In a district of London set to see 33,000 new homes by 2036, ODonnell + Tuomeys brick and pantile Sadlers Wells East is a significant addition to the UKs national dance infrastructure, dropping a civic and cultural anchor in the form of a 550-seat theatre, six full-scale rehearsal studios, public realm community stages and two new schools of dance the Rose School of Choreography and Breakin Convention, a hip-hop academy.Dance is a form of human expression older than language, with an important role in ancient civilisations. Or, to put it in the words of American choreographer and dancer Martha Graham: dance is the hidden language of the soul. Given todays accelerating digitalisation and ever-more binary global politics, its perhaps not surprising that the nuance of dance is resonating again, with burgeoning dance cultures building new bridges between high and popular art, live performance and TikTok trends.Photography by Peter MolloyVisitors to the UKs new incubator of dance, which opens this month, are most likely to arrive from Stratford Station, now the sixth busiest station in the country. Rising to the pedestrian podium level established by the Olympics masterplan, punters will need to navigate Westfield shopping centres cacophony of brands before emerging at the public promenade of Exchange Square in front of Queen Elizabeth Park and super-scale remnants of the 2012 Olympics, including the mothership of main stadium and the extraterrestrial ArcelorMittal Orbit. In the distance, a megastructure of another era, the red brick towers of the former Bryant and May match factory rebuilt in 1910, partly in response to the seminal matchgirls strike of 1888 are a little reminder of the human capital behind the districts historic industrialisation and brickfields.AdvertisementPhotography by Peter MolloyIn contrast with the otherworldly parametrics of the Olympics structures, Sadlers Wells East is rooted, earthy and orthogonal. The building is part of Stratford Waterfront, a terrace of cultural and educational uses envisioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) in a 2015 brief for an international competition a contest won by a team consisting of ODonnell + Tuomey, Allies and Morrison and Girona-based Camps Felip Arquitecturia, with Buro Happold, LDA Design and Gardiner & Theobald. Now almost complete, the terrace sandwiches Allies and Morrisons London College of Fashion (2023) and forthcoming BBC Music Studios between the bookends of ODonnell + Tuomeys Sadlers Wells East and their V&A East Museum (set to open in Spring 2026). The wider project, East Bank, included public realm and pedestrian bridges, UCL East (2023) and V&A Storehouse (due in May).Photography by Peter MolloyWe wanted to create a building that looks as if it was cast, from clay, from the earth, in the Stratford Town tradition, says John Tuomey. Central to the desire for a monolithic architecture was a supplier who could make bricks and roof tiles of the same material a journey that took the architects to Venice and brickmakers Sant Anselmo. Back in Stratford, ODonnell + Tuomey has imported the warm, terracotta-hued Venetian bricks and pantiles (including many special makings) to deliver a chromatic punch thats not dissimilar to the visual impact Londons Board Schools once made on mean Victorian streets.The buildings site navigates an 8m drop from the pedestrian level of Exchange Square to the vehicular access of Carpenters Road. It was this ground condition, combined with a technical brief setting out precise dimensions for the stage, studios and backstage areas, that largely dictated the buildings organisation, which stacks two levels of tall studios above a box-in-a-box auditorium dropping from an L-shaped foyer at the level of the public realm. It was an unusual way to start a building, says Sheila ODonnell. And you might also be surprised by how much structure it takes to support featherweight dancers their movements create massive standing waves of reverberation.Photography by Peter MolloyAn entrance set in the buildings chamfered corner to Exchange Square calls out to theatregoers in virtuoso brickwork, emphatic in its stamp of blind emboss, rather like the urbanism of the Amsterdam School. In the dark, a neon sign declaring You are welcome assists latecomers, some of whom might just register a corbelled brick fly tower off to the right. This is part of the sheer cliff-face of Sadlers Wells Easts north-east elevation, evocative of shadowy side-walls of West End or Broadway theatres or, perhaps, say the architects, the juxtaposition of buildings in ancient Rome. With steps descending steeply to stage door and get-ins, this is clearly back-of-house territory. Look closely, however, and the volumes of the auditorium are carefully delineated in the recessed jointing of the soaring brick wall.Photography by Peter CookIn contrast, the buildings main south-west elevation embraces new public realm and Waterworks River (a channel cut in 1743) in human-scaled proportions. Here, the jagged saw-toothed roof speaks chattily of a once-industrial context as well as of the rhythm of dance, capturing the spirit of notation systems such as Rudolf van Labans 1920s Labanotation. A civic-minded, cantilevered concrete canopy which Tuomey likens to the eyebrows of the face provides this elevation with an expression of theatre-ness, while sheltering bays of steel-framed windows that tilt 90 to maximise the foyers inside-outside engagement. Above, clearly legible as part of the theatres frontage, are the two upper levels of studios, helping to communicate the conceptual journey from choreography to rehearsal to performance. To protect dancers from over-exposure, as well as glare, the glazed walls of first-floor studios are screened by deep stripes of brick-inset louvres, while the upper studios are top lit.AdvertisementODonnell + Tuomeys research into programmatic requirements involved visits to dance studios across Europe, including those of Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (forget what you think you know about dance, she told them). What they noted in particular was that fluid architectural responses to the movement of dance, such as Trinity Laban in south-east London had often been rectiliniarised by their occupants. When a dancer takes off in a pirouette, they want to know where theyre going to land, explains ODonnell. That means fixed points of reference, preferably at right angles.Photography by Peter CookOn the day of my visit, the multiform theatre, developed with theatre consultants Charcoalblue, is set up in traditional end-on (or proscenium arch) format, with steeply raked rows of auditorium seating following a gentle curve to optimise sightlines. In fact, the seating is fully retractable, enabling black box or club stage performances, with dancers and audience at the same level. (This months opening show, Our Mighty Groove, from mass movement choreographer Vicky Obukan Asebe, will use both formats.)The proportions of the stage itself precisely replicate those of the Sadlers Wells theatre in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, so that shows can easily be transferred between venues. Viewed from the foyer, the auditorium box is expressed in a crust of internal brickwork, offset by the presence of a pair of giant hand-made tapestries from artist Eva Rothschild, created like the brickwork in episodic manner.This spring and into the future the hidden language of dance is set to spill out of the auditorium of Sadlers Wells East into its foyer and the built environment beyond to a series of public stages created so that dancers from school and community groups can have their moment, dancing like nobodys watching. Watch this space.Ellie Duffy is a writer on architecture and designPhotography by Peter MolloyProject dataLocationQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park, StratfordCompletion November 2024Gross internal floor area8,283m2ProcurementNEC 3 Managed Packaged SolutionConstruction costUndisclosedArchitect ODonnell + TuomeyClientLondon Legacy Development CorporationClient partnerSadlers WellsStructural engineerBuro HappoldM&E consultantBuro HappoldQuantity surveyorGardiner & TheobaldTheatre consultantCharcoalblueAcoustic consultantCharcoalblueFaade engineerBuro HappoldLandscape consultantLDAFire consultantBuro HappoldSustainability consultantBuro HappoldLighting consultantBuro HappoldFoyer feature lighting designerAideen MaloneAccess consultantBuro HappoldLondon Legacy Development Corporation construction managerMaceProject managerMaceCDM Principal designerPFBApproved building inspectorAISMain contractorN/ACAD software usedRevitSustainability dataPercentage of floor area with daylight factor >2%: Not assessedPercentage of floor area with daylight factor >5%: Not assessedOn-site energy generation: 6.3 kWh/m2/yr (2.1% of total annual energy use)Heating and hot water load: 85 kWh/m2/yearOperational energy: 297 kWh/m2/yearTotal energy load: 172 kWh/m2/year (electricity consumption)Carbon emissions (all): 34.7 kgCO2/m2 (as built)Annual mains water consumption: 1.60 m3/occupantAirtightness at 50Pa: 4 m3/hr/m2Overall thermal bridging heat transfer coefficient (Y-value): 0.033 W/m2KOverall area-weighted U-value: 0.34 W/m2kAnnual CO2 emissions: 34.7 kgCO2/m2Embodied carbon: 5,736 tCO2e (estimated, RIBA Stage 4)Whole-life carbon: Not assessedPredicted design life: 60 yearsEnergy performance certificate rating: B