NYDC collaboration
National Youth Dance Company (NYDC), the country’s flagship company for young dancers run by Sadler’s Wells, confirmed its eighth UK tour for 2019/20, which was choreographed by Russell Maliphant.
Russell and his artistic team, which included NYDC graduates Edd Arnold and Folu Odimayo, have been working with this year’s selection of 39 dancers over four residencies to create, develop and rehearse the work. 2019/20’s residencies were due to take place in Ipswich, Birmingham, Leeds and London, but due to restrictions were later held online.
Throughout the dancers’ time with the company, they are given a unique insight into the dance profession, gaining skills and techniques that will stay with them throughout their careers. NYDC alumni have gone onto perform with leading dance artists and companies including Russell Maliphant Dance Company, Hofesh Shechter Company, Rambert, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company and Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Teaċ Daṁsa, among others.
NYDC has established a reputation for producing high-quality, critically acclaimed productions by leading choreographers including Botis Seva, Sharon Eyal, Damien Jalet, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan and Jasmin Vardimon. The company’s next Guest Artistic Director is Alesandra Seutin.
RMDC’s search for the next cohort of NYDC dancers began on Tuesday 14 April 2019 at DanceEast, with an extensive tour of workshops spread across England throughout May, June and July 2019. They included a warm-up dance class, a creative session and discussions and information on further dance training and careers. The workshops are open to dancers from all backgrounds and abilities, with experience in any dance style, aged 15-19 and up to the age of 24 for deaf or disabled dancers.
Once the new company of dancers had been selected in July 2019, work began on creating Russell’s bespoke piece. This involved several residencies and rehearsal periods throughout a 12 month period, which was due to culminate in a UK tour of the new performance piece in Brighton, London, Ipswich, Leeds and more.
At the end of summer 2020, NYDC became the first dancers to return to the historic Sadler’s Wells theatre in London since lockdown. Working in small socially distanced groups, they rehearsed and performed a new dance work to an intimate audience of friends and family, to complete their year.