Interview: Reaching a Sticky End at Sadler’s Wells East

Second Hand Dance’s Rosie Heafford and Claire Summerfield discuss The Sticky Dance

Here at ET we absolutely love performance for children and Second Hand Dance’s The Sticky Dance has got to be one of the most amazing pieces of work in the canon. Freshly tacky in the spring sunshine, it’s currently on tour, concluding at Sadler’s Wells East in London at the end of May. We were thrilled to chat with the company’s co-Directors Rosie Heafford and Claire Summerfield to learn all about the show.

Hello both! We are so glad to see this show is still sticking around! Could you please tell our readers a little about it and what to expect?

The Sticky Dance was created by Rosie Heafford and Takeshi Matsumoto. It’s an interactive dance performance for children aged 3-5 and their adults. The show invites you to tape, stick and groove, or to watch and listen and be still. 

When we started researching the ideas for the show, we wanted to create a performance that gave children autonomy over their experience to ‘be however they would like to be’ in the space. For us this means equally valuing experiencing a performance whether you are sitting, lying down, moving, dancing, feeling, watching or listening. The traditional way we ask children to watch performances is through a framework designed by adults for adults i.e. that you must arrive at a certain time, all enter at the same time, and sit still, be quiet, watch to the end, applaud and then all get up to leave at the same time. We know that children develop and thrive when they are able to discover, explore, move and play in their own time and space. We wanted to explore what would happen if we disrupted these ways of doing things, and to allow space for an individual to move at their own pace.

Takeshi and Rosie created The Sticky Dance alongside children in schools, nurseries and early year centres improvising with them, trying out different ideas and dancing to music. This helped shape the show and has impacted how audiences see the show i.e. for early years audiences you can book a slot at any time during the two hours and stay as long, or as little as you like. We suggest 45 minutes but if capacity allows you’re welcome to stay for longer.

Who might enjoy this production?

The show has been made for children aged 3–5 years old and their grownups; it is an intergenerational experience and we hope to invite audiences to interact as they want. If you love sticky tape you‘ll love this show, there’s lots of tape for you to get stuck into, but you’re also more than welcome to sit and watch and listen.

The Sticky Dance was created by Rosie, a British, disabled artist and parent-carer, along with Japanese dance artist Takeshi Matsumoto. Is there something about that creative exchange that gives the work such widespread – indeed international – accessibility? 

Second Hand Dance makes all of its work with a child centred approach and with accessibility at its heart. We bring our own lived experience to our shows, but also that of our creative team, performers and a team of specialist advisors to make sure the show is as accessible as possible.

Our co-creation process is relatively new within the sector outside of the UK and has really developed on our dancers non-verbal communication skills and how they build such rich, immediate relationships with our audiences. 

We think this is the appeal and, of course, as the work is all about movement we don’t come up against the language barriers that perhaps theatre or other art forms might encounter.

Has The Sticky Dance changed much in the time you’ve been performing it?

Sticky Dance premiered in February 2024. Since then, we’ve toured to 32 venues with another 16 lined up before Christmas including visits to Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. Although the core of the work hasn’t changed, there are always subtle differences with every audience we meet. We like to think of this as an ebb and flow as the dynamic of the improvisation responds to who is in the room. 

Alongside the version for early years we also created a version for neurodivergent and disabled children aged 3–7 years.

The show was commissioned by the Southbank Centre, The Place and South East Dance, so it was made for theatre venues, but we also have a version that can be performed in SEND schools – and this summer we are adapting the show to be presented in libraries, supported by Arts Partnership Surrey and Wandsworth Arts Festival.

So, yes its evolved into many different forms BUT the heart of it, i.e. that we want children to ‘be however they would like to be’ in the space; sitting, lying down, moving, dancing, feeling, watching or listening, has remained the same

There’s something absolutely thrilling about how children and adults alike embrace this show. What have been some of the best experiences you’ve had taking it on tour this year?

One of my favourite and most exciting moments are the ‘rest’ sections – where the dancers move down to the floor and the lights dim. There are three of these sections per hour and I love to observe how they change across a whole show. From quiet moments where the whole audience rest together on the floor and process what they’ve experienced to the moments where the children take the lead and keep dancing (or singing) with their own agenda. 

We’ve had a blast in New York recently, with incredibly tender, moving and energetic moments as part of the Lincoln Centre’s Big Umbrella Festival. From grandmothers being taped together in the centre of the space while their grandchildren dance around them, to being with children exploring and dancing at the edges. It’s always such a privilege to meet audiences in different countries.

How does it feel to have been asked to bring this joyful piece of work to the prestigious new Sadler’s Wells East this spring?

Being in the new Sadler’s building is such a joy and honour – it’s a glorious building that really celebrates dance in all its forms whilst inviting everyone around it to come in and take a look. We’ve presented our shows in the Lilian Baylis Theatre at their Islington home before, and are very, very fond of that building too – but we’re thrilled to bring this show here, it’s the perfect fit for it. 

And that’s a wrap. Thanks very much to Rosie and Claire for sticking with us today. Watch this space for an ET review coming up soon!

The Sticky Dance is recommended for ages 3-5 years and their families. It runs at Sadler’s Wells East in Stratford, London from Thursday 29 – Saturday 31 May. Further information and booking details can be found here.