Ryutaro Arai

Sadler Wells Theatre (SWT) is known for its innovative risk taking, experimental performances, costume design and its passion for making contemporary dance, in all its forms, part of everyday life.

 SWT is relocating to the former Olympic Village in Hackney Wick as part of a larger ‘cultural campus’ that includes the V&A and other creative institutions. The theatre will be situated at a site deep within the park space, a 15-minute walk from public transport. Rather than see this as a problem, this design project aims to turn the journey into a participatory dance experience, offering a series of performative interventions that connect the station to the site, and exemplify the experimental identity of the theatre, engaging the public in dance-like forms of movement, spontaneous and participatory performance, and playful moments of physical self-expression.

 To encourage participants to engage with dance, five interior spaces are created using elements extracted from SWT’s archive of movement and design. Each structure provides users with enough screening to be able to dance in private, whilst the movement is simultaneously visually abstracted and translated to the passing audience.