The Trinity Laban Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) programme is taught by a group of highly experienced professional dance teachers, artists and dance science experts.
Hear from them to find out more about the CAT programme and what students can expect studying with us.
Further information on Open Days, Audition Dates and How to apply can be found here: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/course/centre-for-advanced-training/
In March 2024, we invited string players from four partner schools - Eltham Hill School, Haberdashers Hatcham College, Harris Academy Peckham and Thomas Tallis School - to perform with Trinity Laban Sinfonia Strings at St Alfege Church, Greenwich.
Watch them describe their experiences and give the first performances of 'Isolated Moments' and 'Londinium', created for the occasion by Nathen Durasamy with fifteen young composers at Leigh Academy Blackheath.
Musical Theatre Summer School 2024 will take place Monday 5 – Friday 9 August at the Laban Building.
A typical day runs from 9am – 5pm, with time for warm-ups, classes, workshops, breaks and lunch. Your week also includes an opportunity to see a live West End Show. At the end of the course, an informal performance event gives you the opportunity to showcase and share what you have created during your week.
The timetable includes classes in dance, acting, singing, musical theatre integration (combining the skills of singing, acting and dancing for musical theatre), singing and acting for audition. Classes are led by industry professionals and members of the Trinity Laban Musical Theatre faculty.
Find out more and book now: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part/summer-schools/musical-theatre-summer-school/
Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company and Animate Artists present 'As Time Goes By'. This new collaborative work was devised by young people aged 11-18 with choreographer Alethia Antonia and music director Sarah Freestone.
Find out more about our opportunities for young people and schools at www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/take-part.
Ever wondered what it's like to study on the CAT programme at Trinity Laban? Find out more from our students!
Students at Trinity Laban’s Centre for Advanced Training have the opportunity to take part in various exciting projects throughout the year, working with leading dance companies and artists in world renowned-dance venues.
The CAT programme prepares young dancers for training and a career in dance, should they choose to do so. Therefore, it is important that our programme reflects the world around us and looks to the future dance industry that our graduates will become part of.
For us at Trinity Laban CAT this means creating opportunities for young people to work with a diverse range of dance artists who teach a variety of dance practices using a range of approaches.
Students will have regular creative workshops and experience with professional choreographers. Students will be encouraged to be imaginative, innovative and take creative risks.
https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/course/centre-for-advanced-training/
Wondering what it might be like to study on the Centre of Advanced Training programme (CAT) at Trinity Laban? Here's a snippet into the day in the life of one of our students.
CAT at Trinity Laban is an innovative scheme offering young people with exceptional talent and potential in dance the opportunity to access high quality dance training. The programme of classes provides intensive and rigorous dance training taught by a highly experienced team of professional dance teachers and artists.
Find out more: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/course/centre-for-advanced-training/
We hear from a few students who studied MA/MFA Choreography at Trinity Laban. They dive into their experiences at TL, covering facilities, faculty, performance opportunities and what it was like to study in London as international students.
Dance and Social Action
Trinity Laban are exploring how dance can enable young people to engage with social action.
Together we have looked at different ways that dance can address social issues and call for change. We’re reaching beyond traditional approaches to campaigning, considering what role dance can play and how it has the power to effect change for both audiences and participants.
So far this has included investigating how Choreography that confronts a social issue can communicate to audiences in deep visceral ways. Dancers worked with Choreographer Joseph Toonga to understand his approach to creating professional dance work Born to Protest, which challenges racial stigma through dance that celebrates Black joy and shares the trauma of racism. Young dancers’ experiences of Joseph’s approach informed their ideas about working with dance in this way.
Young people sought to communicate their concerns with gender stereotypes through the creation of new dance performance and film. This was informed by their work with Choreographer Sarah Blanc and her performance piece Punk Alley, which seeks to communicate that no matter how loud or soft their voice is – what you have to say is important. Young dancers have created Dance for Film. Normality uses dance and spoken word to ask audiences to question their acceptance of the status quo and bring change to the world around them.
To reach participants, as well as audiences, young dancers have designed and created a workshop for their peers to experience their learning and approaches to working with dance to call for action on the issues that matter to them. These practical insights seek to galvanise more young people to engage with dance as a vehicle for social change. Young People led the workshop at a My London Super Summit and a Youth Dance Day at Trinity Laban.
Our latest film documents our learning across the My London project. The film was screened at City Hall in February 2024.
In Summer 2023 participants and artists from across all our community groups came together for a day of dance, music and celebration. Participants took part in a voice and movement warm up, shared created work, joined creative workshops and lunched together.
Film by Ryan Myddleton
Collaboration is at the heart of Trinity Laban’s approach to artistic development, and as a student on the MA/MFA Dance Performance programme you'll get the opportunity to work on a range of interesting performance projects and collaborations.
In November 2023, Clod Ensemble and Nu Civilisation Orchestra, featuring dancers from the Trinity Laban Dance Collective, presented a new perspective on Charles Mingus’ iconic 1963 recording The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Part of the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival, the show transformed the Grade II-listed Shoreditch Town Hall into a vibrant cabaret venue to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the album.
Mingus always envisioned dance accompanying his provocative masterpiece. Trinity Laban Dance Collective, comprised of students currently on the MA/MFA Dance Performance programme, worked with Clod Ensemble and Nu Civilisation Orchestra to honour that vision and bring it to life for a new generation.
Programme leader Hilary Stainsby says: “This wass a great opportunity for the TLDC students to develop their performance skills in collaboration with a fantastic creative team, working alongside professional dancers and practitioners. We are particularly committed to offering different performative experiences on this programme, and this project is wonderfully unique and interesting.”
At Shoreditch Town Hall, dancers including Valerie Ebuwa, Faye Stoeser and TLDC filled the venue with movement and energy. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady saw the dancers delivering both dense-knit choreography and passages of improvisation which dovetail with the band’s playing. The movement direction from Clod Ensemble’s Co-Artistic Director Suzy Willson employed the same daring, bold approach that has characterised Clod Ensemble’s work since the company launched in 1995.
Nu Civilisation Orchestra were led by the MOBO-nominated Peter Edwards and featured their Founder/Artistic Director and Trinity Laban Honorary Fellow Gary Crosby OBE on bass. The professional ensemble of the acclaimed talent development organisation Tomorrow’s Warriors, Nu Civilisation Orchestra has toured and performed extensively, including a BBC Proms performance in 2019, a UK tour in 2021 of What’s Going On a tribute to Marvin Gaye’s seminal masterpiece, and an acclaimed national tour of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Mingus albums in 2022. In addition to Mingus’ work in full, the shows also featured performances of new music from Peter Edwards, Clod Ensemble’s Artistic Director Paul Clark, and rising drummer/composer Romarna Campbell (current live drummer for Fever Ray).
The performance gave audience members the chance to move along with the music in celebration of Mingus’ composition. With dancers, band and audience all sharing the floor, attendees had the opportunity to get up close to world class performers and lose themselves in dancing along with this rhythmically explosive work. Wallflowers, hip-shakers, Mingus buffs, music-lovers of all stripes – all were welcome in this celebration of the sensuality and power of jazz. The MA/MFA Dance Performance at Trinity Laban is designed to foster a supportive and dynamic environment within which students can challenge and explore their voice, agency and artistry as dance performers.
Find out more about Trinity Laban Dance Collective, the MA/MFA Dance Performance and how we support dance artists to grow their careers: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/study/dance/postgraduate-programmes
Film: Molly Pendlebury
With thanks to Tomorrow's Warriors for soundtrack
Programme Leader of MA and MFA Choreography, Gary Lambert, takes us through the look and feel of the programme and module outlines.
MA/MFA Choreography at Trinity Laban offers a stimulating environment in which to explore and develop your choreographic practice and expertise.
Whether you’re in the early stages of your career or an experienced dance artist, these programmes present opportunities to engage with contemporary ideas, concepts and propositions within the choreographic field.
Programme Leader, Hilary Stainsby, guides us through what you can expect on the MA/MFA Dance Performance at Trinity Laban.
The programme is designed to foster a supportive and dynamic environment within which students can challenge and explore their voice, agency and artistry as dance performers.
Students form the membership of Trinity Laban Dance Collective (TLDC), a framework for working which foregrounds the experience of the individual whilst at the same time suggesting collectivity and collaboration as a mode of artistic enquiry. Throughout the year, TDLC will undertake a range of different creative projects, workshops and classes, delivered with exceptional guidance from faculty and guest artists and culminating in a range of performance opportunities, artistic outputs, dialogues and debates.
The MA/MFA Dance Performance offers the opportunity to research and explore the role of the performer in the artistic process and to deepen our understanding of both the artistic and technical complexities inherent in dance performance.
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Footage taken from:
Rehearsals for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
By Charles Mingus
Performed by Clod Ensemble & Nu Civilisation Orchestra at Shoreditch Town Hall 9/10 November 2023
Workshops with Company Wayne McGregor
Programme Leader, Catherine Haber, gives an overview of the MSc/MFA Dance Science programme at Trinity Laban.
During this programme you will examine both the art form of dance and the science behind it. You get the opportunity to direct your experience through an extended research enquiry. The uniqueness of the programme, being situated within a dance and music conservatoire, brings with it the opportunity to be part of the wider Trinity Laban artistic and scholarly community.
Our team is internationally known in the field and work with professional companies and organisations around the world. Trinity Laban is a founding partner of the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) and a supporter of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS).
Programme Leader Melanie Clarke gives us an overview of MA/MFA Dance Leadership and Community Practice at Trinity Laban.
This programme supports a career as a creative dance teacher/leader/facilitator, developing your knowledge, confidence and entrepreneurial skills to make a difference in people’s lives through creativity and dance.
Dance is a powerful tool to build relationships within communities, enable a creative outlet, support people’s wellbeing, rehabilitation and enjoyment of life. Learning creative dance practice, a socially engaged and inclusive pedagogy of relational ethics and care, and project management, will facilitate you with the practical knowledge and skills to create opportunities for dance to thrive.
There are two pathways to study MA/MFA Creative Practice at Trinity Laban. Programme Leader Naomi Lefebvre Sell takes us through the different options.
The Dance Professional pathway is delivered in conjunction with our partner organisations: Siobhan Davies Studios and Independent Dance, the Dance Professional Practice enables experienced practitioners to develop their artistic practice in a stimulating environment of intellectual and creative inquiry.
The Transdisciplinary pathway offers a unique opportunity to place your interdisciplinary practice in transformative dialogue with leading dance and movement practitioners.
Terra Invisus performs "Although Daedelus Reached" by Pawel Mykietyn for Trinity Laban's New Lights Festival 2023.
Terra Invisus are a contemporary music trio, dedicated to pushing musical and sonic boundaries through free improvisation, and the performance of new works. Comprising Milda Vitartaitė (piano), Alex Lyon (clarinets), and Rebecca Burden (cello), they explore the combination of their diverse musical styles to curate unique live performances and collaborations. Terra Invisus’ debut album, ‘Visions’, will be released in April 2024, featuring new commissions from emerging young UK composers.
Dreams and Variations, June 21 2023, brought to us an evening of multidisciplinary improvisation emerging from musical ideas, conceptual themes and streams of consciousness.
These explorative musical performances flowed from audience input, poetry, clowning, dancing and audiovisuals. Featuring Trinity Laban students, faculty, alumni and guests.
Artistic Director and improvisation coach | Douglas Finch
Curator and improvisation coach | Roxanna Albayati
Video | Dimitri Djuric
Interested in a career in Musical Theatre? Our vibrant Musical Theatre Department has an outstanding reputation for its rigorous and dynamic performance training. Situated in the UK’s musical theatre capital, with excellent links to the West End and beyond, we will equip you with all the skills you need to become a creative, empowered performer for the 21st century. Here's an overview of our department, and where some of our recent alumni are now.
Find out more about our:
Foundation Programme: Cert HE Foundations of Musical Theatre
BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance
NEW: MA Musical Theatre (Musical Direction/Performance pathways - start in Sept 2024; Community Practice pathway from Sept 2025)
https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/study/musical-theatre
Hear from our Creative Music Making Alum, Elica Ming-Brown and gain an insight into the course. You’ll find out how the course can help you grow as a musician, how Elica overcame her nerves about the residential learning week and why you should join Creative Music Making. Elica is taking the course as part of her studies with The Open University.
Hear from our Creative Music Making Alum, Steven Nicholas and gain an insight into the course. You’ll hear why Steven chose to study Creative Music Making and hear some of his highlights from the residential learning week. Steven is taking the course as part of his studies with The Open University.
Hear from our Creative Music Making Alum, Ian Norsworthy and gain an insight into the course. You’ll find out how using the music facilities during the residential learning week has helped Ian grow as a musician. You’ll also hear about his fond memories from the residential and what he has been able to implement into his own practice. Ian is taking the course as part of his studies with The Open University.
In the summer of 2023 our Head of Strings, Nic Pendlebury, took a chamber ensemble with him to First Light Festival in Lowestoft.
Following on from their CoLab project ‘Beyond Our World’ which premiered at The Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich, the ensemble took their planet themed musical exploration to the beach!
The three performances over the course of the weekend featured:
/ Eliana Echeverry’s ‘The Lost Planet’
/ George Morton’s arrangement of Holst’s ‘The Planets’
/ Nic Pendlebury’s transcription of Terry Riley’s ‘Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector’, arranged for solo electric viola and sonic delay
Check out our social channels and website (https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/) to find out more about what our students are getting up to and opportunities to study with us.
MINDS i by Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company
TLYDC dancers worked collectively to devise choreography and a narrative which resonated with their own selected themes of memory, family and dementia.
Working closely with the filmmaker, composer and TLYDC Artistic Director, this dance piece for film has been the creative realisation of our talented young dancers.
Co-creators and Performers – Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company Dancers
Artistic Director – Kennedy Muntanga
TLYDC Assistant – Stella Rousham
Composer/Musician – Bobby Demers
Director of Production and Editor – Becca Hunt
Produced by Trinity Laban
Find out more about TLYDC: https://bit.ly/43DnMGb
My London is a two-year project with young people.
We are exploring how dance can enable young people to take part in social action. There are lots of opportunities for young people to get involved.
You can find out more on the Tintiy Laban wesbite https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/my-london-dance-social-action-project/
The Innovation Award sees final-year students pitch artistic and business projects to an expert panel and win professional development support and seed funding.
Launched in 2019 the Innovation Award forms part of the conservatoire’s strategy to help emerging artists develop their voice and innovate in the cultural industries.
We are pleased to announce that the 2023 winners are:
Chiara Martina Halter - Stomach Aches
Ọlá - Àwa
Katlo - My Medusa
Lizzie Fletcher - Vibrations
Aimée Ruhinda - Rituals in Chaos
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website.
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Working with a professional videographer, dancers storyboard their ideas and direct the filming of their dance work. With the dancers input, the footage is edited into a film that communicates the dancers' ideas and protests for social change. Inspired by the work of choreographers creating dance that calls for social action, they create a dance film about issues that matter to them.
Find out more on the Tinity Laban wesbite https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/my-london-dance-social-action-project/
About My London:
This project is part of My London: Greenwich & Lewisham Partnership.
My London is a two year project to engage young people in social action; developing awareness of social issues, enabling young people to investigate and express ideas about these issues through dance, and act to make change. The project builds young people’s agency, voice and power to positively impact participants’ well-being.
Trinity Laban is one of five organisations in the My London: Enabling Youth Social Action Greenwich and Lewisham Partnership. We are working in partnership with METRO Charity, Charlton Athletic Community Trust, Tramshed, and Lewisham Youth Theatre. Young people working with each organisation come together to plan and lead joint social action activities over a two year period through a Youth Steering Group, alongside activities within each organisation.
Trinity Laban’s project within the partnership explores how dance can enable young people to engage in social action.
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
Welcome to Creative Music Making, a one-year distance learning programme with a dynamic residential week at our campus located at Trinity Laban’s World Heritage Site home in Greenwich. It is designed for all instrumentalists and vocalists, participating in any genre of music and there are no auditions to gain entry. Find out more via our website: https://bit.ly/creativemusicmaking23
The Dance Aerobic Fitness Test consists of five progressive four-minute stages of dance.
The dancers perform as many stages as they can. During the tests, the
dancers’ heart rate is measured using either the
manual method or a heart rate monitor.
This is Stage 5 of 5
More information about the Dance Aerobic Fitness Tests can be found on the Tinity Laban website https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/dance-aerobic-fitness-tests/
The Dance Aerobic Fitness Test consists of five progressive four-minute stages of dance.
The dancers perform as many stages as they can. During the tests, the
dancers’ heart rate is measured using either the
manual method or a heart rate monitor.
This is Stage 4 of 5
More information about the Dance Aerobic Fitness Tests can be found on the Tinity Laban website https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/dance-aerobic-fitness-tests/
The Dance Aerobic Fitness Test consists of five progressive four-minute stages of dance.
The dancers perform as many stages as they can. During the tests, the
dancers’ heart rate is measured using either the
manual method or a heart rate monitor.
This is Stage 3 of 5
More information about the Dance Aerobic Fitness Tests can be found on the Tinity Laban website https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/dance-aerobic-fitness-tests/
The Dance Aerobic Fitness Test consists of five progressive four-minute stages of dance.
The dancers perform as many stages as they can. During the tests, the
dancers’ heart rate is measured using either the
manual method or a heart rate monitor.
This is Stage 1 of 5
More information about the Dance Aerobic Fitness Tests can be found on the Tinity Laban website https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/dance-aerobic-fitness-tests/
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is the UK’s only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance. Leaders in music and contemporary dance education, they also provide exciting opportunities for the public to encounter dance and music, and access arts health programmes. The unequalled expertise and experience of their staff and world class facilities are housed in landmark buildings.
In 2005, Trinity College of Music and Laban, leading centres of music and contemporary dance, came together to form Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the UK's first ever conservatoire of music and dance. Their innovative course provision, exciting performances and groundbreaking education, community and social inclusion work make Trinity Laban a leader in the advancement of creative artistic practice. Their unique conjunction has created exciting opportunities for collaboration between instrumentalists, singers, composers, dancers and choreographers.
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