Mayor opens new dance venue in East London

Sir Sadiq Khan has opened a new dance school in East London

Transcript

00:00It's a pleasure to be here in Sadler's Well East. This new purpose-built theatre is a game-changer

00:06for dance in London. Great to meet those who'll be dancing tonight, many of them local Londoners

00:12who never would have dreamed of being dancers. And what's wonderful about Sadler's Wells is

00:17it's a world-class dance company. They've come to the East End, but they're working with local

00:23young people, local adults to get them involved in dance. There's going to be a dance school here,

00:27a hip-hop centre, this huge fantastic auditorium, studios and a place for the public to come and

00:34watch dancing for free, and perform for free as well. One of the things we were keen to do

00:38is to ensure that this world-class dance theatre was involving young people. And what the STEP

00:44programme is about is ordinary Londoners being on an internship, getting paid the London living

00:49wage and getting involved in dance. And some of those on the STEP programme are involved in

00:53Sadler's Wells, but other companies across our city. Sadler's Wells East contains a 550-seat

01:00auditorium, six state-of-the-art dance studios and even a public performance space for free

01:08shows. It will also be home to the Rose Choreographic School and Academy, breaking

01:15convention on a new school for talented 16 to 19-year-olds dedicated to hip-hop theatre.

01:22Our Mighty Groove is the venue's opening show. This will be a club night-inspired mixture

01:30of house, whacking and vogue performance. The performance was created by choreographer

01:38Vicky Igbo Kwe Ozogu and is loosely based on her personal dance story. The show features a cast

01:47of professional dancers, as well as 12 dancers aged 16 to 21 who live locally or study in East

01:55London. 27 different productions are already on sale from now until December. This ranges from

02:03ballet to hip-hop. Around 20,000 tickets will be available for £25 or under in the opening season,

02:11with £10 tickets for 16 to 30-year-olds for every performance. In the summer,

02:17the venue is expected to host a two-week youth festival which will bring together

02:23the National Youth Dance Companies of England, Scotland and Wales,

02:30and share choreographic creations made by young people.

02:34Well, we're providing a platform for companies from around the country to come to the capital

02:39and it's really important for them to have that platform here because it's where they get more

02:44press and it's where they can do a lot of fundraising. So companies like Phoenix Dance

02:49from Leeds or Human Hood from Birmingham will be coming here in our opening season

02:55and they really value this London platform.