With Sadler’s Wells East due to open in 2023, Simon Tait looks back on its unwavering history and argues it deserves national status.
A quarter of a century or so ago there was a fervour for a national dance theatre. We had a national theatre, a national gallery, a nation opera company, even a national youth orchestra, but never a national theatre of dance.
The advent of the National Lottery gave campaigners an impetus, and they even found a site at Waterloo which only needed government support, specifically from what was effectively the culture secretary, to get the fundraising ball rolling. It never happened.
Or did it?
Instead of building a brand new institution the nascent lottery bonanza was used for the bulk of the £54m cost of rebuilding Sadler’s Wells in Islington, and under Ian Albery it it reopened in 1998 with a 1,500-seat theatre, the smaller Lilian Baylis Theatre, extensive studios and ambitions to present particularly modern and contemporary dance made in the UK and dance from overseas for UK audiences.
A quarter of a century or so ago there was a fervour for a national dance theatre. We had a national theatre, a national gallery, a nation opera company, even a national youth orchestra, but never a national theatre of dance.
The advent of the National Lottery gave campaigners an impetus, and they even found a site at Waterloo which only needed government support, specifically from what was effectively the culture secretary, to get the fundraising ball rolling. It never happened.
Or did it?
Instead of building a brand new institution the nascent lottery bonanza was used for the bulk of the £54m cost of rebuilding Sadler’s Wells in Islington, and under Ian Albery it it reopened in 1998 with a 1,500-seat theatre, the smaller Lilian Baylis Theatre, extensive studios and ambitions to present particularly modern and contemporary dance made in the UK and dance from overseas for UK audiences.
Sadler’s Wells led a charge that hasn’t wavered...Keep reading on Tait Mail.