News

CoLab – Trinity Laban’s annual festival of collaboration – took place between 13 – 24 February 2017, exploring new ideas, and bringing together multiple art forms and people from a number of different continents.

There were many highlights, including Blind Date at Tate Exchange, Dance Jam, which featured several visiting artists, and two Friday sharings – CoLab at Creekside and Spaghetti Southern – both of which played to packed crowds in the Laban Building.

Other international projects included The Brexchange Jazz Project – bringing together jazz students from across Europe – and Colab Horizons, featuring visiting students and staff from the National Taiwan University of Arts.

Head of CoLab Joe Townsend commented:

“CoLab 2017 was pretty impressive and summed up the broad theme Different the Same. The creative artistry, willingness to experiment and the sheer hard work of everybody involved has led to a festival that exceeded all expectations.

We hosted the AEC Pop and Jazz Platform where educational leaders from across Europe visited projects and were highly complementary of the broad-minded approach to work and the creative bravery on show. They also commented on the exceptional standard of many CoLab projects and the high standards of teaching at TL that enable CoLab to be so exciting. 

The second week of CoLab saw a number of exciting high profile events, but what excites me the most is the focussed work that goes on in projects that often don’t get such a large performance, projects such as: Political Dreamland, A Performance and Awakening. There were three Public Engagement projects in hospitals, a prison and working with older people in association with the Tate Modern. Initial feedback has been that these projects have been life affirming and on occasion life changing.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in CoLab this year and, to those who would like to get involved next year, you are warmly invited to think of ideas that extend, deepen and challenge the way that we make our art together.”

To find out more and to see images from the 2017 festival, please visit the Trinity Laban website. 

Photo Credit: James Keats