Sadler’s Wells East announce new Rose Choreographic School 

Sadler’s Wells is preparing for its East Bank venue launch next year, by today inviting applications for its new innovative international choreographic school. Artists are invited to register their interest in Rose Choreographic School, which will be based at Sadler’s Wells’ new venue Sadler’s Wells East and launches today, Tuesday 26 September. It is led by dramaturg and writer Martin Hargreaves with input from artistic faculty members and leading dance figures William Forsythe, Trajal Harrell and Alesandra Seutin. 

Rose Choreographic School is an experimental research programme for artists to develop their practice through investigating questions of the choreographic, over a two-year period. They will have access to studio spaces, mentoring and a research budget and will engage in workshops, lectures and discursive events. 

Rose Choreographic School has been made possible by a generous donation from an anonymous individual who chose the name Rose for the school. The donation also supports the Rose International Dance Prize at Sadler’s Wells – a biennial prize for new dance creations that was launched by Sadler’s Wells last year. The first six finalists will be announced in early 2024 and will present their work on Sadler’s Wells’ stages over the course of two weeks in spring 2025. 

Applications for Rose Choreographic School are welcomed from artists who wish to engage in their own research projects relating to the concept of the choreographic. The first cohort will receive mentorship from renowned dance artists William Forsythe, Trajal Harrell and Alesandra Seutin. 

William Forsythe is an American dancer and choreographer known for staging groundbreaking contemporary dance and redefining classical ballet over a career of more than 40 years. Recently he has created original works for the English National Ballet as well as A Quiet Evening of Dance, produced by Sadler’s Wells and The Barre Project (Blake Works II) created in 2020 for the Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage.   
Trajal Harrell came to visibility with the Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church series of works which theoretically juxtaposed the voguing dance tradition with the early postmodern dance tradition. He is now considered one of the most important choreographers of his generation. His work has been presented in many American and international venues including The Kitchen (NYC), New York Live Arts, TBA Festival (Portland), Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), American Realness Festival, ICA Boston, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, LA’s RedCat Theater, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Festival d’Avignon, Impulstanz (Vienna), TanzimAugust (Berlin), and Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro) among others. He has also shown performance work in visual art contexts.  

 Alesandra Seutin is an award-winning multidisciplinary performance artist and creator, whose focus is on exploring movement as a foundation for theatre, media and site-specific works. The daughter of South African and Belgian parents, Alesandra Seutin was born in Zimbabwe and calls herself ‘Afropean’. An inspirational leader with a multifaceted career spanning two decades, she has reached a global audience through her work.  
Director of Rose Choreographic School, Martin Hargreaves said: “Rose Choreographic School is an experimental research programme, open to applications from all kinds of artists from all walks of life. I am very excited to welcome our first cohort and the creative ideas they bring with them, and to work with the questions and provocations that our Artistic Faculty will propose.”   
Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Sadler’s Wells Artistic Director and Chief Executive said: “Rose Choreographic School is a much-needed initiative that will benefit the dance ecology by supporting artists at a crucial point in their careers. It will be a living creative environment, where artists can develop and flourish. I am very excited to welcome the globally respected dance leaders who will form the artistic faculty in the inaugural year. They all have a unique aesthetic and approach to their work that will give the participants an incredible insight into a range of choreographic styles. I am most grateful for the generous donation that has made the school possible. It represents a huge vote of confidence in Sadler’s Wells, and the future of dance.” 
 
Podcasts, on-site workshops and research presentations and publications from the school will be publicly available online. The inaugural programme starts in June 2024 and runs until April 2026. 
 
Rose Choreographic School is also working in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London to support a fully funded CHASE (Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England) collaborative doctoral award on “The four-plus Dimensional Materialities of the Choreographic”. Applications for the doctorate are via Goldsmiths, and the successful applicant will be based at both Goldsmiths and Rose Choreographic School. 
 
Sadler’s Wells East will be a new kind of cultural destination with local roots, national impact and global perspectives. Situated in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and opening next year as part of the groundbreaking East Bank cultural and educational development, Sadler’s Wells East features a 550-seat theatre, six studios for creating work, a community dance space and Academy Breakin’ Convention, as well as the choreographic school. 
 

To find out more and to apply, please visit rosechoreographicschool.com