Young Associates 2023-24: BLUE MAKWANA, Elisabeth Mulenga, Maiya Leeke and Roseann & Sula

The Young Associates programme supports talented 18 to 25-year-olds and 18-30 for d/Deaf and disabled choreographers for two years, providing a crucial first step into their career as choreographers.

We recruit four young dance makers from a range of dance styles who are selected for their potential to become the next generation of choreographers. The Young Associates are supported by Sadler’s Wells over a period of two years and receive a tailored programme of professional development and present new work as part of three commissions within the Sadler’s Wells Artistic Programme.

Having recently made their debut on the Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage, this exciting mixed bill sees the artists present live works as Young Associates for the first time.

Further information about the Young Associates programme

In the face of recurring challenges, adaptive intelligence is needed for survival. The work explores the persistence required to keep moving forwards. When faced with more reasons to give up than carry on, how do you keep going?

Created in collaboration with Joshua Hawkins, Emily Lue-Fong and Josh Wild
Dancers Joshua Hawkins and Emily Lue-Fong
Music Composition by Randolph Matthews
Artistic Mentor Sadé Alleyne

What lingers around women with other women? How do we process that what lingers may never leave us? This piece centres around intimacy between women. It is driven by feelings of grief for moments of intimacy that could never be freed from feelings of violence. This work is inspired by Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the character of Ida in James Baldwin’s Another Country, the women in my life, Steffi and Laurie, and personal experience.

Dancers Laurie Ward and Steffi Fashokun
Music by Travis Yu featuring the voices of Laurie Ward, Steffi Fashokun and Travis Yu
Lighting Designer Amelia Hawkes
Creative Mentor Julia Cheng

Sitting together on the grass. The sky is flat and white.
We’ll stay here despite the cold, in the hopes that one day we’ll disappear entirely.

We are looking at queerness, nostalgia, a type of poetic mourning. Through investigating our lived experiences as young queer people growing up in central Scotland, we have found that there is an indescribable feeling of nothingness. Creating a movement language that mobilises our shared sense of not knowing, this melancholic duet sees two people journey through faith, loneliness and juvenile hunger.

We are reflecting on who we were then, who we were becoming, and in some way grieving what we could have been.

Dancers Yu-Chien Cheng & Naissa Bjørn
Sound Designer Jan Brzezinski
featuring a track inspired by She Wants Revenge and Roseann Dendy performing Lovely Molly
Lighting Designer Amelia Hawkes

Thanks to Andrea Callaghan, Sunniva Møen Rorvik and William James (JJ)

Toying with the term ‘BFF’, an acronym for Best Friends Forever, we navigate a variety of glimmers that can be experienced throughout beautiful and healthy platonic relationships. We experience fun and elation, we display an overload of sass, and we commit to each other with vigour, energy and passion.

This piece is dedicated to Matthew Perry, a human being that brought so much joy to people’s hearts all over the world.

Dancers Lauren Jenkins and Tanisha Addicott
Sound Engineer Jacques Jenkins
F.R.I.E.N.D.S remix Seirian Griffiths
Lighting Designer Amelia Hawkes
Costume styled by BLUE MAKWANA
Silk scarf skirts by MAKWAAN
Creative Mentor Shelley Maxwell

Thanks to Gavin Dunn and Michelle Ballentyne