, Austria

 

17 – 20 December 2015

NBS, Tokyo, Japan

 

About Sadler’s Wells

Sadler's Wells is a world leader in contemporary dance, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, fromcontemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its international award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour the world. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 appointed world class Associate Artists, three Resident Companiesand an Associate Company and nurtures the next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

 

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.

 

Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% of its revenue from Arts Council England.

[ENBlover]

The Coli dates are on sale for general public

[Pulcinella]

As are those for Birmingham.