Sadler's Wells Reveals Sadé and Kristina Alleyne as Guest Artistic Directors of National Youth Dance Company
Alleyne Dance is a unique and powerful company that blends Caribbean, hip hop and kathak, within a contemporary dance context.
By: Stephi Wild May. 19, 2025
Sadé and Kristina Alleyne, Co-Artistic Directors of the award-winning Alleyne Dance have been appointed as the next Guest Artistic Directors of National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) for 2025/26. Alleyne Dance is a unique and powerful company that blends Caribbean, hip hop and kathak, within a contemporary dance context. The choreographic language focuses on rhythms and textures with movement that is athletic, fast paced and dynamic, with infusions of lyrical and fluid motion.
Founded in 2014 by sisters, Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, the company strives for high quality and excellence in their three main objectives of Performance, Participation and Development.
Alleyne Dance has worked with acclaimed companies including Martha Graham Dance Company, Trioler Landstheater: Ballet Company, Phoenix Dance Theatre and 2Faced Dance Company. Some awards the company has received include Best Independent Company – National Dance Awards, Black Female Icons of Lewisham – Brockley Max and The Mayor of London and Bench 2019 Women of Colour Commission. Both Sadé and Kristina have performed on the Sadler's Wells stage many times with various acclaimed companies.
National Youth Dance Company, run by Sadler's Wells is England's flagship company for young dancers. Since its inception 364 dancers have joined the company, working intensively with renowned dance artists as Guest Artistic Directors including Boy Blue, Oona Doherty, Wayne McGregor, Alesandra Seutin, Russell Maliphant, Botis Seva, Sharon Eyal, Damien Jalet, Michael Keegan Dolan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan & Jasmin Vardimon.
Kristina and Sadé Alleyne said, “We are thrilled to step into this role as Guest Artistic Directors and to shape a new, vibrant chapter with NYDC. Alleyne Dance has always been about pushing physical, emotional, and creative boundaries, and we look forward to bringing that same energy and vision to this exciting journey. We believe in dance that speaks, challenges, and inspires, and we can't wait to discover the voices that will help us tell powerful new stories."
Hannah Kirkpatrick, Head of National Youth Dance Company, said, “We are so excited that Kristina and Sadé will be starting this new chapter with NYDC. They have been connected to the company since the early days having worked as rehearsal directors when the company was led by Akram Khan. They know NYDC well and were a clear choice to follow Boy Blue, as they trained with them when they were teenagers. It's set to be a fantastic year, they have a huge amount to share with our young people. We are looking for dancers from all dance styles and backgrounds and can't wait to meet them!”
This month NYDC will begin its search for the next intake of young dancers to join the company and work with Alleyne Dance to create a new piece of work from autumn 2025 which will premiere in April 2026. To find these young dancers, NYDC Experience Workshops will be taking place across England from May to July in the following towns and cities: Leeds, Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester, Falmouth, Blackpool, London, Ipswich, and Coventry. The final audition will be held in London at Sadler's Wells East on Saturday 6 September.
This year's NYDC cohort premiered current Guest Artistic Director Boy Blue's new work Gravity at Leeds Playhouse on Friday 18 April and will embark on a nationwide tour with a performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre on Saturday 19 July as well as a performance at Sadler's Wells East on Friday 25 July as part of the new annual YFX Festival, which celebrates and showcases the exceptional range of youth dance work across the United Kingdom.
Sign up for the workshops on the NYDC website here: National Youth Dance Company How to Join NYDC - National Youth Dance Company
NYDC Experience Workshops 2025
Date
Town/City
Venue
Saturday 24th May
Brighton
BHASVIC
Saturday 24th May
Birmingham
ACE Dance and music
Wednesday 28th May
Manchester
The Lowry
Sunday 29th June
Falmouth
AMATA
Sunday 6th July
Blackpool
Whittaker Dance & Drama Centre
Sunday 6th July
London
Sadler's Wells East
Saturday 12th July
Ipswich
Dance East
Wednesday 23 July
Coventry
Belgrade
National Youth Dance Company Tour Dates 2025
NYDC x Boy Blue Gravity
Falmouth
AMATA Arts Centre, Falmouth University
Sunday 29 June at 7:30 pm
Blackpool
Capital of Dance Festival - Venue: Comedy Carpet, Promenade
Saturday 5 July
Ipswich
DanceEast
Saturday 12 July at 7:30 pm
London
Sadler's Wells
Saturday 19 July at 7:30 pm
Sadler's Wells East
Friday 25 July at 7.30 pm as part of U.Dance Festival and YFX Festival
Coventry
Belgrade Theatre
Wednesday 23 July at 7.30 pm
Germany, Berlin
Berliner Festspiele Theatre as part of Tanztreffen der Jugend
Sunday 28 September
NYDC is supported by Barclays
For further information about Barclays, please visit our website home.barclays
Lacoste L003 Neo Shot sneakers provided for the dancers of NYDC 24/25, courtesy of Lacoste.
For further information or to arrange interviews and press tickets, please contact Laura Neil on [email protected] or 0207 863 8114
Press images can be downloaded from http://media.sadlerswells.com
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Photo credit: Camilla Greenwell
About Alleyne Dance
Award-winning Alleyne Dance is a unique and powerful company that blends Caribbean, Hip Hop and Kathak, within a contemporary dance context. The choreographic language focuses on rhythms and textures with movement that is athletic, fast paced and dynamic, with infusions of lyrical and fluid motion. Founded in 2014 by award-winning sisters, Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, the company strives for high quality and excellence in our three main objectives:
Performance: with productions made for the stage, outdoors and film.
Participation: with bespoke training classes and workshops for community groups, youth groups, vocational institutions, professional companies, and dance festivals.
Development: by nurturing the professional journey of dancers as they find their artistic voice and strengthen their skills.
Alleyne Dance also receives commissions to create work on other professional companies that tour nationally and internationally. Some include: Martha Graham Dance Company (USA), Trioler Landstheater: Ballet Company (AT), Phoenix Dance (UK) and 2Faced Dance Company (UK).
Some of the awards received include: Best Independent Company – National Dance Awards (UK), Black Female Icons of Lewisham – Brockley Max and The Mayor of London (UK), Bench 2019 Women of Colour Commission (UK) and Multiple Awards for of Dance Film, (Re)United from, Frostbite, National Dance Awards and more.
About NYDC
Founded in 2012, and run by Sadler's Wells, NYDC is England's flagship youth dance company. The company creates and performs innovative and influential dance, drawing together some of the brightest young talent from across the country to work with leading choreographers and artists.
NYDC is funded by Arts Council England. Since NYDC's inception in 2012:
- 364 dancers have joined the company, working intensively with renowned dance artists including Guest Artistic Directors: Jasmin Vardimon (2012-13), Akram Khan (2013-14), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (2014-15), Michael Keegan Dolan (2015-16), Damien Jalet (2016-17), Sharon Eyal (2017-18) Botis Seva (2018-19), Russell Maliphant (2019-20), Alesandra Seutin (2020-2022), Wayne McGregor (2022-23), Oona Doherty (2023-24) and Boy Blue (2024-25). These 364 dancers come from over 85 different towns and cities in England.
- Over 10,000 young people have worked with the company through workshops, holiday courses and projects
- NYDC has reached an audience of over 54,000 people
- NYDC has featured in 103 performances, visiting 26 different venues across the UK, including some leading theatres in the country
About Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance organisation. We strive to make and share dance that inspires us all. Our acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap.
We commission, produce and present more dance than any other organisation in the world. Since 2005, we have helped to bring more than 200 new dance works to the stage, embracing both the popular and the unknown. Our acclaimed productions tour the world. Since 2005 we've produced 64 new full-length works and performed to audiences of more than two million, touring to 51 countries.
Each year, over half a million people visit our London theatres. Millions more attend our touring productions nationally and internationally or explore our digital platforms, including Sadler's Wells Digital Stage.
Sadler's Wells East
In February 2025, we opened a fourth London venue in Stratford's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, as part of East Bank. Sadler's Wells East is home to a 550-seat mid-scale theatre, as well as facilities for the new Rose Choreographic School and the hip hop theatre training centre, Academy Breakin' Convention. Community is at the heart of Sadler's Wells East. There's a large open foyer that can be used by everyone as a meeting or performance space and six state-of-the-art dance studios and world-class dance facilities for dancemakers to train, create and rehearse productions.
Supporting artists
Supporting artists is at the heart of our work. We have associate artists and companies, which nurture some of the most exciting talent working in dance today. We host the National Youth Dance Company, which draws together some of the brightest young dancers from across the country. Breakin' Convention runs professional development programmes to champion and develop the world's best hip hop artists, as well as producing, programming and touring groundbreaking hip hop performances.
Learning and community links
Around 30,000 people take part in our learning and engagement programmes every year. We support schools local to our theatres in Islington and Stratford, designing experiences for children and young people to watch, explore and critically engage with the arts. We also run Company of Elders, a resident performance company of dancers aged over 60 who rehearse with renowned artists to make new work for public performances locally, nationally and internationally.
Sadler's Wells is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
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