Alistair Spalding

Alistair Spalding has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells since 2004. Under his direction, the theatre has become a world-leading dance house, producing and presenting new work and bringing the best UK and international dance to its audiences. Sadler’s Wells welcomes more than 500,000 people to its London theatres each year, while its touring productions attract over 130,000 in the UK and overseas.

Since 2005, Spalding has driven the commissioning, producing and co-producing of over 170 shows, many of them involving Sadler’s Wells’ 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today.

Before joining Sadler’s Wells, Spalding was the Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London from 1994 to 2000 and, previously, a programmer at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, in 1988-1994.

Spalding holds honorary doctorates from Middlesex University (2012), the University of Hertfordshire (2014) and the University of Roehampton (2015). He was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2012, for services to dance. In January 2019, the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) honoured him with the International Citation of Merit award, “for unique lifetime achievement that has enriched the international performing arts”.