Centre for Advanced Training
Course details
Introduction
Are you aged 12-17 and see your future in dance? Are you ready to commit to an intensive programme of training to take your dancing to the next level?
The Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at Trinity Laban is for young people with talent and potential in dance. It gives you the opportunity to access high quality intensive dance training in a supportive, nurturing environment.
You’ll be taught by a highly experienced team of professional dance teachers and artists. We create an environment where every student feels welcomed and represented, where you can bring your whole self to the studio.
The CAT programme creates inspired, versatile dancers with strong technical knowledge and creative skills. We prepare you for further training and a career in dance, if that’s the right choice for you. To learn more, hear from our current CAT students about life at the Trinity Laban CAT programme, and watch a short film about CAT at Trinity Laban below.
Key Features
On the CAT programme, you will take classes in contemporary dance, ballet, and hip-hop. You’ll develop your physicality, facility and technical skills, your creativity, performance qualities and approach to working in dance, enabling you to be the very best you can be.
The Centre for Advanced Training at Trinity Laban is set up to:
- Actively seek out and identify talented and motivated young people who have the potential for a career in dance.
- Provide a challenging and supportive programme that nurtures you as a reflective performer and creative artist.
- Develop your understanding of your own physical potential so you can work safely.
- Extend your cultural experience through practical classes and a range of visits to see professional dance work in a range of genres and contexts.
- Collaborate with Junior Trinity to establish a vital link between dance and music students within the Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme.
- Provide information about further dance training and higher education so that you can make informed decisions about future career choices and pathways.
Trinity Laban CAT alumni graduate to a diverse range of roles in the arts and other industries. 88% of our Year 13 students graduate to Higher Education and vocational dance training. Keeping in touch with us and other CAT Alumni means you will be part of a growing community who have shared the unique Trinity Laban CAT experience. It is an effective way to keep in contact, network and find out about dance industry opportunities. Hear from our alumni about their CAT experience.
CAT is part of the Music and Dance Scheme, a national programme funded and developed by the Department for Education. For more information about the national scheme, please visit National Dance CATs website.
Key Facts
- Duration
- Minimum 1 year
- Location
- Laban Building
- Start Date
- September 2025
Key Dates
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Open Day (1) - booking opens in Autumn Term
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Open Day (2)
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Auditions for September 2025 intake (applications open in Spring 2025. All applicants receive an audition place)
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Programme timings
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Training dates
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Masterclasses
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Audition toolkit for year 13 students
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Assessments
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Four days working with choreographers to create new work for performance
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Two days of performance in the Laban Theatre
Detailed Information
Each Saturday, you will take technical classes in Contemporary, Ballet, and / or Hip Hop and creative classes to develop your choreographic and creative skills.
You will also participate in Performance Enhancement (PEn) sessions to support your technical and creative training. You’ll work on stamina and fitness levels; muscular strength and conditioning; alignment and control and body and anatomical awareness.
Physiotherapist support is available to students working with injuries.
Across the year you will also participate in:
- Creative workshops and masterclasses. You’ll be encouraged to be imaginative, innovative, and take creative risks in dance.
- Choreomission, our student-led choreographic project.
- Career and training pathway information sessions.
- Visits to see professional dance work in a range of genres and contexts.
- Termly sharings of work for peers, family and friends.
- Professional projects, creating new work with Choreographers for performance in the Laban Theatre with rehearsal directors, lighting designers, costume designers.
Catch a glimpse of our professional projects here.
Artists and companies CAT students have worked with in previous years include:
Alexander Whitley, Ali Curtis-Jones, André Fabien Francis, Arthur Pita, Bim Malcomson, Darren Ellis, Double Vision, Joshua Nash for Far From The Norm, Fernanda Prata, Freddie Opoku-Addaie, Hofesh Shechter Dance Company, Ihsaan de Banya, James Cousins Company, James Wilton, Jess & Morgs, Joss Arnott, Kenneth Tharp, Lea Anderson, Lee Smikle, Lost Dog, Luke Birch, Luke Brown, Mafalda Deville, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Nigel Charnock, Patricia Okenwa, Russell Maliphant Company, Sarah Dowling, Sarah Golding, Sarah Linstra, Seke Chimutengwende, Shobana Jeyasingh, Studio Wayne McGregor, Tavaziva Dance, Tina Krasevec, Sophie Thorpe for Tom Dale Company, Tough Boys Dance Collective, Uchenna Dance, Vidya Patel, VOXED and Yolanda Newsome.
Hear from Helen Lefevre, whose daughter has recently graduated from us:
“From Day One, my daughter had a new family. A group of talented peers to work alongside of, inspirational teachers, and a fearless course director whose vision for her students saw them viewing and being trained by leading lights in contemporary dance, from Hofesh Shechter to Henri Oguike, Random Dance to Matthew Bourne. I have seen my daughter perform at the Royal Festival Hall, the Bonnie Bird theatre and the Place. I have witnessed her grow from an enthusiastic dancer into a thoughtful, consummate professional.
Balancing the needs of academic demands with training 3 times a week instilled time management skills many adults would be proud of, alongside the emotional literacy that comes with belonging to a dance company. The training offered new and creative ways to interpret her academic subjects. This September, my daughter started dual honours in English and Philosophy. She will always be a dancer. Thanks to CAT, she has gone to university knowing what it is to be creative, to perform, to communicate through a medium other than words. Thank you to everyone involved with this remarkable scheme, may it go on and offer many more young people the opportunity to dance.”
Entry Requirements
We welcome students with varying dance experience, gained in formal or informal settings. You should be highly motivated, eager to develop new skills and ready for a long-term commitment to an intensive programme of regular dance training.
Trinity Laban is committed to encouraging more boys and young men to get involved in dance. We have a high percentage of boys on the CAT programme and actively encourage them to apply for the scheme.
Open Days
Open Days are a chance to find out more about the CAT programme. You will participate in a practical dance session. This is followed by a presentation and Q&A for parents / guardians. Open Days are free to attend. Bookings for Open Days open in the Autumn 2024.
Auditions
Your auditions will consist of a practical class involving contemporary technique, hip-hop technique, and creative tasks. There will also be an opportunity to meet the CAT teachers and ask questions about the programme. You won’t need to prepare anything ahead of auditioning.
Applications for Auditions will open in Spring 2025. All applicants receive an audition place.
Once you have submitted your application, you will be sent a confirmation email with your audition date. If you cannot attend your allocated audition date, please contact cat@trinitylaban.ac.uk asap.
If you’d like to be notified when our applications open, please complete this short form.
For queries about the CAT programme or application support, please contact cat@trinitylaban.ac.uk.
Key dates
- Saturday 8 March 2025: Open Day (1) – booking opens in Autumn Term
- Saturday 24 May 2025: Open Day (2)
- Sunday 8 June 2025 & Sunday 22 June 2025: Auditions for September 2025 intake (applications open in Spring 2025. All applicants receive an audition place)
Bursaries and Fees
Fees cover all of the student’s dance training fees, including Saturday and weekday classes (if relevant), theatre trips and CAT merchandise.
Payments can be made in one lump sum or eight monthly instalments between September–April.
CAT is funded by the Department for Education as part of its Music and Dance Scheme. Financial support is available for each student to cover the cost of tuition, and in some cases travel, subject to residence conditions, age, and means testing based on family income. You can visit the National CAT website for the full funding and fee breakdown.
The full amount of grant for the school year September 2024–July 2025 is £4,139.
It is free to participate in CAT if your total relevant household income is £34,037.12 or less in the tax year ended 5 April 2024. The MDS bursary covers the students CAT fees.
If your family income is more than £34,037.13, you will receive a smaller bursary and may have to contribute to the cost of CAT programme. Families earning over £74,883.13 pay the full fees of £4,139 per year.
Trinity Laban bursaries are available to support part-MDS bursary holders and full fee payers with some costs.
Parents/Guardians of pupils accepted onto the Centre for Advanced Training are requested to fill out the Music and Dance Scheme’s means testing form to assess whether their child/dependent is eligible for a full or partial grant.
If you would like any more information about CAT fees and finances, please contact Niesha Holder at N.Holder@trinitylaban.ac.uk.
Access and Support Needs
The CAT Programme is suitable for young people with moderate access and support needs such as autism, a learning disability and/or neurodiversity up to 25 years old.
Working with young people and their families, we implement reasonable adjustments to support you to access and participate in CAT.
We ask families to disclose information about access and support needs when students enrol. We may then contact families for further information, and implement reasonable adjustments as required. This might include Assistant support, use of communication tools, adjustment to timetables, use of quiet zones/ breakout spaces in the building, reducing the potential for sensory overload etc.
Our building is wheelchair accessible.
CAT in Schools
As part of the CAT, Trinity Laban is committed to delivering an extensive outreach programme to identify potential in younger children and guide them towards appropriate dance training to nurture their potential and help prepare them to audition for the CAT if they wish.
Find out about our schools workshop and project offer here.
Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company
A performance company of creative, committed 12-18 year old dancers.
Youth Dance Day
A free day of dance, with activities for beginner and experienced dancers in school years 7-11.