As part of Sadler’s Wells inaugural Rose International Dance Prize, a biennial award celebrating ground-breaking new dance creations, French choreographer Leïla Ka is nominated for Maldonne.
This evocative piece features five female dancers in forty different dresses—ranging from evening gowns to wedding dresses, casual wear to ball gowns. The dresses, from sequined and puffy to fitted and oversized, fly, shine, spin, and fall, symbolising the fragility, rebellion, and complex identities within femininity.
Leïla Ka began her journey as an urban dance artist. She used her experiences of working in theatrical dance (such as in Maguy Marin’s May B) to build on her own choreographic process. She started choreographing in 2018 when she premiered her first solo, Pode Ser, which has been performed more than 200 times and won six international awards. Leïla is now an associate artist at CENTQUATRE-PARIS, La Garance – Scène Nationale de Cavaillon, at Dieppe-Scène nationale.
