Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Performs SWEET MAMBO at Sadler's Wells
First staged in 2008, the choreographer's penultimate work makes its London premiere.
Pina Bausch's ‘Sweet Mambo' will come to Sadler's Wells Theatre from Wednesday 11 February – Saturday 21 February 2026. First staged in 2008, the choreographer's penultimate work makes its London premiere at Sadler's Wells.
Human emotion is captured, questioned and torn apart in this moving piece. Bausch's dancers-turned-collaborators bring years of experience to communicate in movement what can't be said in words. Created in the renowned Tanztheater style Bausch made famous, this performance lays bare the sweetness and severity of life.
Seven of the dancers from Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch who danced in the 2008 premiere return to the 2025 production alongside new members of the company, continuing Bausch's legacy.
'Sweet Mambo' is one of many pieces in Bausch's repertoire representing a nearly 30 year-long collaboration between Bausch and Peter Pabst, the original set designer for the piece. Characterised by billowing drapes which were also used in Bausch's 2007 piece Bamboo Blues, 'Sweet Mambo' sees Bausch's dancers interact with the curtains. Pabst's set design maintains an active conversation with the choreography, which lends 'Sweet Mambo' Bausch's signature visceral quality. Costumes by longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch Marion Cito help to tell the story.
Dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch (1940–2009) renamed the Wuppertal Ballet the “Tanztheater Wuppertal” upon her appointment as director in 1973. Her idea of combining dance and theatre revolutionised dance as we know it today.
Sadler's Wells and Pina Bausch first worked together in 1982, with 1980 – A piece by Pina Bausch. Tanztheater Wuppertal returned in 1999 with Viktor and since, the company has presented Bausch's work over 30 times on Sadler's Wells stages. These include Nelken in 2005 and 2023, her seminal works Café Müller, The Rite of Spring in 2008, and Kontakthof in 2022. In 2012 as part of the Cultural Olympiad, Sadler's Wells and the Barbican Centre presented 10 Pina Bausch works in the series World Cities. In April 2026, as part of the biannual Elixir festival, Kontakthof: Echoes of ‘78 comes to Sadler's Wells, the seminal 1978 Pina Bausch work reimagined by former dancer Meryl Tankard, produced by Sadler's Wells, Pina Bausch Foundation and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.
Sadler's Wells Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive Sir Alistair Spalding CBE said: “It's a great privilege to finally bring 'Sweet Mambo' to Sadler's Wells next February for its London premiere. Her penultimate piece, 'Sweet Mambo' essentialises everything that fascinates us about Pina's work – the melancholia, the morbid and the bittersweet, with an undercurrent of poignancy. I'm so looking forward to seeing another Pina work in its London home.”
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