National Youth Dance Company, Novacene, Sadler's Wells

Set up by Sadler's Wells to give dance students from across the UK the chance to work for a maximum of two years with a dedicated director and gain experience of professional dance, National Youth Dance Company (NYDC) is celebrating its tenth anniversary. As in previous years, the current cohort of 34 are aged mostly 16 to 18, but there's a higher age ceiling for those with a disability.

As the project moved from strength to strength over the past decade, so different cohorts have had the chance to work with prestigious directors such as Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Botis Seva, Russell Maliphant and Michael Keegan-Dolan.

This anniversary year's guest artistic director is Wayne McGregor – a busy man indeed, who adds this commitment to a new full-evening work for his Company Wayne McGregor and a new one-act piece for the Royal Ballet's summer triple bill.

McGregor's work for NYDC is called Novacene, named after the book by the scientist and inventor James Lovelock. McGregor translates his long-standing fascination with robots, hyperintelligence and AI into dance, which is likely to bring these young performers challenges they haven't met before.

Costumes are created by the fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, who says she's always been 'inspired by the rich and expressive gestures of dance in designing silhouettes'. Her costumes, pictured top, are designed 'to allow the young dancers to shine in their full individuality'.

Novacene had its world premiere at the Lowry, Salford on Saturday 15 April. Next stop Sadler's Wells for one night only on Saturday 3 June, to be followed by a UK-wide tour.