London’s newest dance theatre - Sadler’s Wells East is being officially opened on Thursday.
The venue - hailed as a “gamechanger for dance in the capital” by mayor Sir Sadiq Khan - will open in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
It forms part of the newly-developed East Bank cultural quarter - which also includes BBC Music Studios and V&A East.
The theatre comprises a 550-seat auditorium, six state-of-the-art dance studios and a public performance space for free shows. It will be home to the Rose Choreographic School and Academy Breakin’ Convention, a new school for talented 16-19 year olds, dedicated to hip hop theatre.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said Sadler's Wells East would be another "exciting milestone in the East Bank journey".
"Renowned across the world as the UK's leading dance institution, this brand-new venue will be a gamechanger for dance in the capital.
"The school, studio spaces and electrifying programme will showcase and nurture talent not only from London but across the country and provide inspiration and opportunities for young people – a world class vision that's accessible to all, helping us build a better London for everyone."
The venue’s opening show is ‘Our Mighty Groove’, a club-night inspired mixture of house, waacking and vogue performance, created by choreographer Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu. Loosely based on her personal dance story, the show features a cast of professional dancers as well as 12 dancers aged 16 to 21, who live or study in east London.
A total of 27 different productions are already on sale from now until December, ranging from ballet to hip hop. Some 20,000 tickets will be available for £25 or under in the opening season, with £10 tickets for 16-30 year olds for every performance.
As well as the cultural institutions which have established themselves on the East Bank, two universities - the London College of Fashion, UAL, and University College London (UCL) - have also welcomed over 10,000 students to their own new buildings next door.
According to City Hall, the new cultural quarter will overall generate an estimated £1.5bn for the local economy.
