Sadler’s Wells celebrates lifelong creativity with the Elixir Festival where older dancers take centre stage led by such illustrious names as Mats Ek and Ana Laguna.
In a four-day festival crammed full of enticing programmes, KnowBody must stand out as the centrepiece.  It’s a mixed bill offering the opportunity once again to enjoy the artistry of such legendary dancers as Mats Ek, Ana Laguna and Dominique Mercy.
Real-life husband and wife Ek and Laguna will perform Memory , Ek’s own choreography originally created for two actors in a scene of Don Juan. Formerly director of his mother’s Cullberg Ballet, Mats Ek has long been a choreographer sought out by the world’s best dance companies, and this is a rare chance to see him as a performer.
Laguna has an onstage presence to rival many a star. The Spanish ballerina launched her career at the Cullberg, in roles like Ek’s groundbreaking Giselle , later dancing opposite ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov in many of her husband’s works. Technical precision underpins her force, character and passion undimmed now in her mid 60s.
Among the many dancers influenced by the choreographer Pina Bausch, you’d be hard pressed to find one more purely Bauschian than Dominique Mercy. Having met Pina in 1972, he joined Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in1974 and has been there ever since. This solo is directed by another former Bauschian, Pascal Merighi, so expect Pina’s spirit to touch the performance.
Choreographers of the moment Hofesh Schechter and Jonathan Burrows have  restaged their works specifically to highlight the talents of the Company of Elders, in Schechter’s case, and a group of former artists from some of Britain’s best dance companies.