Alistair Spalding

Under Spalding, Sadler's Wells has become the UK's leading dance house, presenting an ambitious programme of cutting-edge dance in all its forms and hosting world-class national and international companies and artists, such as The Forsythe Company, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures and Wayne McGregor l Random Dance. The theatre welcomes audiences of over 500,000 across its three London venues and attracts touring audiences of over 100,000 each year.
In 2005, he announced his vision for Sadler's Wells to become a producing house. He has since driven the commissioning, producing and co-producing of more than 90 shows, including acclaimed cross art form collaborations zero degrees, PUSH and Sutra. In the last nine years, Sadler's Wells' productions have toured to 233 venues in 164 cities across the world.
Spalding's first job in arts management was at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, where he was a programmer from 1988 to 1994. Between 1994 and 2000, he was Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London. He has been responsible for the artistic programme at Sadler's Wells since February 2000, when he joined as Director of Programming, before becoming CEO and Artistic Director in October 2004.
He was appointed as a national member of the Arts Council England Council in 2009. He was a member of the Arts Council England Dance Advisory Panel between 1995 and 2003. He was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2012, for services to dance.He was one of the cultural leaders who established What Next?, a movement bringing together arts and cultural organisations from across the UK to articulate and strengthen the role of culture in society.