Choreographer: Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu
In the icy cold drizzle of a dark February night, a red-lit sign rises like a mirage from the grey concrete: YOU ARE WELCOME. This is truly a relief for damp, bedraggled bodies who’ve trudged through Westfield to discover Sadler’s Wells East, London’s newest, most exciting dance hub.
Over a decade in the making, the venue is now open for business. Located at Stratford’s East Bank in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London’s swishest new cultural and educational quarter, this legacy project of the 2012 Olympics counts BBC Music Studios, V&A East, UCL East and the London College of Fashion, as neighbours. The tall, brick-built venue with zig-zag roof made from humble brick, references East London’s industrial past, and announces the egalitarian intention of architects O’Donnell + Tuomey, to create, ‘a warehouse of dance.’
Even if you don’t want to see dance and are looking for a calm eatery, The Well and Park Kitchen at Sadler’s Wells East, with their large windows, warm tones, and layered lines of lightbulbs by lighting designer, Aideen Malone, offer a convivial alternative to the machine-gun barrage of food chains and vans in nearby Westfield.
The smell of fresh varnish hits you first. It’s the smell of optimism and new beginnings. Beyond the Olympic legacy enclave, are some of London’s most deprived boroughs: Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest, and Tower Hamlets. This venue, the fourth under the Sadler’s Wells umbrella, hopes to bring opportunities for many and not exist as an ivory tower for the few.
It pledges to offer at least 50% of jobs created to those in neighbouring boroughs. It’s also the location of the ABC of hip hop theatre, a full-time education programme for talented 16 – 19-year-olds and will support 13 artists every two years to develop research projects as part of the Rose Choreographic School. With six dance studios, an auditorium that seats 550 and public performance space, Sadler’s Wells East is an incubator for the creation of new work, alongside being a venue for world class international choreographers in genres spanning ‘hip hop to ballet, rave to rhumba, kathak to krumping’.
Our Mighty Groove is the perfect choice for the opening show, a mesmerising fusion of hip hop, house, voguing and waacking blends with African and contemporary dance beats. It had its genesis in 2013 at the Lilian Baylis Studio and since then, has toured extensively sharing its dynamic ethos with multiple audiences. This evolved, extended, sampled remix of Our Mighty Groove not only plays to the mission statement of Sadler’s Wells East but this show of two halves (two half hour performances with a forty-minute interval) also illustrates the full creative potential of the flexible auditorium space.
Vicki Igbokwe-Ozogu, Artistic Director of Uchenna Dance, works with dramaturg Gail Babb and the cast of dancers to develop the characters in Our Mighty Groove. Set in the world of funky Club Groove, created with a minimal and modern set design by Simon Kenny, this is where people come to forget their anxieties, eradicate their differences and worship at the shrine of music and movement.
Fourteen young dancers from East London (including two understudies) in baggy clothes, trainers and big shirts give the professionals a run for their money. Polish performer, sinuous, bespectacled Angeelika Napierala is super cool and fascinating to watch. Shanelle Clemenson, who’s been in Our Mighty Groove since its inception, plays the diva Bougetta and is a commanding presence in ropes of pearls and red sequins.
It starts with a solo performer, an anxious heart beat, lost to recurring shadows. Then more dancers join the stage, and then more. Where there was once isolation, there is now unity and collective purpose. It’s no surprise that Igbokwe-Ozoagu was one of the mass movement choreographers at Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies. She delivers something uplifting and mesmerising that speaks to the power of the collective.
Numerous animated and stylised narratives thread through this whirling, glittering carousel of bodies; a lonely man finds his community and connection in a night club; an anxious girl reconnects with her body. There’s a doorman apparently made of rubber and a social media influencer in competition with a fashionista but in the final analysis, Club Groove is about what connects people, not what separates them. “Squash the beef!” demands DJ Crucial.
For the first half, the timber auditorium is arranged in a traditional style with the stage in front and the tiered audience looking on. In the second half, the chairs magically vanish, and the audience mainly stands on the same level as the performers, to participate, not just watch. Dancers move around all four corners of the room and perform on small, lit islands. With their ponytail flicks, neck cricks, batting eyelashes and syncopated bodies, there’s always something to see, wherever you stand in the immersive Club Groove.
The thumping earworm of a soundtrack is a collaboration between Ghanaian based Kweku Aacht and London-based Warren ‘Flamin Beatz’ Morgan-Humphreys. Its depth and richness reflect three decades of club and rave culture alongside a love of 1970s jazz, funk and disco and their African roots. The trancing rhythm feels like an alternative reality and spiritual escape. In Our Mighty Groove, the emphasis is on the word Our, and it is a Mighty Groove experienced by all. Oh, and, by the way, you’re all welcome.
Runs until 9 February 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Full of East End Promise
