Sadler’s Wells presents the first public sharing of new work by the 2023/24 Young Associates BLUE MAKWANA, Elisabeth Mulenga, Maiya Leeke and Roseann & Sula in the Lilian Baylis Studio this November. The evening comprises four duets created by the young choreographers and showcases each dance artist’s distinct and diverse voice as they take the next step in their choreographic careers.

The Young Associates programme also aims to support young creatives alongside the choreographers. Lighting Designer Amelia Hawkes will create an exciting and atmospheric lighting design to complement the new voices being represented on stage.

The new cohort includes Maiya Leeke, whose work is rooted in her background as a jazz saxophonist and discovering a physical language of hope. She was a finalist on BBC Young Dancer in 2022 and was a dancer in Greta Gerwig’s box-office record-breaking film Barbie.

BLUE MAKWANA is a London-based choreographer who fuses different dance styles to focus in on specific stimulus such as hairstyles and how they’re portrayed in the media. MAKWANA was in the fourth cohort of National Youth Dance Company (NYDC).

Elisabeth Mulenga is a dance artist whose work is at once unflinching, tender, and intimate, and takes inspiration from film directors to explore the human psyche. Mulenga is an alumnus of the eighth cohort of NYDC and won the Choreographic Innovation Award in the final of BBC Young Dancer 2022.

Roseann & Sula are a dance theatre duo who draw on phenomenological research to create work about the human experience, with a particular focus on the intersections of gender politics, Scottish identity, religion and class.

The Young Associates programme supports talented 18-24-year-olds and 18-30 for d/Deaf and disabled choreographers for two years, providing a crucial first step into their career as choreographers. The young artists will develop their practice over the course of the programme, and these presentations in the Lilian Baylis Studio will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells East in autumn 2024.

Additionally, each Young Associate has worked alongside the photographer and filmmaker Camilla Greenwell to create a moving portrait that gives an insight into the artists’ individual styles and choreographic identities. These films will be released on Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage ahead of the performances in the Lilian Baylis Studio on Monday 6 November here: https://www.sadlerswells.com/digital-stage/

Lucy Clarke-Bishop, Producer for Young Associates said: “We are proud to support these exciting emerging artists as part of the Young Associates Programme. Each of them brings a unique perspective on dance and performance and the Lilian Baylis Studio works will be an opportunity to proudly introduce them to our audiences.”

YASS met Roseann and Sula ahead of their performance.

Roseann & Sula please talk to us about your new work. What are we going to see in the Lilian Baylis Studio this November?

We’re making a new piece with two dancers about queerness, nostalgia, a type of poetic mourning. Using our lived experiences as young queer people growing up in central Scotland as a starting point, we are reflecting on who we were becoming, and in some ways mourning what we could have been.

How do you feel being supported by The Young Associates programme?

We are so proud about it, it’s a crazy opportunity! We have never really seen ourselves or our work in a setting like this, so it’s taking time to sink in. The Young Associates team have provided so much support for us to develop our practice, especially as the first collective to be on the programme. It’s also so exciting to be working alongside the caliber of artists such as Elisabeth, Maiya and BLUE. 

Your work is focused on the intersections of gender politics, identity, religion and class. What messages do you deliver through your art?

We want the work to feel honest.  A sense of familiarity, as if in some ways the audience has felt the things or been in the places that the performer moves through before. We’re trying to find the point where rawness and humanity can blatantly flirt with futile aestheticism.  

How does your relationship with gender coding and toxic masculinity affect your work?

We are both non-binary and want to create movement that is instinctual, not dragged down with the pressure to be something you’re not.  Dance environments can be so gendered, we care a lot about creating a space within the collective that lives outside heteronormative structures. 

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Young Associates 
Young Associates – Mixed Bill
Lilian Baylis Studio, EC1R 4TN
Wednesday 22 – Thursday 23 November
Tickets: £15
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com