Seven-venue UK tour presented by Dance Consortium opens at Sadler’s Wells 20 & 21 May and runs until 11 June

Vancouver-based Ballet BC, one of the world’s finest contemporary ballet ensembles, returns to the UK this May to present UK premieres by two exceptional choreographers – Johan Inger and Crystal Pite. The seven-venue tour is presented by Dance Consortium, a group of 21 large-scale venues whose mission is to engage people across the UK and Ireland with the very best international contemporary dance.

Ballet BC received critical and audience acclaim on its UK debut in 2018. On this return visit, it will be presenting a powerful double bill by seminal Swedish choreographer and longtime Ballet BC collaborator Johan Inger and four-time Olivier award-winning Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite.

Commissioned by Ballet BC in 2023, Johan Inger’s PASSING takes audiences across a vast theatrical landscape of human emotion, embodied by a cast of 20 extraordinary dancers. Bold and bright staging and costumes, elements of folk dance, hip hop and swing are juxtaposed with the sense of loss and aching sadness which run through the piece. The beautifully complex and captivating movement reveals human relationships in extreme times, both for individuals and for social groups. PASSING is set to an original score by Amos Ben-Tal with selections from Erik Enocksson and Louis T. Hardin (aka Moondog).

Four-time Olivier Award winner Crystal Pite has reimagined her 2008 work Frontier for Ballet BC. Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater, this new version has been created on an epic scale for 24 dancers, including four dancers from the Rambert School in London. Frontier is a visionary, enigmatic work, a portrait of the invisible forces that move us, with mysterious black-hooded shadow figures personifying our doubts and fear of the unknown.  A spine-tingling score opens and closes with choral pieces by Eric Whitacre bookending a meditation on human breath by Pite’s longtime collaborator, the Vancouver composer Owen Belton.

Ballet BC’s artistic director, choreographer and former dancer, Medhi Walerski who took up the role in 2020, says: “I love being able to commission and share this calibre of contemporary dance. And I’m looking forward to being back in the UK. I remember when I was touring there as a dancer the audiences were very enthusiastic. They have a deep knowledge of dance, they really appreciate it and they have an opinion. On this tour, I can promise audiences are going to see incredible, versatile, generous dancers on stage and two epic works by two of the greatest choreographers of our generation.”