The Place Announces Its 2026 Summer Season

The Place, London’s leading centre for dance performance and creation, is delighted to launch its summer 2026 season. From international festivals to artist development success stories, the programme celebrates bold voices, urgent storytelling and the power of performance to connect us. Highlights include the 9th edition of A Festival of Korean Dance, two double bills of new work developed in our studios, and a The Place debut from the award-winning Cathy Waller Company. Audience favourites Liam Francis Company and Ekleido return with previous sell-out shows, alongside a summer half-term production for families and our free Family Dance Day. Young people of all ages will take to the stage, with London Contemporary Dance School students showcasing their talent, our CAT students working with internationally acclaimed choreographers, and the youngest Camdeners stepping into the spotlight for the very first time at the Camden Primary Schools Festival.

“We’re proud that artists are using The Place’s stage to respond to the world around them. Sivan Rubinstein and Joseph Toonga are long-standing collaborators who continue to offer urgent reflections on how we relate to each other and our bodies. It’s equally exciting to see newer artists connect so quickly with audiences: Liam Francis and Ekleido return by popular demand after sell-out debuts. Keep an eye on the artists we think will follow their lead: Samara Langham, Orla Hardie, Bea Bidault and Aishwarya Raut through our Choreodrome: next steps evenings. International voices run throughout the season, from the 9th A Festival of Korean Dance and our ongoing collaboration with Queer East to Protein's work with displaced communities and artists from Hong Kong and Germany featured in our Family Dance Day.” - Christina Elliot, Head of Programming and Producing

Highlights of the summer 2026 season include:

• A Festival of Korean Dance returns for its 9th edition, with performances from Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, 99 Arts Company and a UK debut from Ryu and Friends (13 MAY – 30 MAY)
• Two Chreodrome: next steps double bills present new work created in residency at The Place (28 APR & 20 JUN)
• The award-winning Cathy Waller Company make their The Place debut with their latest work You & Us, bringing together live dance, photography and film to explore lived experiences of invisibility and identity (7 MAY)
• Audience favourites Liam Francis Company and Ekleido bring back their sell-out shows Lyre Liar (2 MAY) and Splice | Rorschach (30 APR)
• Joseph Toonga, LCDS alum and award-winning choreographer, returns to The Place with Joy Isn’t Always Joy exploring the inner struggles of Black men (27 MAY)

Programme of work this summer at The Place

The season opens with a rare London appearance by The Great Chevalier, the flamboyant Artistic Director of the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, for an evening celebrating the enduring cultural dialogue between Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. Described as the enfant terrible of contemporary folk dance, Mr. Chevalier is known for his bold artistic vision and commanding stage presence. His performances — both rare and emotionally charged — blend folkloric tradition with contemporary spectacle. The evening will feature emblematic works from the company’s repertoire, including the celebrated Pigeon Dance.

The Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg and its enigmatic director are the brainchild of Luxembourgish choreographer and Work Place Artist Simone Mousset, recipient of the Luxembourg Dance Award. Through this elaborately constructed institution — complete with its own history, repertoire and charismatic leadership — Mousset explores questions of authorship, national identity and cultural mythology. (24 APR)

Work Place Artist Sivan Rubinstein returns to The Place with a project presented in partnership with June Moon, a creative engagement company connecting academia and the arts through workshops, talks, and performances. At the heart of NOVO is the belief that the body is not separate from the universe, but an expression of it. Artist and choreographer Sivan Rubinstein explores this through her signature blend of dance and philosophy, using the Chakras to map the body and reconnect to its living portals of sensation, memory, and motion. 
A pre-show panel discussion will offer insight into Sivan’s research process, featuring collaborators Dr Sarah Fine and Ricardo Reveron Blanco, reflecting on practices of creation and collaboration, and exploring the body as a site and tool for research. An extract from her film Embodied Activism, originally presented as a three-month exhibition at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, will be screened in the bar after the performance. (2 & 3 JUN)

Joseph Toonga, LCDS alum and Artistic Director of Just Us Dance Theatre, returns to The Place with Joy Isn’t Always Joy, a raw, emotionally charged performance that explores the inner struggles of Black men. Placing vulnerability centre stage, revealing the weight carried behind humour, resilience, and strength, it confronts loneliness, pressure, and the expectation to remain composed, even when joy becomes a mask. Through moments of brotherhood and isolation, Joy Isn’t Always Joy creates space for honesty and reflection, exposes invisible wounds and unspoken truths, asking what it costs to keep smiling. (27 MAY)

Continuing our partnership with Queer East Festival, No.60 by internationally acclaimed Thai choreographer Pichet Klunchun marks the culmination of his two-decade-long research into the language of Thai traditional Khon dance. Stripping the classical form of its facemask and sequined costumes, Pichet scrutinises the 59 poses and movements in the Theppanom canon which all Thai classical dancers acquire by rote-learning and distils six core principles that reframe the 700-year-old system for a new generation, inviting critical engagement beyond mysticism and inherited narratives. Founded in 2010, Pichet Klunchun Dance Company is one of Thailand’s leading contemporary ensembles, known for reimagining classical forms through a distinctly modern lens, free of mysticism and ideological imposition of history. (19 MAY)

The Place’s flagship Festival of Korean Dance, presented in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre, is heading towards its 9th remarkable edition. The festival opens at The Place with returning company 99 Art Company presenting Abyss & Ekah, a double bill interrogating the power of art to connect and drive change. Abyss interrogates a deep, unspoken sense of sorrow and resilience. In Ekah, a female dancer and male pianist contemplate when to resist and when to confront grief. (13 MAY)

Making their UK debut after over a decade of creating dance in Korea and around the world, Ryu and Friends bring an eleven-strong ensemble to perform GRAVITY, a work about invisible forces and the relationships between all matter; the push and pull, the chaos, the harmony, the awe and the grace, of life in the universe. (15 MAY)
The Korea National Contemporary Dance Company returns with a double bill of Voyage and Hakkō. From 2025 Olivier Award nominated Young-doo Jung (Lear, Barbican), Voyage follows a solitary spacecraft, inspired by the 1977 probe that spent a lifetime venturing into the unknown, attempting to pause the present moment and lead us into a world beyond our experience. The show is accompanied by a score that includes sounds that were recorded onto a disk and sent into space with the probe. Ryu Suzuki’s Hakkō is a modern prayer to keep breathing in a world of perpetual flux, with dancers in a trance-like state of deep concentration against the intense energy of club culture and electronic music. (29 – 30 MAY)

Two audience favourites return this season due to popular demand: After his sold-out UK debut in 2025, Liam Francis Dance Company returns for a second performance of Lyre Liar. The former Rambert dancer and Dance Europe ‘Dancer of the Year’ nominee traverses his journey through dance; with excerpts pieces by Merce Cunningham, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Kate Prince. With vulnerability and wit, he unpacks the complexities of shifting identities, the toll it takes, and the questions it leaves behind. After the performance, Liam Francis will return to the stage for a conversation with Ben Duke, Artistic Director of Lost Dog, Affiliate Artist at The Place, and mentor for Lyre Liar. This discussion will delve into the themes within the piece and Liam's creative process. (2 MAY)

The exhilarating, critically acclaimed double bill Splice | Rorschach by Ekleido returns to The Place. Ekleido is a choreographic duo formed by Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser, recognised for creating dynamic work across live performance and film. Their seminal double bill, Splice | Rorschach, received widespread critical acclaim and toured extensively to major venues and festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Sadler’s Wells Breakin’ Convention and Latitude Festival. Their dance film Splice, released on NOWNESS in 2025, was nominated for a Critic’s Circle National Dance Award.

In Splice, two dancers find the balance between limitation and possibility to solve a physical puzzle. In Rorschach, three performers reimagine the iconic inkblot test, a psychological tool that emerged in the 1960s to reveal the hidden dimensions of the human psyche.
Ekleido’s unique movement language, combining contemporary dance and underground club styles including New Way Voguing, Threading and Bone-Breaking, is complimented by two original scores by world-renowned electronic musician Floating Points. (30 APR)

The Place is pleased to welcome the award-winning Cathy Waller Company to present its latest work You & Us, bringing together live dance, photography and film to explore lived experiences of invisibility and identity. These new works ask timely and urgent questions about invisibility, identity and what it truly means to be seen, revealing powerful hidden stories and placing them boldly centre stage. The live performance is accompanied by You are also Us, a 15-minute dance film directed by Waller use drone technology and performed by 15 disabled and non-disabled dancers. Unseen | Unmasked is an exhibition of photographic portraits by The1Harris. Through a series of nine images, the exhibition shares the experiences of Neurodivergence. (7 MAY)

There and Here, a project which is part of Protein’s inclusion programme, Real Life Real Dance, is a performance dedicated to people worldwide forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or disasters of climate change. During a three-week project at The Place, participants from all over the world come together to sing, dance, express their creativity and share their individual stories and collective resilience. Through a performance-led collaborative approach inspired by the participants’ lives and experiences, a performance is created. There and Here was the winner of The Stage Awards Community Project of the Year 2023. (21 MAY)

Choreodrome: next steps brings to the stage new work developed in our studios through Choreodrome, The Place’s annual residency and commissioning programme, charting a clear pathway for artists to progress from studio research to stage premiere. The Double bill: Les Nuages and Nadī presents works by Bea Bidault and Aishwarya Raut.
Les Nuages is a poignant dance performance that explores loneliness and the deep human yearning for connection that exposes vulnerability in its rawest form, asking how we can truly be real with one another.
Drawing inspiration from the natural world and the stories of female spirits, Nadī offers an evocative and abstract landscape to celebrate the strength and resilience of the many who strive for freedom. Mumbai-born Aishwarya Raut, a former company dancer with Rambert has earned critical recognition, including UK National Dance Awards nominations (2024, 2025) and was named one of Bachtrack’s 10 Rising Stars in Dance and Choreography. (20 JUN)

Choreodrome: next steps - LoonHeads and Nacre showcases work by LCDS alumni Orla Hardie and Samara Langham. Orla Hardie’s creation, the LoonHeads - distorted figures of comic and uncanny character - bring the morphing landscape of the human psyche to life. This blend of contemporary dance and physical theatre creates a playful yet poignant exploration of the contradictions and nuances that make us who we are, accompanied by an original score rich with riddles, clues, and infectious grooves.

Alum Samara Langham graduated in 2024 and already presented her work at Thames Festival and internationally in Lausanne and Paris. In Nacre, four figures move between polar forces. As they endure cycles of effort, they feel the edges, and what may exist beyond them. A dark mass moves quietly. Eyes become stars as mouths, ears, tears, and fingers are bound together.

The word ‘nacre’ describes the iridescent substance of a pearl. When a parasite enters an oyster shell, the oyster produces nacre and engulfs it. This becomes a pearl, nestled inside its own body. The pearl remains forever unknown to its maker. Lying shut on the seafloor, it never sees light. (28 APR)

Each year, the London Contemporary Dance School Student Showcase celebrates the exceptional creativity, talent, and passion of our BA students, giving audiences a glimpse of the choreographers and dance makers of tomorrow. (24 JUN)

For this year’s Graduation Show, final year students from the world-leading London Contemporary Dance School will perform in Colossus, an exhilarating contemporary dance performance created by Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake, performed at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The performances mark the culmination of the students’ educational journey at LCDS, and form part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary season, a year-round programme of events exploring the future and celebrating youth culture. (25 – 27 Jun)

Inspired by the poetry of Sufi mystic Rumi and the mesmerising whirling dervishes, Ceyda Tanc Dance and Theatre Fideri Fidera’s evim [my home] follows three wanderers on a journey to discover belonging — in places, with people, and within themselves. This magical, interactive performance invites child and their families to twirl, whirl and wonder together, exploring the meaning of home through dance, music and playful imagination. Blending captivating movement with enchanting music, this non-verbal, sensory-rich production offers a joyful introduction to dance theatre for young audiences. (23 MAY)

The annual Family Dance Day returns with a full programme of free performances and activities for children of all ages and their grown-ups. Taking place outdoors in close by Coram’s Field, the event features live performances designed to introduce families to dance in accessible and imaginative ways. This year’s line-up includes No Sugar No Milk, an exhilarating outdoor spinoff of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit by The TS Crew, channelling Hong Kong's cinematic stunts into a vibrant urban adventure of physical theatre, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. BUGs! by Lea Anderson is a playful series of short dances performed by giant insect characters, presenting a series of funny, funky short dances inspired by insect dance moves – from the honeybee’s waggle dance to the ant’s tremble dance; and Prisma is a dance work inspired by children’s books, created by German-based choreographer Rotem Weissman. (18 JUL)

The Place's annual Youth Dance Platform highlights the best of youth dance from across London and the Southeast, showcasing an exciting mix of styles in an evening of inspiring dance created with, by, and for young people. (9 MAY)

The youngest Camdeners take to the stage in our ever-popular Camden Primary School Festival, a culmination of ten weeks of dance in primary schools in Camden. The Place is working with 21 local primary schools, engaging children in a dynamic programme of creative dance activities to spread the joy of dance and empower teachers with the skills and confidence to incorporate dance into their school’s curriculum for the long term. The Partner Schools programme, heading towards its 10th anniversary this year, speaks to the very essence of what The Place stands for and one of the highlights of the year. (7 & 8 JUL)

And finally, the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) students at The Place are proud to present their annual end of year Summer Show, this year premiering works created with incredible artist such as Ballet Boyz, Jordan James Bridge. Mark Bruce Company and Hofesh Shechter Company (1 AUG).