XFresh Ten- Dance Works

Overview

Brightest new talent alongside established creators pushing the boundaries of dance

4X10 returns to the Dance House, Cardiff this March. 4X10;
National Dance Company Wales’ experimental and exploration platform for choreographers has returned. Expect an evening of imagination, energy, and connection at the Dance House, Cardiff Bay, from 11 to 13 March 2026.

Audiences get to experience four brand new 10 minute dance pieces and a 10 minute curtain raiser by NDCWales Young Associates.

4X10 is a living laboratory, a space where ideas spark, shift, collide, and take flight. It is an invitation to witness contemporary dance at its most immediate and alive.

Over the last two months, National Dance Company Wales has created a support space for creators to test ideas to culminate in bite-size performance works that they’ll share with an audience later in March.

This year’s line-up features Ed Myhill, NDCWales company dancer and choreographer;
Dr Kate Lawrence, pioneering vertical dance artist and Artistic Director of Vertical Dance Kate Lawrence; and Colette Sadler, Scottish dancer, choreographer, and multi-disciplinary artist. Completing the quartet, is NDCWales Artistic Director Bakani Pick-Up who will create their first work for NDCWales during 4x10. The four choreographers have created four bold ten-minute works that support experimentation, push creative boundaries and explore new directions in movement, storytelling, and collaboration.

Alongside 4X10 you’ll also see some of the brightest new talent in dance from National Dance Company Wales’ Young Associates who will open the show performing work choreographed by NDCWales Professional Placement Student, Maisie Gregory. These young artists are the future of dance in Wales, and you can experience them at their big-bang moment.

The 4X10 project was first launched in 2022 as part of the company’s 40th anniversary programme and plays an integral part of NDCWales’ core artistic programme. It continues to grow as a platform for celebration, experimentation, and collaboration, giving choreographers the space and support to create work with the full backing of artistic, production, and administrative teams. It’s also an important opportunity to introduce new creative practitioners to the company, to explore fresh styles and ideas, and new ways of making work.

Bakani said, “4X10 is an amazing opportunity for the company to explore different ways of working with new choreographers. It is great to be able to share time and space with artists deeply immersed in the art of making dance. I am excited to be able to bring Kate Lawrence and Colette Sadler to work with NDCWales for the first time.

Company Dancer Ed Myhill will also be presenting a new work as part of the programme. This will also mark the first work I will make since joining the company. The art being created is wildly exciting - showing contemporary dance at its most alive. All four artists will bring something different- from algorithm-based composition to driving techno grooves, most importantly bringing unique perspectives of what dance can be."

Kate Lawrence is from North Wales, and usually works with aerial dance, this is an opportunity to re-explore work at ground level. Kate Lawrence’s ‘Gogledd De’ is a new piece that incorporates aerial ropes as a prop, connecting the dancers on stage. The piece maps four travellers through a journey from north to south, building trust and connection on the way.

The piece is set to original music by Merthyr based composer Eädyth Crawford and features costumes hand-embellished by Kate. The beautiful new music includes creative audio for visually impaired audiences by incorporating lyrics that describe the feeling and motion of the dance.

National Dance Company Wales dancer, Ed Myhill has been with the company for 10 years. His last show, that he created ‘Why Are People Clapping!?’ is currently touring with Phoenix Dance Theatre. 4 x10 is the next step in his choreographic support dance for his new piece, ‘I Have Loved You For A Long Time’, which was inspired by his four year old daughter’s love of dance.

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