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| Laban Conservatoire | |
|---|---|
| Name | Laban Conservatoire |
| Established | 1940s |
| Type | Conservatoire |
| Location | London |
Laban Conservatoire is a performing arts institution in London specializing in contemporary dance, choreography, and performance studies. It trains dancers, choreographers, and teachers through professional practice, research, and collaborations with cultural institutions across Europe and beyond. The conservatoire engages with companies, festivals, and venues to place graduates within international circuits of production, touring, and pedagogy.
Founded in the mid-20th century amid postwar cultural rebuilding and the rise of modern dance, the conservatoire evolved alongside movements led by figures associated with Rudolf Laban, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, and Kurt Jooss. Its development intersected with institutions such as Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Royal Ballet, and English National Ballet. Key periods include curricular expansion during the 1960s when connections with Judson Dance Theater, Pina Bausch, Twyla Tharp, Alwin Nikolais, and Yvonne Rainer informed pedagogy, and the 1990s shift toward higher education frameworks paralleling King's College London, University of the Arts London, Goldsmiths, and Roehampton University. Institutional partnerships and leadership exchanges linked the conservatoire with festivals and companies such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Venice Biennale, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Karlsruhe State Theatre, Hofesh Shechter Company, and Royal Court Theatre.
The campus is situated in a purpose-built complex serving rehearsal, performance, and research needs, comparable to facilities at Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern, Somerset House, and Victoria and Albert Museum. Studios are equipped for somatic practice associated with Feldenkrais Method, Alexander Technique, Pilates, Gyrotonic, and Contact Improvisation training. Performance spaces accommodate collaborations with companies such as Random Dance, Richard Alston Dance Company, BalletBoyz, Rambert, and Phoenix Dance Theatre, and host residencies from choreographers linked to Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Kodo, and Trisha Brown. Technical resources include motion-capture suites used in projects with Imperial College London, Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths, and media partners like BBC Arts, Channel 4, and Arte.
The conservatoire offers vocational and academic pathways including undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral study, aligning with degree frameworks used by University of East London, University of the Arts London, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance-style institutions, and European credit systems like ECTS. Programs focus on choreography, performance, pedagogy, and research-led practice, training students in repertory connected to works by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, William Forsythe, and Pina Bausch. Curriculum components engage scholarship from scholars at Royal Holloway, Birkbeck, SOAS, Goldsmiths, and LSE and include modules on repertoire, anatomy informed by research at UCLH, Guy's Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital, and interdisciplinary projects with Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music.
Productions range from student showcases to co-productions with national and international presenters such as Manchester International Festival, Glasgow International Festival, Sadler's Wells, Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, and ICA. Annual seasons often feature premieres by resident and guest choreographers including alumni and artists associated with Siobhan Davies Dance, Jirí Kylián, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Rosie Kay. The conservatoire programs touring projects to venues like The Lowry, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Cité de la Musique, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and festivals such as Venice Biennale and Performa.
Faculty have included practitioners and theorists with links to Rudolf Laban, Joan Littlewood, Lynn Seymour, Siobhan Davies, Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan, and researchers from Wellcome Trust-funded projects. Alumni work across major companies and institutions including Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Rambert, Wayne McGregor Random Dance, Akram Khan Company, Hofesh Shechter Company, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures, BalletBoyz, Richard Alston Dance Company, Siobhan Davies Dance, Scottish Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cloud Gate, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Morphoses, National Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Royal Court Theatre, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Guildhall School, LAMDA, Central Saint Martins.
Research clusters focus on practice-as-research, dance science, digital performance, and cultural policy, collaborating with funding and research bodies such as Arts Council England, AHRC, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, Horizon 2020, and university partners like King's College London, Imperial College London, Goldsmiths, UCL, and University of Cambridge. Projects engage technologies from Motion Capture, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality in cross-disciplinary work with Alan Turing Institute, Royal College of Art, Nesta, and industry partners including Google Arts & Culture and Microsoft Research. International exchange agreements link the conservatoire with schools such as Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Codarts Rotterdam, CNSMD Lyon, Folkwang University of the Arts, and Juilliard School.
Admissions are based on audition, portfolio, and interview processes comparable to entry routes at Royal Ballet School, Trinity Laban, Central School of Ballet, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Financial support information references awards from Arts Council England, Dance UK, Leverhulme Trust, Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, and scholarship schemes linked to Chevening, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, and university bursaries. Student life includes ensembles, societies, and partnerships with cultural venues such as Barbican, Sadler's Wells, Southbank Centre, Shakespeare's Globe, and community outreach programs partnering with National Youth Dance Company, Citizens Advice, and local borough initiatives.
Category:Conservatoires in London