Press Story

8 Dec 2022

It was announced today that The Place, London’s leading centre for dance creation, education and performance, has been successful in securing world leading specialist provider funding from the Office for Students (OfS).

This funding will be instrumental in ensuring The Place can maintain and develop its world class provision of higher education in dance. It will enable The Place to invest in the London Contemporary Dance School student experience, create new courses, develop partnerships within and outside of the dance sector to share knowledge, support artists and evolve the artform through research, and to continue to advocate for creative education in the UK.

The award reflects The Place’s legacy of being at the forefront of dance for over 50 years, developing artists and alumni that have global reach and significant impact on local and international communities. It also recognises the value of The Place’s unique model of locating world class higher education provision within an organisation also engaged with performance, production, education and community engagement.

We are delighted to have received this world leading specialist provider funding which is cornerstone support for our institution as we continue to build a world with more dance. We’re grateful to the specialist provider panel for recognising the world-leading quality of not only our institution and pedagogy, but our visionary London Contemporary Dance School faculty and alumni.
Clare Connor Chief Executive of The Place

I am delighted that The Place’s innovative ownership and provision has been recognised for the effective way it uses its funding, the expertise of its staff and its international relationships to deliver a world-class education to its students as well as playing an important role in the development of contemporary dance.
Sir Nigel Carrington

The Place has an unrivalled presence in the dance industry’s ecology. Student experience is at the heart of what London Contemporary Dance School offers - the opportunity to engage with artists and makers helps to unlock the potential of students.  The passion and drive that the school has, to create artists who can be our next generation of changemakers in their respective industries, is one that I fully support. This funding will help the organisation grow into a key player in the European and international dance scene
Hofesh Shechter

The Place is a global institution that delivers a distinctive, relevant and bold curriculum that prepares students with the skills to forge futures across a variety of different creative and cultural industries. Smaller, specialist institutions are a hugely important part of diverse UK higher education and its brilliant that The Place and London Contemporary Dance School have been awarded this funding.
Gordon McKenzie CEO of GuildHE

World leading specialist provider funding was launched by the OfS to provide support for small-scale world leading higher education institutions. These institutions offer specialist training and educational courses, with graduates going on to have significant, demonstrative impact on societies and economies across the globe.