The first underwater opera

Last updated at 13:09 15 March 2007


This is the star of the latest

dance spectacular at Sadler's

Wells Theatre - a 30ft by 11ft

tank that weighs almost a ton.

The tank - filled with 7,500

gallons of chlorinated warm

water - is the setting for

17 dancers from Berlin's Sasha

Waltz And Guests to perform to

the operatic accompaniment of

Purcell's Dido And Aeneas.

• Video: Watch the underwater dancers in action

The reinforced glass structure

was built by specialist engineers

two years ago.

Underwater dancing

It can accommodate

seven dancers at a time,

although in the show’s 20-

minute prologue all 17 are submerged

at some point.

Dancer Manuel Alfonso Perez

Torres said: "It gets crowded

but I think it creates a beautiful

picture. We're not swimming

and we're not dancing, the bodies

are moving and floating and

the water creates a peculiar

and powerful quality of movement."

He said the hardest thing was

not being able to hear the music

being played by the orchestra.

Underwater dancing

The dancers have not been given

any special training or breathing

apparatus and stay submerged

for up to a minute.

Director-choreographer Sasha

Waltz is known for creating

dramatic images.

On her last

visit to London, with the show

Korper (Bodies) at the Barbican

in 2003, Waltz squashed her

near-naked troupe into a shallow glass showcase.

As its name suggests, Sadler's

Wells was built over a well,

which was used in the early

years to stage aquatic spectacles

in a giant tank.

The 1804 season

opened with a re-creation of

the siege of Gibraltar.

"There

were no technical problems

involved with the tank," said

the theatre spokeswoman. "But

there is an awful lot of mopping

up after the show."

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