The Place, London’s leading centre for dance performance and creation, is delighted to launch its spring 2026 season. Many of our spring artists are exploring the journeys and challenges of individuals as they seek to find their tribe – a circle of collaborators, a fellowship of support, a chosen family to lift them up and carry them through to a place of belonging. We are looking forward to exceptional circus performances with MimeLondon, RONiN, a stunning anime-inspired fusion of sword fighting and digital technology by Work Place artist Yukiko Masui, a Place debut from PCK Dance and fresh and exciting work by London Contemporary Dance School students.

"Our spring season is led by movement and celebrates the powerful stories that we tell with our bodies, without words. From Sadiq Ali’s Tell Me, which follows a young woman with HIV, to Kesha Raithatha’s The Lost Breath, exploring ancestral memory, to The Place’s own production, Yukiko Masui’s RONiN, a female samurai’s journey through the seasons of Japan, you’ll find performances which play with the different ways the body can express what words cannot. That’s why we’re delighted to be part of Let’s Dance again this year, as we celebrate the creative and expressive power of dance. " - Christina Elliot, Head of Programming and Producing

Highlights of the spring 2026 season include:

• Two highly physical circus shows by Sadiq Ali Company and Ockham’s Razor, presented as part of MimeLondon (23 JAN – 1 FEB)

• RONiN, a new collaboration between award-winning choreographer Yukiko Masui and digital artist Barret Hodgson, produced by The Place (17 APR)

• A double bill by PCK Dance, a contemporary dance company founded by James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight, both former dancers of Company Wayne McGregor (10 APR)

• ASTITVA, a powerful and evocative dance production by award-winning choreographer Jaivant Patel (3&4 MAR)

• An Over 60s Dance Platform, a celebratory showcase of groups and companies of older dancers, part of Angela Rippon’s national Let’s Dance campaign (7 MAR)

Programme of work this spring at The Place

The Place is proud to be one of the venues taking part in MimeLondon, an occasional series of curated international physical and visual theatre that promotes work that's edgy and unusual, created and performed by exceptional artists.

Acclaimed circus artist Sadiq Ali returns to The Place with Sadiq Ali Company, an emerging circus and performance company specialising in Chinese pole. After their debut show The Chosen Haram was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022, Tell Me follows a woman navigating her HIV diagnosis, her hopes, her dreams, her fears and ultimately her reality living with the virus in 2026. It seeks to challenge outdated perceptions and offers audiences a fresh perspective on the narrative around HIV today, one rooted in courage, beauty and possibility. (23 & 24 JAN)

Contemporary circus company Ockham’s Razor have been testing the boundaries of circus together for 20 years. Collaborator is an intimate duet crafted and performed by the two Artistic Directors Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney on a suspended frame and a stage. This show about creation and compromise is an irreverent, highly physical and heartfelt dive into navigating a relationship and the negotiation involved in making stuff. (29 JAN – 1 FEB)

One of the highlights of the season is the London premiere of RONiN, a new collaboration between award-winning choreographer Yukiko Masui and digital artist Barret Hodgson, produced by The Place. A captivating blend of movement and technology, RONiN creates an anime-inspired realm that merges ancient traditions with modern visual storytelling and spectacular projections. A fearless woman swordfighter faces off against powerful adversaries, challenging both herself and those who stand in her path. Inspired by the legacy of Japan's ronin – masterless samurai who lived by their own code – this performance combines dance, swordplay, and cutting-edge digital projections to tell the story of an unlikely hero navigating honour, resilience and survival in a male-dominated world. (17 & 18 APR)

PCK Dance is a contemporary dance company founded by choreographers and performers James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight, both former dancers with Company Wayne McGregor. Visceral, cinematic, and deeply human, INTO THE LIGHT is a bold double-bill where dance, live music and striking visual design collide. In VESSEL, three dancers move within sculptural constellations of LED light that pulse, black out, and reappear in shifting formations, hinting at the tension between human survival instincts in an AI-driven future.

In the Absence is a metaphor for grief, transition, and renewal. A vast mirrored floor of fragmented confetti becomes the stage for two dancers navigating memory and loss, each movement unsettling thousands of reflective pieces. (10 APR)

Work Place artist Kesha Raithatha is a fierce and boundary-pushing dancer and choreographer whose work merges the precision of Kathak with the fluidity of contemporary movement. With deep roots between the UK and India, and as Associate Director with Aakash Odedra Company, Kesha moves between worlds — both culturally and creatively. THE LOST BREATH is a bold new dance work fusing classical Indian and contemporary movement, ancestral memory, and ritual. Powerful, poetic, and deeply human. (27 MAR)

Chandenie Gobardhan is a London-based, Netherlands-born artist known for their unique movement vocabulary, a carefully curated melting pot of Bharata Natyam, street styles, and contemporary dance. Caught Again in the Net of Rebirth is a work driven by Trimurti, a layered Vedic concept of cosmogony that reflects the cyclical nature of the universe: creation, preservation, and destruction. Five dancers blend several movement traditions, embodying past, present, and future selves in one moment. Each moment becomes a crossroads where past choices meet future possibilities, reminding us that every ending is a new beginning in disguise. (28 FEB)

ASTITVA meaning existence, is a powerful and evocative dance production by award-winning choreographer Jaivant Patel, offering a rare and moving portrayal of British-Indian gay men. This ground-breaking work explores the complex realities of balancing tradition, culture, and identity, shedding light on the struggles and triumphs of navigating sexuality, cultural expectations, and love in a world that often doesn’t make space for you. (3 & 4 MAR)

Choreodrome: next steps is a double-bill of new work developed through Choreodrome, The Place’s annual residency programme. Coiled Up is a bold dance-theatre performance choreographed and directed by Bar Groisman exposing the raw, painful, and powerful realities of living with a womb. Unpacking the complexities, from pain and beauty to rage, and power, through visceral movement and bold storytelling, this striking piece confronts silence, embraces vulnerability, and reclaims embodied experience.

Akanana, Sweet Banana is an autobiographical piece by Dorine Mugisha, exploring her multi-cultural upbringing between Tanzania, France and the UK, navigating different people, places and institutions. On her journey of self-discovery and acceptance, Mugisha blends spoken word in French, English, Swahili, and Kihaya with music and movement, weaving together whacking, traditional Tanzanian dance, krump, hip-hop, and improvisation. (31 MAR)

Students of the world-leading London Contemporary Dance School are showcasing their skills in two diverse programmes this season. Percolator is a showcase by final year students with an interesting concept: to produce a new piece of work within a short rehearsal period. The resulting works in progress are striving to be spontaneous and fun. This year students will be working with artists Ceyda Tanc, Olu Alatise, and Shannelle 'Tali' Fergus.

InMixed Bill: Repertoires and Improvisation LCDS students will perform an evening of repertoire work and improvised performance. A restaging of two commissioned pieces from the previous Graduation Show by Monique Jonas and Sung Im Her are followed by a group improvisation, showcasing the extraordinary talents of our final year BA (Hons) Contemporary Dance students from LCDS. (31 OCT – 1 NOV)

The annual Peggy Hawkins Gala is The Place’s only major event for fundraising, with all profits funding our Student Services, providing access to vital support for student wellbeing and development, ranging from mental health and housing advice to physical therapy and dance science expertise. The gala brings together a bold new programme spotlighting the future of dance at LCDS, with boundary-pushing performances, special guest appearances, and powerful stories from the next generation of dance artists.

Celebrating young dancers in our borough of Camden, the annual Camden Youth Dance Festival, taking place as part of the national Let’s Dance campaign highlighting the many joyful ways that dance can benefit our physical as well as mental wellbeing, is a powerful affirmation of what dance can do: Young people aged 11-18, from schools and community groups in our neighbourhood of Camden are invited to showcase their talent on our professional stage.

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 10^th anniversary this year, speaks to the very essence of what The Place stands for and one of the highlights of the year.

And finally, The Place is proud to once again take part in Let’s Dance, the national campaign founded by Angela Rippon CBE and supported by the Sport and Recreation Alliance, to inspire the nation to embrace dance as a way to improve health, wellbeing and connection with others. This year, The Place will be hosting an Over 60s Dance Platform on our main theatre stage, celebrating and showcasing a number of groups and companies of older dancers.