An inventive, sideways look
at Shakespeare’s The Tempest

We Caliban blends outstanding dance with powerful storytelling, inspired by Shakespeare’s brilliant last play, The Tempest. It is a tale about power lost and regained, written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism.

We Caliban sees this story through the eyes of Caliban, a minor character in the play whose life is changed forever when the power games of distant lands and unknown peoples are played out in his own remote island, making him a “monstrous” servant to a new master and his young daughter.

Jeyasingh’s bold and imaginative choreography is partnered by visually stunning projections by Will Duke and captivating music by Thierry Pécou. Lighting design is by Floriaan Ganzevoort with set and costume design by Mayou Trikerioti and dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed. We Caliban is performed by eight outstanding dancers.

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance is one of the most dynamic and distinctive forces in UK dance. The Company’s vivid and powerful productions live long in the memory, applauded by audiences and critics alike across the globe.

Window into the Tempest

The production is supported by our touring engagement project, Window into the Tempest. We are partnering with select venues, HE institutions, and local dance organisations to deliver tailored, high-quality participation opportunities for students, early career artists, intergenerational groups and communities to connect to, and gain insight into the creation of We Caliban.

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Age guidance: 12+

Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, with kind support from DanceEast and DANSOX.

World premiere: Snape Maltings, 20 September 2025

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Featured image: Chris Nash. Dancers: Tanisha Addicott, Rhys Dennis, Natnael Dawit, Dominic Rocca

Production photos: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Trailer: Gary Tanner

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With thanks to:

Arts Council England;
Deborah Loeb Brice Donor Advised Fund at CAF;
Cockayne Grants for the Arts and the London Community Foundation;
the Mila Charitable Organisation; Oak Foundation; Garfield Weston Foundation;
and our Creative and Apsara Circle supporters.

To hear the story of the creation, rehearsal and performance of Staging Schiele, listen to Episode 5 of the Surface Tension podcast.

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Listen to the live recording of the post-show talk with Shobana Jeyasingh and Sanjoy Roy .

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★★★★ ‘I was gripped… impressive.’ Donald Hutera, The Times

‘A slick and skilful production’ The Guardian

‘Highly intelligent, choreographically striking and well worth seeing.’ Culture Whisper

‘Dane Hurst performs with immense grace and agility’ thewonderfulworldofdance.com

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Fresh from the success of 2018’s Contagion (one of the year’s top ten dance works for The Guardian and Evening Standard), we’re touring a new piece, Staging Schiele, in Autumn 2019. It’s inspired by the extraordinary work and life of Austrian artist Egon Schiele, famous for his unflinching nudes and searing self portraits, and scrutinises the eternal conundrum of the male artist and the female model.

Four dancers inhabit Schiele’s highly-charged world of colour, masterful lines and unusual perspectives, a world that puts the human body on visceral display. Shobana’s award-winning choreography matches the intensity of Schiele, engaging with his anxieties as well as his supreme self-confidence.

Staging Schiele captures the artist’s own self-conscious framing of himself and his work. Both intimate and formal, it throws light on his brief meteoric rise to fame.

Bayadère – The Ninth Life is a radical reimagining of Marius Petipa’s legendary ballet La Bayadère. More than a retelling, it searches for the roots of the bayadère temple dancer herself, and the allure she has exerted in Europe over the centuries.

The words of the celebrated French writer Théophile Gautier, who recorded his ambiguous impressions of Indian temple dancers in 1838, add to the rich mix of Gabriel Prokofiev’s specially commissioned score to form a unique and personal work.

Following its premiere at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House in 2015, this new production tours with a bold new design by the award-winning Tom Piper, who co-created the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red poppy installation at the Tower of London.

In Episode 1, Guardian Dance Critic Sanjoy Roy talks to Shobana and composer Michael Nyman about their collaboration on Configurations from 1989.