Dance UK Mentor - Alistair Spalding

May 2015

I'm very excited to announce that Alistair Spalding, CBE, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sadler's Wells will be my mentor as part of the the Dance UK 2014/5 mentoring programme.

Here is a little info about him and the great work he has done:

Under Spalding, Sadler's Wells has become the UK's leading dance house, presenting an ambitious programme of cutting-edge dance in all its forms and hosting world-class national and international companies and artists, such as The Forsythe Company, Pina Bausch Tanztheatre Wuppertal, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures and Wayne McGregor I Random Dance. The theatre welcomes audiences of over 500,000 across its three London venues and attracts touring audiences of over 100,000 each year.

In 2005, he announced his vision for Sadler's Wells to become a producing house. He has since driven the commissioning, producing and co-producing of more than 90 shows, including acclaimed cross art form collaborations zero degrees, PUSH and Sutra. In the last nine years, Sadler's Wells' productions have toured to 233 venues in 164 cities across the world.

Spalding also created the position of Associate Artist at the theatre. There are currently 16 Associate Artists, 3 Resident Companies and 1 Associate Company, representing the most exciting talent working in dance today.

He has initiated a number of ground-breaking annual festivals, including the critically acclaimed international festival of hip hop dance theatre Breakin' Convention, as well as new initiatives such as the Composer Series and Sadler's Sampled.

Spalding's first job in arts management was at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, where he was a programmer from 1988 to 1994. Between 1994 and 2000 he was Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London. He has been responsible for the artistic programme at Sadler's Wells since February 2000, when he joined as Director of Programming, before becoming CEO and Artistic Director in October 2004.

He was appointed as a national member of the Arts Council England in 2009, and a member of the Arts Council England Advisory Panel between 1995 and 2003. He was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005. He was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2012, for services to dance.