News

Our upcoming summer season features a diverse and exciting range of performances showcasing the creativity of our students across music, dance and musical theatre. 

Dance  

In Dance, the season kicks off on Thur 4 & Fri 5 May with a programme of new choreography from our second year undergraduate contemporary dance students, who then go on to perform in Dance Legends: Repertory Project, on Weds 28 & Thurs 29 June, recreating works by significant choreographers in contemporary dance. This year the project features Sir Richard Alston’s Roughcut, Protima Chatterjee’s Unfettered Mind (a reimagining of Uday Shankar’s Man and Machine), Daniel Squire’s restaging of Rune by Merce Cunningham and Sasha Waltz’ In C.  

Our final year dance students take to the stage with a site-specific showcase of new work In Situ on Sat 17 June, and then perform newly Commissioned Works by choreographers including Jean Abreau, Alice Sara & Clare Baker and Rahel Vonmoos on Thur 6 and Fri 7 July. 

We also welcome Emergence: The postgraduate dance company of Joss Arnott Dance and the University of Salford to Laban Theatre on Tues 13 June with a Triple Bill of new works by this young dance company.

The Faculty of Dance Graduate Showcase starts on 10 July and runs across three weeks, showcasing the creativity of our postgraduate students as they share the culmination of their Masters degrees. Expect a wide range of intelligent, experimental and thought-provoking pieces in a range of spaces, that incorporate live performance, film and video, installation, and documentary processes. 

Musical Theatre & Vocal Productions  

Summer at Trinity Laban is a feast for Musical Theatre fans. Our final year BA (Hons) Musical Theatre students perform two shows at The Albany, Deptford: Amour (Fri 19 & Sat 20 May) and Our House (Fri 26 & Sat 27 May).  

At Blackheath Halls, the second year BA students present the musical romantic comedy Loserville from Tues 20 – Sat 24 June. 

Two productions showcase the skills of our Vocal Studies department. Try Me, Good King sets the song cycle by Libby Larsen at the centre of a newly devised, staged production by Head of Vocal Studies Jennifer Hamilton. The production is based on the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII who confront him in Purgatory. Presented at The Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich, the performance draws on our location at King Charles Court, site of Henry VIII’s palace and a major centre of Tudor music and life.  

Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus is the UK premiere of an opera in three acts by Libby Larsen. Intellectual ambition, technological arrogance and the deep human need for companionship combine in this opera adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. Trinity Laban students bring Victor Frankenstein and his Creation to life at Blackheath Halls Thu 6 – Sat 8 July. 

Festivals  

Changemaker Festival at Blackheath Halls (Tues 6 – Fri 9 June) celebrates the diverse and rich work of our BA (Hons) Music Performance and Industry students. Watch this space for more details and running orders as plans develop.   

Curated by Douglas Finch, the New Lights Contemporary Festival 2023 returns to our King Charles Court campus for a riot of experimental music making (Mon 19 – Weds 21 Jun). The festival has earned a reputation for showcasing a diverse range of composed and improvised contemporary music for keyboard, electronic and multi-media performance. Two highlights of this year’s festival will be a talk by film and stage director Tony Palmer and an evening celebrating the music and culture of Iran, curated by alumni Roxanna Albayati and Mahsa Salali. 

Nic Pendlebury and Trinity Laban musicians go Beyond Our World at the Festival of Chichester on Sat 10 June and at First Light, Lowestoft on Sat 17 & Sun 18 June. The programme features George Morton’s stunning chamber arrangement of Holst’s iconic work The Planets and also includes Nic Pendlebury’s own transcription of Terry Riley’s Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector, arranged for solo electric viola and sonic delay. Eliana Echeverry’s new work The Lost Planet for electric viola and ensemble completes the astrological journey, with the work imagining the sounds and atmosphere of our once ninth planet, Pluto.    

Concerts and competitions  

On Mon 26 June Trinity Laban Jazz Orchestra perform at Blackheath Halls. Continuing our Black Culture 365 programme, composer and recitalist Althea Talbot-Howard and Trinity Laban saxophones perform original music, paired with Althea’s arrangements of scores by Coleridge-Taylor and Ignatius Sancho at St Alfege on Thu 29 Jun.  

Join Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra  at Cadogan Hall on Thur 29 June, as they play under the direction of award-winning conductor Jessica Cottis.The evening will feature a newly commissioned work by a Trinity Laban student, alongside Debussy’s Printemps, Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite and Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s Blush.  

For South East London schools, Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra perform Fairy Tales and a Firebird, a school-friendly concert of the Cadogan Hall billing at Catford Broadway on Fri 30 June.  

To mark the end of another successful academic year, our junior departments will mount shows and presentations in July. Junior Trinity takes to the stage at Cadogan Hall for a concert and prizegiving ceremony on Sat 8 Jul, while Laban Theatre hosts the Centre for Advanced Training End of Year Show (Sat 8 & Sun 9 Jul) and the annual summer show for participants from our Children’s Creative Dance Classes (Sat 1 Jul). 

See all our summer events in our what’s on listings