(DIS)INFORMATION by Benjamin Jonsson x MA Dance: Performance streams on Nowness

(DIS)INFORMATION, a new dance film created by London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS) alum Benjamin Jonsson in collaboration with MA Dance: Performance Cohort 02, features on NOWNESS.

Benjamin Jonsson, recognised by Dazed as one of its 100 figures shaping contemporary culture, has, since graduating in 2012, built a career spanning fashion, film, and performance, working with global brands including Alexander McQueen, Versace and Moncler. His return to LCDS marked a full-circle moment.

For the students, joining the set of (DIS)INFORMATION offered a valuable opportunity to work at scale with an internationally recognised artist who once trained in the same studios as them. It stands as an example of the creative ambition and industry engagement embedded within the postgraduate programme at LCDS, and of alumni who continue to invest meaningfully in the next generation of dance artists. The film marks Jonsson’s second collaboration with MA students at LCDS, following (HERD)mentality, published on Nowness the previous year.

The film translates into movement the paradox of social media: saturated with information to the point of confusion; designed to connect, but creating distance. Dance proves a particularly resonant medium for exploring the theme. Patterned, often perfectly synchronised movement – accompanied by a dynamic beat and sleek, striking costumes – evokes an almost algorithmic satisfaction; yet the precision never fully masks the human element, which surfaces in the natural intricacies of bodies and physical demands of dance.

The quality he now achieves in his work, Jonsson notes, is a direct result of his time at LCDS:

Jonsson’s rigour creates a clarity that unlocks the full expressive capacity of movement. In the film, dance figures in its most accessible form.

“The beauty of movement is that it’s universal,” he explains. “It can convey metaphors for the human experience. Here, it was about how the online landscape separates us, rather than brings us closer. Through the manipulation of bodies – pushing and pulling against someone’s will, individuals being overtaken by a larger force – I felt I could speak to the effects of social media without having to be literal.”

Collaboration at the core of LCDS training

For MA students involved in the film, DIS(INFORMATION) offered an immersive encounter with professional-scale creation, and a practical test of how LCDS training can translate into industry contexts.

“I really feel that the MA is about discovering your artistic interests as much as it is about breaking out of boxes you may have set for yourself,” reflects MA Dance: Performance graduate Lindsay Dreyer. “It can be surprising to find the work that excites you most is something you never would’ve envisioned yourself doing.”

That openness is central to the way the project was built, too. Jonsson describes a process shaped by collaboration:

“I come in with a concept, but a lot is developed with the dancers. Some material is set, while other sections emerge through structured improvisation. I respond to people who are hungry to create, and I felt that throughout with the students.”

This exchange between choreographer and performers is where the work gains its specificity, and where students step into the current realities of professional practice.

“I was reminded of what a meticulous and incredible process performing for film is,” Dreyer recalls. “All of the impact that a movement might have can really be emphasised with film without the worry that it gets lost or doesn’t read. It’s like a duet with you and the camera that can’t really be replicated any other way.”

The ability to shift between stage and screen, ensemble and frame, is part of the broader literacy the MA develops: adaptability across mediums and confidence within them.

A training ground for contemporary practice

Both the BA and MA programmes at LCDS are designed around precisely these kinds of encounters: professional collaborations that demand rigour, adaptability, and creative ownership in equal measure. Rather than preparing students for a single pathway, they encourage them to test their practice across contexts, from live performance and screen-based work to interdisciplinary collaboration with leading artists.

The students develop not only technical readiness, but also artistic agency – the ability to enter a room, engage with a vision and shape work as it unfolds. In DIS(INFORMATION), that agency is front and centre – not just in the outcome, but in the process that produced it.