CENTRE FOR ADVANCED TRAINING

Dance Technique and Performing Skills

Students will undertake classes in contemporary dance, ballet and hip-hop supported by other complementary dance forms in order to develop:

• Physical strength, flexibility, agility, co-ordination and efficiency of movement
• Correct posture, placement and alignment
• Spatial awareness, body line and design
• Articulation and clarity of movement
• Movement constituents of the movement vocabularies of the styles studied
• Projection / focus; clarity of intention; appropriate use of dynamics
• Sensitivity to musical phrasing and dynamics
• Use of different movement qualities
• Ability to respond / be present in the moment of presentation
• Ability to utilise and retain feedback
• Use of energy and sense of whole body engagement

Dance Fitness and Health

The aim of the Performance Enhancement (PEn) sessions is to support technical and creative training. The content focuses more on general physical functioning and less on particular dance styles or techniques. The approach is supported by current Dance Science research and knowledge.

Within the PEn sessions the following areas will be worked on:

• Stamina and fitness levels
• Muscular strength and conditioning
• Alignment and control
• Body and anatomical awareness

The PEn sessions will also provide and explain best practice strategies such as:

• Warm-up and cool-down
• Effective stretching
• Positive mental attitude
• Nutrition and hydration for energy giving purposes
• Use of psychological skills such as imagery, to support physical training

Creative Workshops and Choreography

Students will have regular creative workshops and experience with professional choreographers. Students will be encouraged to be imaginative, innovative and take creative risks through:

• Exploring dance ideas/concepts in response to a variety of stimuli e.g. kinaesthetic, literary, visual, auditory, contemporary issues, repertoire, styles and traditions
• Selecting, structuring, and refining movement material
• Developing initial movement ideas into final choreographic form through selecting and developing action, dynamic, rhythmic and spatial content
• Using choreographic devices, e.g. motif, variation and development, chance, unison, canon, climax
• Forming the overall shape of the dance
• Structuring appropriate relationships between content and form in the expression of a dance idea
• Considering the relationship of dance and music
• Communicating artistic intention and the expression of dance ideas/concepts
• Reflecting and evaluating throughout the choreographic process

Performance Opportunities

In order to develop the student’s practical experience of performing, there will be regular performance opportunities in a variety of settings and to different audiences, including:

• Termly informal sharing’s of work for family and friends
• Contributing to the Youth and Community Dance Platforms
• Performances in Laban’s Bonnie Bird Theatre
• Performing in theatres in and out of London

Complementary Studies

In order to support the dance curriculum, and ensure that each individual encounters a range of artistic and creative opportunities and is prepared for progression into further training, the following will be included either as part of the Saturday programme or in the additional study days or intensive courses:

• Practical workshops in a range of dance/movement genres e.g. African, South Asian, Capoeira, Pas de Deux
• Visits to see professional dance work in a range of genres and a variety of cultural experiences available in London including theatre performances and art exhibitions
• Collaborative music and dance projects with Junior Trinity
• Careers information and advice

André Fabien Francis

While successfully auditioning for the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre: Aspiring Dance Mentoring Scheme, under the direction of Liz Dale – Director of Dance at ISTD – and Hannah Dye – Head of Programming for Breathe Arts and Freelance Producer for English National Ballet – André was scouted to join the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) Programme at The Place: London Contemporary Dance School. After nearly 3 years, André graduated from The Place: CAT accepting a fully funded place at London Studio Centre (LSC). During his time at LSC André took some time out to attend The Ailey School – the training ground for the world renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre – Summer Intensive in 2013, before returning to LSC where in 2014 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Following graduation, André joined the ensemble of The Lion King, Germany where he was trusted with the responsibility of teaching Company Class. On Returning to the UK André joined the West End Production of Wicked in the prestigious Ribbon Boy Track before going on to play Paul in Kiss Me Kate at The Watermill Theatre choreographed by Oti Mabuse – for which André was nominated for the BroadwayWorldUK: Best Supporting Actor Award. Most recently André played Seaweed J Stubbs in Hairspray for The Grange Park: Pimlico Opera.

Having worked in the Arts industry for almost two decades, André has danced, taught, assisted, created work and been mentored both nationally & internationally. Working with world class artists, theatres and organisations including: Richard Alston, Denzil Bailey, Thea Barnes, James Bennett, the Southbank Centre, the Olympic Ceremonies, the Royal Albert Hall, Rebecca Howell, Richard Jones, Paul Liburd, Oti Mabuse, Mandy Montanez, Alex Parker, Joan Peters, Richard Roe, Jane Sanig, Judine Somerville, Christian Storm, the CDMT, Disney Theatrical Productions, Eric Underwood, Antoine Vereecken, Buddy Watkins, Nikki Woollaston and Sadler’s Wells. Which André continuously utilizes to inspire his work in the studio, on stage and off stage.

Charlotte Blinkhorn

Charlotte trained at Central School of Ballet (CSB), London, beginning her professional training at the age of sixteen. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in 2006. Charlotte spent her third year of training touring the UK as part of Ballet Central and performed the solo piece ‘Futility’, choreographed by Sara Matthews, as part of the Ballet Central 2006 tour. She then spent a year with Phoenix Dance Theatre, working with Javier De Frutos and Henrique Rodavalho whilst completing a Post Graduate Diploma.

Charlotte joined Springs Dance Company in 2008, performing and teaching extensively both nationally and internationally for over 8 years. Working with Springs gave Charlotte the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Darren Ellis, Will Tuckett, Vicky Fox and Suzannah McCreight. A highlight of her performing career was performing a solo piece choreographed by Suzannah McCreight at the Royal Albert Hall. Working with Springs Dance Company gave Charlotte a great deal of teaching experience, teaching on the company’s apprenticeship course and annual summer school. Charlotte has led many educational projects and workshops in primary and secondary schools in a range of settings across the UK. Alongside dancing for Springs, Charlotte has performed in projects at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Resolutions, amongst other platforms. Charlotte now teaches across the South East, teaching ballet and contemporary techniques to students from a range of ages and including a professional course.

Chiara Romualdi

Born and raised in Rome, Chiara approached dance at the age of 9. She started to dance professionally at the age of 15 as a member of the N.ough Company. While travelling across Europe and the U.S., she took part in a few projects based in Rome: “Supa Dupa Edge”, “VCT”, “Donna”. Chiara moved to London in 2018 to get deeper in her interest for visual arts, freelancing in the dance and graphic design industries and kept on training in her main styles: hip hop, house and contemporary. In the last years she taught for CAT Swindon, University of East London and other education institutions across London. She is currently teaching for the CAT Programme at Trinity Laban Dance Faculty and is part of the Indahouse Mentorship by Clara Bajado.

Kasper Cornish

Kasper Cornish began his dance training at the age of 10 with Sara Phillips in 1984 and graduated from Central School of Ballet in 1993 after which he joined Ballet Wales, touring the UK in productions of The Swan and Cinderella. Performing work ranged from Ballet Dancer to Wrestler for the BAFTA award winning Channel 4 series Faking It to creating the title role in The Snowman (Birmingham Repertory Theatre, West End and BBC film of the stage show). Other credits include The Phantom of The Opera feature film and dancing the role of “Slavemaster” for the national tour of the stage show. He played the Prince of Transylvania in the National Theatre production of My Fair Lady at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was a founding member of Just Desert Dance Co. and as a freelance principal artist danced popular ballet pas de deux as far afield as Japan. He was principal ballet dancer at Glyndebourne in 1996 as well as understudy to Zoltan Solymosi and toured France and Switzerland in Maurice Bejart’s Bolero with Sylvie Guillem.

Choreographic work includes My Fair Lady (PPA), The Classical Brits, Comedy Shuffle (BBC3), “Canvas Bag” for Tim Minchin, Shakespeare’s Happy Endings (BBC4), The Terence Higgins Trust, Nickelodeon TV, movement for actors in feature films, “Degas – A Passion for Perfection” (Exhibition on Screen) and over 30 small, medium and large-scale performance pieces for Students in vocational training.

He has taught Classical Ballet and Pas de Deux since 1997 for performing arts colleges, conservatoires, international summer schools, dance companies and open classes.

Kasper’s music compositions include 7 ballet class albums, music for dance, a full-length musical (The Trash Christ), The Makins & Cornish Songbook, a brass quintet, clarinet sonata, Oratorio for Baritone – choir & string orchestra, Christmas carols, a string quartet, song cycles and works solo piano.
www.kaspercornish.bandcamp.com

Kieran Stoneley

Kieran trained at the Royal Ballet School. Upon graduating, he toured with the Royal Ballet and went on to dance with New York Theatre Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet and The National Ballet of Ireland. As an independent dancer, Kieran has worked with Michael Clark Company, Chantry Dance Company, Alexander Whitley Dance Company and Yorke Dance Project. He performed in ‘The Most Incredible Thing’, a collaboration between Choreographer Javier De Frutos and Pet Shop Boys; ‘Fusional Fragments’, a collaboration between Choreographer Marc Brew and percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie; ‘FLOW’ at The Print Room; ‘Rootless Dialect’ at Wilderness Festival with Hannah Rudd of Rambert; and ‘4×4 Ephemeral Architectures’ with Gandini Juggling. Kieran has worked on various TV and film projects, has been a guest artist with Westside Ballet California, Irish National Youth Ballet, and Teatre Principal in Palma de Mallorca. Kieran teaches at Sylvia Young Theatre School and the CAT scheme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Lucy Evans

Lucy Evans trained at London Contemporary Dance School and Trinity Laban as part of Transitions Dance Company 2007 gaining an MA in Dance Performance. Whilst in Transitions, Lucy toured work in the UK and Europe by Henri Okguike, Jenni Kivela, Pablo Ventura, Aszure Barton and Cristian Duarte. Her career as a freelance dance artist has included performing with H2dance, La Fura del Baus, Cie. Willi Dorner, e.dance, Aletta Collins, DeDa and the Olympics Closing Ceremony under the direction of Kym Gavin.  She has taught for Trinity Laban, The Royal Ballet School, Urdang, Arts Educational Schools London, London Children’s Ballet, The Academy for Theatre Arts and Darren Ellis Dance.  She received the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship in 2008 to deliver dance workshops to under privileged children and young people in La Paz, Bolivia. In September 2014, she was awarded a place on Dance UK’s Teacher Mentoring Program. Lucy co-founded her own dance theatre company ‘Anecdotal Evidence’ with William Aitchison in 2013 making work that uses text and movement.  Other choreographic commissions for young people include creating ‘Fair-e-Tale’, a professional work for E.dance that toured schools in the North of England, as well as receiving commissions to create work for young people from U Dance, PrimarySteps and the Unicorn Theatre.

Niamh Morrin

Niamh has successfully completed a BSc in Sports Science and Health and an MSc in Dance Science. Since graduating in 2006, she has worked extensively with dancers. Work includes, lecturing on the BA undergraduate Dance Science module at the University of Wolverhampton, teaching dancers health and injury prevention workshops with Akademi, Centre for Advanced Training (The Place and Trinity Laban), Springs Dance Company apprenticeship scheme and D and B School of Performing Arts.

Niamh’s research interests include; optimal warm-up for dancers and the biomechanical effects of fatigue in dance. She has presented her research internationally at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. Her current position as Healthier Dancer Programme Manager at Dance UK ensures that she keeps up to date with current thinking and research within the field.

Niamh is passionate about young dancer’s health – providing young training dancers with sound injury prevention and performance enhancement training and advice means that they enter the professional dancing world with an understanding of their own bodies and a tool kit to keep dancing longer and stronger.

Otis Carr

Otis initially trained in Music at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, later moving to the dance strand to study for A Levels and a BTEC National Diploma. During this time, he also trained as a Ballet Black associate, going onto the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, completing his dance studies at the Central School of Ballet. Otis-Cameron is also a 2013 Finzi Scholar commencing intense study in Countertenor voice.

Upon graduation Otis performed with the Red Tape Dance Company as part of the Malta Arts Festival 2008 going on to further engagements with ACE Dance and Music for their Autumn Tour of SKIN and Turandot at the Royal Opera House 2008 & 2017. From 2009-2013 Otis danced with Rambert Dance Company working with choreographers including Henri Oguike, Henrietta Horne, Tim Rushton, Marguerite Donlon, Itzik Galli and Mark Baldwin as well as performing in works by Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor.

2013-2014 included performing as a Signet and Medium Swan in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake National and International tour.

2015 marked the start of a recurring working relationship with Barry Kosky and Otto Pichler creating both the Glyndebourne Opera’s Production of Saul and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden production of The Nose with Saul going on to be presented as part of the Glyndebourne 2015 Tour and the Adelaide Festival 2017.  During this time Otis was also engaged with CIE 7273 (Geneva), performing Tarab in Europe, Serbia and the Middle East. Other notable work includes End of Line by Goshka Macuga preforming at the Lowry Gallery 2017.

Otis has presented work as part of the Rambert season of new choreography at The Place Theatre 2011 as well as assisting rehearsals with the Choreographer Mbulelo Ndabeni in subsequent seasons.

Otis is currently engaged with CIE 7273 (Geneva) and is a Technique Lecturer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance.

Useful Links for Dance Industry Information, Auditions and Job Opportunities:

• Article 19
• Juice
• Arts Jobs
• People Dancing (Foundation for Community Dance)
• Artsjobsonline.com
• National Dance CATs
• Foundations For Excellence