The Place, London's boldest dance theatre, is excited to share with you its summer programme.
While here at The Place, summer is always the season to celebrate future talent and showcase students and graduates of London Contemporary Dance School, the theatre programme continues to seek out the most innovative British and international dance artists to present bold and thought-provoking work on our stage to inspire and surprise our audiences. Some of our best loved summer staples return again in 2019 – the hugely popular Family Dance Day with its buzzing atmosphere and last year's very successful Festival of Korean Dance, back for a second edition - and we will be heading out on the road taking some of our popular shows to Latitude Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe.
Eddie Nixon, Artistic Director of The Place says:
'We have a rich choice of performances at The Place over the next few months. There's the explosive dance of Modern Table in our Korean dance festival, the physical intricacy of Claire Cunningham and Seeta Patel's startlingly original, urgent Rite of Spring. I am also delighted to welcome back Lost Dog's unforgettable Juliet & Romeo after it's incredible national and international success. In the summer, our theatre is always filled with tomorrow's professionals - the graduating students from London Contemporary Dance School, and young people who come here for weekly classes or attend our Centre for Advance Training. Their creativity, skill and passion are inspirational. '
Highlights of the season include:
Seeta Patel and her new interpretation of the iconic ballet, The Rite of Spring in the classical Indian dance style Bharatanatyam (17&18 MAY)
Lost Dog's Juliet & Romeo returns after extensive and hugely successful touring. The performances at The Place this summer will be the last chance for London audiences to catch Olivier-nominated choreographer Ben Duke performing in this work (18 – 22 JUN)
A Festival of Korean Dance returns showcasing some of Korea's most exciting dance companies. This year will feature Modern Table, Goblin Party and Art Project Bora (31 MAY, 4&7 JUN)
The Place performing at Latitude Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe
Summer is the highlight of London Contemporary Dance School's performance calendar. On 22 & 23 May, Developing Artistic Practise students Greta Gauhe, Alicja Nauman and Shelley Owen will present new works of postgraduate choreography.
On 24 & 25 May, EDGE Dance Company are hosting an International Exchange sharing a show with postgraduate dancers from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (24 MAY) and offering the stage to Verve, the postgraduate company of Northern School of Contemporary Dance (25 MAY).
Later in June, EDGE Dance Company will bring the triple bill of works by Hagit Yakira, Fabio Liberti and Jorge Crecis they have been touring internationally this year back to their home grounds The Place (25 – 27 JUN) and from 5 – 12 JUN, this years' London Contemporary Dance School graduates will perform the best of student choreography developed this year (5 Jul) as well as new works created in collaboration with invited artists, including Holly Blakey, Samir Kennedy, Eve Stainton & Florence Peake and marikiscrycrycry (9 – 12 JUL).
Our Partner School Programme, now in its third year, keeps on growing, helping us to realise our vision to connect young people living and learning in Camden with dance as makers, performers and audience members. This year, across two nights, we welcome over 450 local children from our nine Partner Schools to share their creative work in performance pieces created by our professional dance artists (8 & 9 May).
And lastly, in August, The Place's Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) which selects performers aged between 11 - 18 for their exceptional potential in dance, will present an entertaining and inspiring evening showcasing the incredible training they receive throughout the year and during an intensive week of working creatively with professional artists (3 AUG)
Duets will open and play a part throughout the summer season: In Both, Two, Vera Tussing and Esse Vanderbruggen explore the form of the duet and research the limits of human comprehensibility. What does it mean nowadays to be two together? How do we look at each other? How do we allow ourselves to be seen? (11 MAY)
The Way You Look (at me) Tonight is a sensory journey for two performers and the audience. Leading UK disabled artist Claire Cunningham and international choreographer and performer Jess Curtis return to work together a decade after they were first introduced. They will dance, sing and tell stories combining performance, original music, and video to wrestle (sometimes literally) with important questions about our habits and practices of perceiving each other and the world. (14&15 MAY)
An extraordinary encounter between an Inuk elder and a Spanish dancer is promised by No Woman's Land. In this duet, dance artists Avatâra Ayuso and Inuk elder Naulaq LeDrew explore the migration experiences that took them away from their native lands, digging deep into their cultural traditions, histories, humour, prejudices and fears. No Woman's Land, part of Border Crossings' ORIGINS Festival celebrating its 10th year, was developed through research work among Inuit communities in the Arctic, who have a cultural bond with landscapes and waterscapes that has been disrupted by colonization (14&15 JUN).
In an exciting flirtation between East and West, award-winning choreographer and performer Seeta Patel will re-imagine the iconic ballet, The Rite of Spring in the classical Indian dance style Bharatanatyam. To the backdrop of Stravinsky's epic score, six outstanding dancers will perform in a show bridging two very technical art forms: Western classical music and Indian classical dance. The old tale of ritual sacrifice and the birth of new life will receive a transformative re-telling
through intricate rhythmic footwork, expressive prowess, geometric, dynamic movement and lighting and costume design of beautiful sumptuous colours and textures. (17&18 MAY)
Finely crafted dance submerged in experimental soundscapes makes up BROUHAHA, Lola Maury's latest show. The multi-layered experience mixing voice, multi-channel composition and movement draws inspiration from rituals and carnivals.
The Place are delighted to be collaborating again with London's Korean Cultural Centre to present A Festival of Korean Dance for the second year running. This year's carefully curated week-long festival offers audiences the rare chance to see acclaimed artists performing in the UK for the first time ever. This year's festival opens with the thrilling virtuoso male dance company Modern Table who mix stage musical, traditional Korean Pan-sori, rock and hip-hop into their very own unique style that transgresses borders between genres. Sok-do (Velocity) creates drama through different rhythms, playing with fast and slow speeds, tension and relaxation, displaying extraordinary physical prowess driven by the sounds of live Ajaeng music (31 MAY).
Choi X Kang Project from Seoul are looking for intuitive ways to create motion through diverse experiments connecting external devices to the body. Duo Choi Min-sun and Kang Jin-an skillfully employ a video camera in a smart, humorous fusion of the virtual and the real in Complement (4 JUN).
Goblin Party has performed nationally and internationally using a traditional Korean monster goblin as its symbol. Once Upon a Time aims to deconstruct and creatively retell ancient Korean stories to reconnect audiences with the humour and traditions of yesteryear (4 JUN).
The deepest feelings always show themselves in silence. SILENTIUM by Noname Sosu and Young-Hyun Choi plays cleverly with lighting and darkness to show the body as an optical illusion, a statue or a projection, a visualisation of emotions in its extreme state (4 JUN).
Art Project BORA is led by Bora Kim, who has emerged in recent years as Korea's most spotlighted choreographer. As a dance company, Art Project BORA embraces different fields such as visual arts, films, performance art, music and fashion, creating a feast of imagery for the senses.
In a double bill, Art Project BORA will present Somoo, a work on Feminism and an exploration of the female body through traditional Asian gesture and contemporary choreography.
In A Long Talk to Oneself, a collaboration with the film director Jae-Hyung Joo, Bora Kim conducts a conversation with a video of herself projected on stage, laying bare a deeply moving tenderness and fragility (7 JUN).
After touring extensively up and down the country and collecting countless 5-star reviews, award-winning dance theatre company Lost Dog return to The Place with their "smart, subversive and sexy" (The Stage) show Juliet & Romeo. A humorous and heartfelt duet about love, loss and longevity, Lost Dog reveals the real story of the star-crossed lovers: It turns out they didn't die in a tragic misunderstanding, they grew up, got married and are now in the grips of a mid-life crisis. With its blend of dance, theatre and comedy Juliet & Romeo, directed by Olivier Award nominated Ben Duke, takes on our cultural obsession with youth and our inevitable issues with longevity (18 - 22JUN).
On Sat 20 Jul, the most exciting family dance event in London returns as for one day only The Place is taken over by an explosion of dance performances and workshops especially for families. Brilliant dance performances, family dance workshops and a fun atmosphere will see our entire building jam-packed full of surprises that will entertain and inspire children and parents alike.
During the summer, The Place is taking hit shows out on the road, heading to Motherworks at Cambridge Junction on Sat 8 Jun, and joining a stellar line-up of artists at Latitude Festival in Suffolk, one of the most popular events in the British summer calendar (19 JUL). And we return to the Edinburgh Fringe in August – keep an eye on our website for more details of the much-loved shows that we're bringing to the festival.