London School of Contemporary Dance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since April 2006. (help, talk)

The London Contemporary Dance School is the foremost school in the United Kingdom for the teaching of contemporary dance. Based at The Place near Euston, London, the school was founded by Robin Howard in the 1970s in order to train new dancers for his company, the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. The first year's intake included Richard Alston, Ian Spink and Siobhan Davies who went on to perform with the main company before founding their own. Stduents of the London Contemporary Dance School have gone on to accept contracts from a variety of prestigious dance companies including Adventure in Motion Picture, Random Dance Company, DV8, CandoCo, Diversions dance and the coveted Rambert Dance Company at the Sadler's Wells.

The school awarded its first degree in dance in 1982, the prestigious BA (Hons) in Contemporary, validated by the University of Kent. The School is now part of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an organisation devoted to promoting excellence in, not only contemporary dance, but in ballet, acting, circus arts and academia. Distinguished alumni include Christopher Bannerman, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Kim Brandstrup, Jonzi D, Gurmit Hukam, Paul Liburd, Etta Murfitt, Robert North, Henri Oguike, Sally Potter, Kenneth Tharp, Christopher Tudor, Anthony van Laast and Sheron Wray.

The School teachs a variety of contemporary dance (or Modern dance as it's known in the States) techniques including release-based, Limón, Humphrey and Contact Improvisation, priding themselves on their lengthy history in Graham technique and their current excellence in Cunningham technique. The school also encourages pilates, body conditioning, a variety of free electives in Chreology, Anatomy and Scenography, and (as of 2005) is now only full-time dance school in Europe to teach Kathak or Bharatanatyam for professional dancers. The course also includes an intensive course in Ballet studies and extra tuition in coaching or for Pointe is availableon request.

Anybody interested in applying to the London Contemporary Dance School should pick up an application from The Place or send off for one by emailing London Contemporary. The Place also offers courses in contemporary dance in London for adults and children who enjoy dance, and the school never lacks comotion or life, since it is set right in the middle between University land and Theatre land, with such schools as London Studio Centre, RADA and UCL nearby.