NYDC’s Memory Keepers: Alleyne Dance strips back the weight

“Working with NYDC has been incredibly energising. With a youth company, there’s a real openness, a willingness to take risks, to try, to fail, and to discover without fear of getting it ‘right.’ That honesty and innocence is something we deeply value.”

These are the words of identical twin sisters Sadé and Kristina Alleyne.

As the current Guest Artistic Directors of the National Youth Dance Company, they are tasked with guiding 32 young adults through the creation of a touring production. The resulting work, Memory Keepers, is currently on the road. Following an Ipswich premiere in April, it reaches London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre on Saturday 30 May.

This cast is a distinctly national proposition. Recruited across 16 workshops, the dancers hail from 25 locations across England. They travel from Exmouth to Middlesbrough, Blackpool to Colchester. For these 16 to 24-year-olds, the year-long programme acts as a blunt introduction to the professional dance sector. For the directors, it demands an altered approach to choreography.

Stripping back the weight

The sisters run the independent outfit Alleyne Dance. Their established style fuses Caribbean, hip hop, and kathak forms into a fast, athletic whole. When working with their professional ensemble, that physical vocabulary is already fixed. It allows them to quickly interrogate heavy subjects like mass migration or the global water crisis. Taking over a youth cohort required a lighter touch.

“Working with NYDC has been incredibly energising. With a youth company, there’s a real openness, a willingness to take risks, to try, to fail, and to discover without fear of getting it ‘right.'”

“With our professional company, the language is already embedded in the body, so we can push complexity quickly and explore heavier themes,” said Sadé and Kristina Alleyne. “With NYDC, we felt it was important not to place that weight onto them. Instead, we wanted to create a work that comes from their voices, from individuals who are shaping the world we are living in today.”

The rehearsal room prioritised cast input over choreographic dictation.

“Memory Keepers truly came from them: their stories, their experiences, their memories and their questions,” they said. “It’s less about placing material onto dancers, and more about creating a space where they feel empowered to contribute and be seen.”

Athleticism and industry survival

Both directors began their working lives as competitive athletes. That history translates clearly into their studio practice. Days start with a rigorous physical grounding class designed to train the body and activate the breath. Yet they enforce intention over blind exertion.

“We encourage the dancers to understand why they are moving, not just the how,” they said. “We pushed the dancers to the edge of what they believed was possible, encouraging them to go beyond and cross their own finish line; like a race, do you run faster towards the finish or slow down as it gets closer?”

That physical intensity is tempered by strict boundaries. The Alleynes teach the necessity of recovery, showing the cast how to rest and prevent injury.

“We want them to feel powerful in their bodies, to trust their physicality, and to push beyond what they think they’re capable of,” they said.

This pragmatism extends beyond physical health. The arts sector is currently an abrasive environment for new entrants. The directors treat this residency as an opportunity to pass on hard-won survival tactics for a notoriously difficult career path.

“We want them to understand that there isn’t one path,” they said. “The industry is constantly evolving, and so are the ways you can exist within it. What matters is staying connected to your voice, your purpose, and your curiosity. Hard work is essential, but so is adaptability, resilience, and community.”

They reject the idea of industry conformity.

“You don’t need to fit into a mould, you can create your own space,” they tell the cast. “We also encourage them to find the joy in what they do; success is nothing without Joy. Find your cheerleaders that will support you during your journey. Our favourite quote is that ‘alone you can go fast, but together you can go far’.”

The archive of the body

The physical language of Memory Keepers relies on blending disparate styles. However, the directors avoid simply stacking kathak on top of hip hop.

“The styles listed are from what we both carry as movers,” they said. “They are our languages that form our expressions. For us, it’s never about layering styles on top of each other, it’s about finding the essence that make up their individuality. Rhythm, intention, breath, and storytelling are the anchors.”

The Alleynes view the human body as an archive. They use training to help dancers isolate and strengthen these varied influences until they merge into a single, continuous voice. This specific hybridity serves a distinct function for the ticket-buyer.

“For an audience, this hybridity allows people to see themselves in the work, different cultures, identities, and stories existing together,” they said.

To shape the emotional core of the production, the directors brought in long-time collaborator Giuliano Modarelli to compose the score. His music was developed concurrently with the movement, operating as a psychological trigger for the cast.

“For Memory Keepers, we were particularly interested in how sound can trigger memory, how a rhythm, a tone, or even silence can shift the body and the emotional state,” they said.

They challenged the young cast to expand their definition of the title subject.

“We see memory not just an exact archive of true/ lived events,” they said. “Our mind is more complex, we can choose how to remember, or sometimes it is stored in a sense, such as smell, touch, sight, hearing and taste. We can also create our own memories to keep.”

Sisterhood and lineage

Working as identical twins and co-directors gives the Alleynes a unique operational advantage. They often operate on intuition, making rapid studio decisions without speaking. But they do not shy away from conflict.

“For Memory Keepers, we were particularly interested in how sound can trigger memory, how a rhythm, a tone, or even silence can shift the body and the emotional state,” they said.

“We challenge each other constantly, and that’s where the work really grows,” they said. “We agree and sometimes disagree, this makes the dancers the 3rd party where they can have an opinion and choose an option that fits right for their journey.”

The familial tie dictates the atmosphere they build around the young cast.

“We are sisters/ family, so there is love in the space and we honour that and offer that to the individuals in the room,” they said. “We can work and challenge ourselves, but we can do that with care, love and compassion.”

By leading the NYDC, the Alleynes join a roster of former Guest Artistic Directors that includes Sir Wayne McGregor and Akram Khan. It is a highly visible position within English dance.

“It’s an honour to be part of that lineage, but also an opportunity to bring our own perspective into the space,” they said.

The central question of Memory Keepers is what this scattered, regional cohort of young performers will take with them when they leave the stage.

“With NYDC, it felt important that they weren’t just inheriting history but actively shaping it. They are the memory keepers of now.”

Featured Image: Sadé and Kristina Alleyne – credit Camilla Greenwell