Alistair Spalding CBE ( born 25 August 1957 , Stotfold , Bedfordshire , UK ) has been the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler 's Wells theatre since 2004 . He has been responsible for programming at the theatre since February 2000 ( when he joined as Director of Programming , becoming Artistic Director and Chief Executive in October 2004 ) . During that time he has presented companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater , Ballett Frankfurt , Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch , Ballet C de La B , Michael Clark , Dutch National Ballet , Martha Graham Dance Company , Mark Morris Dance Group , Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 and 2 , and the National Ballet of China . Under Spalding , Sadler 's Wells has become a world-leading production house for dance , as well as a receiving house presenting performances by international companies . In March 2005 , he announced a new commissioning and co-producing policy at Sadler 's Wells , and has since appointed Matthew Bourne , Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui , Sharon Eyal , Jonzi D , Sylvie Guillem ( who became Associate Artist Emeritus on retiring at the end of 2015 ) , Akram Khan ( dancer ) , lighting designer Michael Hulls , Michael Keegan-Dolan , Russell Maliphant , Wayne McGregor , Crystal Pite , BalletBoyz ( Michael Nunn and William Trevitt ) , Kate Prince , Nitin Sawhney , Hofesh Shechter , Jasmin Vardimon , and Christopher Wheeldon as Associate Artists at the theatre . He has also initiated projects such as the international festival of hip hop dance theatre Breakin ' Convention ; the Flamenco Festival London ; the Global Dance Contest – an online competition to find new choreographic talent from around the world with Shu-Yi Chou ( 2010 ) , James Wilton ( 2011 ) and Ihsan Rustem ( 2012 ) being named winners ; as well as invited New Adventures , Company Wayne McGregor and ZooNation I The Kate Prince Company to become the theatre 's Resident Companies . In November 2014 , he appointed English National Ballet as Associate Company at Sadler ’s Wells . Since then , he has also appointed Acosta Danza , Rosas and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as International Associate Companies . Sadler 's Wells is the companies ' UK home
Breakin ' Convention
Breakin' Convention
Alistair Spalding