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If there’s an artist taking the performing arts industry by waves, you’re likely to find them in the corridors of The Place in London. Award-winning and industry leading choreographers, movement directors, performers such as Benjamin Jonsson, Hannes Langolf, Holly Blakey, Theo Clinkard, Dickson Mbi, Alexandra Reynolds, and Amarnah Amuludun all have one thing in common: they are all guest artists teaching on London Contemporary Dance School’s (LCDS) MA Dance: Performance programme based at The Place.
LCDS offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programmes as a gateway to a dance career. The MA is one of them — over the course of 12 months, you will evolve into an agile and adaptable performer with a strong portfolio to jump start your innovation and leadership in the performing arts scene – and beyond – as a creative contributor with your own artistic voice and agency. With this MA, the whole gamut of contemporary cultural forms is yours to explore – thanks to several distinguishing features that set students on a journey of artistic development:
LCDS goes the extra mile to grow versatile and curious artists who take artistic exploration to the next level. Source: London Contemporary Dance School
A curriculum that cultivates career-ready “complete” artists
Dance professionals have to interact skilfully with the full variety of technical demands and performance outcomes that today’s international contemporary dance world offers. While preparing for traditional company-based repertoire was relevant back then, it’s now important for graduates to be ready for freelance portfolio realities.
To achieve this, the MA encourages innovation and experimentation in its three units.
In the first, you find your footing. This is when you learn by doing and through exposure to different processes of researching, creating and sharing dance performances, establishing a deep community of practice with your fellow students.
Building on this, the second unit is when you gain even more exposure to new collaborative processes for researching, devising, and improvising. A range of industry active project leaders and guest speakers from across the professional sector will offer guidance as you continue self-practice, come up with a proposal for a self-directed portfolio project, and join professional development seminars on negotiating contracts, devising and managing budgets, and more.
The third, independent unit brings the skills you’ve gained from the first two into the real world. Through a capstone project that involves negotiating international collaborations and professional placements during a period of self-directed professional activity, this is where your creativity comes full circle as you are paired with an industry mentor and begin plotting and actualising your future activity after the conclusion of the programme.
Performance opportunities
Being based at The Place comes with exposure to its state-of-the-art 288 seat theatre, where over 100 contemporary dance shows by emerging and industry leading artists are platformed across the year. LCDS students on the MA course are part of this roster of performances, working with different choreographers and even showcasing self-choreographed works on this prized renowned stage through various performance projects.
But “performance” on this course goes beyond the stage.
In 2023, the MA Dance: Performance cohort worked with Brighton-based neo-soul vocalist Kymara, in which they explored what it means to use music and physical storytelling as a source for the creation of movement, group choreography, and solos. The final work, with live vocals and music by Kymara, was performed at Studio Wayne McGregor at Here East in London as part of FISH TANK, a festival of contemporary dance presented by the LCDS postgraduate team.
The cohort also worked on an exciting dance film project with award-winning choreographer and movement director Benjamin Jonsson. In his latest dance film “HERD(mentality),”, which was engaged with by over a million viewers across online platforms, he directed the 25 dancers from LCDS through hard-hitting unison against a minimalist beat and backdrop, centring a particular dancer and their individuality in each scene.
In “TOLD – RETOLD” students developed solos under the watchful eye of award-winning choreographer and celebrated performer Hannes Langolf, utilising text from real-life verbatim interviews to build an immersive evening of work that was performed at the iconic Bethnal Green Working Mens Club in East London.
These are the kind of real-world performance opportunities LCDS offers, making the MA a great alternative to one year in industry.
The MA Dance: Performance programme is centred around portfolio-building to build the skills and network necessary for a thriving career. Source: London Contemporary Dance School
Faculty expertise
LCDS is the place to get mentoring, tutoring, and performance coaching that can take your career far. As industry leaders themselves, LCDS faculty members hold decades’ worth of multidisciplinary careers as performers, researchers, activists, and more. They’re artists who’ve innovated award-winning dance routines that embody rich cultural history, conducted research through the intersection of movement and behavioural sciences, toured the world as a company dancers, led their own companies as artistic directors, and more.
The school welcomes a long list of renowned guest artists to run the projects too, like the award-winning Alleyne Dance company and feature film movement director Alexandra Reynolds. It’s a large pool of experts who can offer support in a variety of different ways — watching work, support, written feedback, verbal feedback, advice on freelance contracts, networking tips to get yourself out there, and so much more.
Facilities and resources
Ten large dance studios, a 288-seat theatre, the costume department, a body conditioning room, and more — the facilities at The Place ensure that you have as much room as possible to learn anew, make mistakes, and become better until you’re among the best. They’ve got a library workspace with a collection of over 5,000 titles, a costume department to dress up your productions, and an audio-visual room with state of the art equipment like cameras, theatrical lights, and sound equipment to create those productions in the first place.
The Place is located right in central London, so the branch to artistry stems way past the doors of the building itself. Through the web of transport that connects each corner of London, you will be able to explore plenty of museums, theatres, dance centres, and creative companies that are linked with The Place.
Check the MA Dance: Performance and start your professional dance career with LCDS today.
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