The Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at The Place, also home to London Contemporary Dance School, is based in the heart of central London. Our programme is for young people aged 11-18yrs old who have energy, commitment, potential and above all, a passion for dance.

We have two elements to our CAT at The Place: CAT Programme and CAT Associates:

Our CAT Programme
Our classes run  for 10 weeks per term, every Saturday (12.30-5.45) during term time and Tuesday (5.30-8.15) and Wednesday (5.30-7.30) after school, where you take part in fun yet challenging classes in contemporary, ballet and creative.
Tuesday and Wednesday evening classes are for those students who live in and around London. If you live outside of London, and cannot travel to The Place during the week, CAT will support you financially to attend a contemporary and ballet class in your local area. This will be pre-arranged with the CAT Management Team.

We hold three intensives per year to give our students a broad dance education programme and to experience other dance styles and genres:
The October Intensive in half term, brings in Hip-Hop, African Dance, Body Percussion, Masterclasses with Dance conservatoires and University’s, audition preparation classes and more!

The Easter and Summer Intensives are 4-6 day intensives where students come in every day and work with a professional dance artist or company to create a piece. These pieces are then performed at the end of each creation week, with the Summer Show being in the Robin Howard Theatre at The Place. The Summer Show is a big end of year celebration of all the students hard work over the year and a graduation ceremony for those who are going into Higher Education.

Additional enrichment activities
Physical Health screening and wellbeing
Individual Training Plans and Target setting
Body Conditioning and injury prevention
Theatre Trips
Connection with dance artists, choreographers, and companies
Workshops and creative opportunities

The  fee for CAT is currently £3840 per year and we are generously funded by the Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme (MDS).  Grants are awarded based on household income, which means that the training can be fully or partially funded.  This enables us to support any young person with the skills and confidence to be the next generation of future leaders in the field of dance and beyond. No previous dance experience is necessary, we look for energy, commitment, potential and passion, we actively welcome young people who have not had the opportunity to take any previous dance classes. CAT can teach you all you need to know.

CAT Associates
The CAT Associate programme is pre-CAT training provision for students who display potential during at the Admission Workshops.  CAT Associates is a stepping-stone to CAT whereby successful applicants join our mid-week classes on either a Tuesday or Wednesday after school.  This opportunity is only accessible to those students who live in or around London.

The aim of the CAT Associates is to further develop and support young people who we feel are not quite ready for the rigours of the full programme or whose other commitments do not enable them to join the full CAT programme.  Being a CAT Associate you will participate in one of our mid-week classes, gaining access to our world class teaching staff while benefitting from the support and direction of the CAT Management team.

This is an annual commitment starting each September, running across three academic terms.

CAT Associates is designed to be a springboard onto the full CAT Scheme but there is no guarantee a place will be offered. You will automatically be invited to apply at the end of the year but will be monitored throughout the academic year by our faculty. In exceptional circumstances you may be invited directly on to the programme by demonstrating qualities that we look for in a CAT student.

Fee
The cost for the CAT Associate programme is £500 for the year and includes:
Weekly contemporary and ballet classes with CAT teachers
Pastoral support from the CAT Management Team
Signposting and advice
If relevant, progression onto the CAT Programme

Bursaries are available for the CAT Associates through our outreach programme on submission on an application.

CAT Experience Day
Each year in October and April we run Experience Days where you can get a taster of what we offer on CAT and for you to see whether you would like to take your dancing a step beyond a hobby.

Admission Workshops
Our Admission Workshops for Sept 2023 are on Sat 13 & 20 May and applications are now closed.

Visit The Place CAT website and find more information on what we do.

If you are interested in finding out more then please email the team here cat@theplace.org.uk