School partnerships

2023-24 onwards

Our partnership with Barking Abbey supports the progression of young dancers aged 16-18 years across the Barking and Dagenham area.

The partnership seeks to develop the technical, creative and performance skills of young dancers, bridging the gap between Secondary School and Higher Education studies in Dance.

In 2023-24 we delivered a programme of sessions focused upon developing technical dance skills, before commissioning Choreographer Nafisah Baba to create a new dance work with the students for performance in the Laban Theatre. Additionally students will visit us for Dance Science workshops with our BSc Dance Science specialist staff.

Trinity Laban are an HE partner of Barking Abbey Dance Academy alongside Boy Blue, Middlesex University and The Place.

The dancers were so engaged, really open minded to the different ways of moving through the space which they were unfamiliar of, and really gave all their energy to the session. Excited for what next week will bring already.

Barking Abbey Dance Teacher

Trinity Laban run weekly after-school dance classes with Dagenham Park School, to offer a progression route for secondary-aged dancers who show potential in dance.

Classes are hosted at Dagenham Park CE School and are open to young people across the borough to enable access to dance locally.

Trinity Laban is supporting Deptford Green’s aspiration to build dance where there is currently little or no dance provision.

We have delivered Dance CPD for School teachers to support the development of dance within P.E. Dance workshops for all KS3 pupils through a Cross-Curricular day got students excited about dance, and involvement in performance projects, including Hope 4 Justice, have sought to develop student’s skills. Most recently we ran a Hip-Hop after-school club to progress student engagement.

The school has also engaged frequently with our music activities, and taken part in Live at Trinity Laban collaborative music/dance projects.

[Your dance artist] was so fantastic with the students. Not one child sat out, everyone was totally stuck into it!!

Jillie Pritchard, Director of Primary & Community Outreach

Composer Nathen Durasamy, a graduate of Trinity Laban and GCSE Music composition tutor for Junior Trinity, has run weekly sessions for young composers as part of Leigh Academy Blackheath’s enrichment programme.

15 young composers collaborated with him to create two brand-new pieces of music for a St Alfege Church concert on 7 March 2024. These were premiered by an ensemble of over 60 Trinity Laban and school string players, conducted by Head of Strings Nic Pendlebury.

Isolated Moments is a musical exploration within London’s bustling life. [It] captures… the vibrant energy and cultural richness that London offers.

Student programme notes

What a wonderful experience to give to students at schools. To see students at Trinity Laban who are on the edges of becoming professional musicians, and to see that next step, and to work alongside that and to write for people at that stage – I think what an awesome opportunity for them.

Nathen Durasamy, composer

School partners: Harris Academy Peckham, Haberdashers Hatcham College, Thomas Tallis School and Eltham Hill School.

This new two-year partnership programme launched in November 2023 to support young string players in local boroughs.

Following an interactive schools’ tour by Sinfonia Strings, the project continues with TL students supporting school ensembles. All four schools appeared side-by-side with Sinfonia Strings in a successful public concert at St Alfege Church, on 7 March 2024 and will have opportunities to attend further performances at Trinity Laban.

Working with the Trinity Laban musicians has been incredible because it’s given me an experience of what it’s like to be in a professional environment musically, and I think that’s really important in thinking about careers in music.

School student

To get our students out to able to participate in projects I think is really, really important – both because they get to see their peers across different schools in London… and also because they’re working with fantastic musicians, so it’s something out of the ordinary and that is very motivational for them.

School Head of Music

Trinity Laban music students are in residence throughout the 2023-24 school year on a termly basis, with an inspirational programme of assemblies, clubs, workshops and visits to encourage music-making and musical aspirations, embedding music into the life of the school.

I want to do music as my job!

St Alfege pupil

Having Eve with us has really given the children a different approach and view of music enabling them to see it as a career not just a hobby. Eve’s expertise gave the school a deeper level of understanding into a genre that many of the children have little exposure to. She has initiated our school choir on firm foundations!

Rebecca Hilton, Music Lead

Trinity Laban works annually with St Matthew Academy, offering expert provision in dance styles that extends the work of the Schools’ specialist teacher and enhances their existing dance provision to further progress students’ skills.

Annual dance projects have included performance projects such as Hope 4 Justice. More recently students worked with a Trinity Laban Dance Artist to create a Hip Hop piece for performance at School.

The school have also previously taken part in Live at Trinity Laban collaborative music and dance projects.

It was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! The students had a really incredible experience and the feedback from them and from their teachers and parents was utterly wonderful! It really was one of most exciting projects that we have been involved in! …….has made such a difference to how the students feel about themselves within the creative arts. They are still talking about it now and are eager to get involved in more of the events that we are running within the department.

Kit Smith, Dance Teacher

In Autumn 2019 Trinity Laban embarked on a 3 year-long formal partnership with Thomas Tallis School, based in Kidbrooke, Greenwich, working across music and dance with students from Year 7 through to A Level.

Music

Trinity Laban Music Students became embedded in the development of the school orchestra, projects focusing on composing took place, and school students were exposed to a range of performances and open rehearsals. Across 2023/24, Trinity Laban continues to work closely with Thomas Tallis School, including on the Side-By-Side Strings programme.

They’re always really professional, they’re always really kind, they’re just really good musicians and they’re really great for young people to work with. They understand how to work with people younger than themselves.

Martin McCarrick, Curriculum Leader for Music

Dance

In dance, Thomas Tallis students have participated in choreography workshops to support GCSE/ A Level coursework, a performance project with a professional dance artist from Trinity Laban, and we continue to support boys’ engagement in dance through joint projects and interventions.

The project went so, so well – thanks so much! The students are loving it!

Thomas Tallis Dance Teacher

Bringing together Year 9 music students from Thomas Tallis School and older adults from Trinity Laban’s Inspired not Tired programme, in our Symphony Unwrapped project the participants worked together to discuss and reflect on issues of place and identity in the compositions of Grace Williams and Elizabeth Maconchy.

This led to the group creating their own pieces of music featured in this film, which was shown alongside Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra’s concert performance of the music at Blackheath Halls on 12 December 2019. The project was supported by the Association of British Orchestra’s Sirens grant scheme and the Ambache Charitable Trust, who aim to support and raise the profile of music by women composers.