Colossus by Stephanie Lake - a co-production with London Contemporary Dance School at The Place and Southbank Centre

Undergraduate students from the world-leading London Contemporary Dance School at The Place will perform in Colossus, an exhilarating contemporary dance performance created by Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake, performed at the Southbank Centre 25 – 27 Jun 2026. The performances, which will act as the students’ Graduation Show, marking the culmination of their educational journey at LCDS, are part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary season, a year-round programme of events exploring the future and celebrating youth culture.

First shown in 2018 at Arts Centre Melbourne, the work was met with standing ovations, five-star reviews and a rapturous response from audiences. It was listed as the Number 1 show of the year by Timeout Melbourne. The show’s video trailer has since gone viral online, reaching a global audience of over 4.3 million. Colossus’s unique and ingenious touring model has the show performed by between 45 - 65 high-level dance students in each place it is performed. With each new group the piece is revisited to allow the dancers' personalities to shine through, creating unique production at every venue. It has since toured to France, Taiwan, Germany, Canada and Australia and has been performed by over 600 dancers worldwide.

Dr Lise Uytterhoeven, Chief Academic Officer at The Place, says:

“Taking part in Colossus is a fantastic Graduation project for our final-year dance students, an opportunity to interrogate and hone their performance practice across structured improvisation, co-creation and repertoire. This collaboration with Stephanie Lake Company and the Southbank Centre has been developed through strategic collaboration between London Contemporary Dance School and The Place’s public programmes, sustaining the world-class artistic innovation of our student projects. ”

Stephanie Lake Company is a multi-award winning contemporary dance company based in Melbourne. Known for a gutsy, original choreographic style and striking visual aesthetic, Stephanie Lake Company’s highly acclaimed works include Manifesto, Monsters, Skeleton Tree, Replica and Pile of Bones. The company has performed in major festivals and venues across Australia and the world, touring internationally to France, Germany, Hong Kong, Denmark, Singapore, Scotland, Ireland and Taiwan. Stephanie Lake has won two Australian Dance Awards for Most Outstanding Choreography (Pile of Bones and AORTA), the Helpmann Award for Outstanding Choreography (A Small Prometheus) and the Green Room Award for Best Choreography (Mix Tape). She is a recipient of the prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, Australia Council Fellowship for Dance and the inaugural Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship.