Graduate School Showcase 2026 / Day 13

Step into a world of creative exploration. 

Welcome to the Graduate School Showcase 2026, a festival of performances created, choreographed and presented by our postgraduate dance students.

15:30 Dalin Celamy, MA Choreography, Laban Theatre (20 mins) @dalinc__

Realness
The piece aims to bring the “behind the scenes” into the light, a reflection of what realness is in the context of the queer ballroom scene. There are narratives that hold powerful richness that are not ever heard by those who experience the queer ballroom scene, but this pieces attempts to bring those narratives alive while giving contemporary modern approach to the way movement and story are explored.
Audience experience Audience are invited to move freely onstage. Maximum capacity x 20 

16:00 Denise Powling-Roles, MFA Creative Practice: Dance Professional Laban Building, Studio 6/7 (15-20mins)

Filaments
Spider Listening.
Through thread, movement and attentive listening, this site-responsive performance explores how subtle forms of relation become perceptible. As audiences cross a threshold into the attentive listening space of the studio, they are invited into close proximity with performers navigating shifting tensions, proximities and moments of responsiveness within conditions of uncertainty. Thread functions as an instrument of listening, making visible and tangible the ways bodies sense, orientate and respond to one another. Through small gestures, hesitations and acts of attention, the work asks how we listen through uncertainty and what becomes perceptible when we attend closely. 

Audience experience Site-responsive format. Capacity: 15 people

 17:00 Nick Beliakov, MA Choreography, Laban Theatre (20 mins) @nickhodos 

FUNERAL SHOW
The Poetry of Loss. WHAT HAPPENS TO A PERSON WHEN A FAREWELL BECOMES A PERFORMANCE? WHEN THE BODY BEGINS TO RESPOND BEFORE THE MIND CAN ACCEPT WHAT IS TAKING PLACE?
‘FUNERAL SHOW’ IS A BALLET BY NICK BELIAKOV EXPLORING EMBODIED MEMORY, GRIEF, AND RITUAL.
A JOURNEY INTO WHAT REMAINS AFTER LOSS — AND A QUESTION OF WHO OUR RITUALS ARE REALLY FOR. 

Viewer discretion Strobe lighting effects and flashing lights
Audience experience Theatre seating 

17:30 Shiqi Deng, MA Choreography, Laban Theatre (20 mins) @shiqi._.dengdeng

Trust
Differ widely. Trust is a duet choreography that explores how relationships are formed, negotiated, and sustained through movement. Drawing on principles of contact improvisation, the work investigates trust, balance, instability, and responsiveness as evolving processes rather than fixed states. Through both physical contact and non-contact interaction, the performers communicate connection through touch, spatial awareness, observation, and mutual adaptation. The choreography focuses on moments of support, hesitation, recovery, and uncertainty, inviting audiences to witness how relationships emerge through continuous negotiation and shared attention rather than predetermined movement sequences.
Audience experience Theatre seating