The Northern School of Contemporary Dance is an international centre of excellence offering specialist, conservatoire-level contemporary dance training as a School of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama in Leeds.

Based in Leeds, City of Dance, NSCD is a hub for contemporary dance in the North of England and a School of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. For over 30 years the school has been delivering specialist conservatoire-level training to the most talented and committed students locally, nationally and internationally.

NSCD hosts just over 200 full-time students. We offer studies in contemporary dance at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate level in an intimate, supportive and creative learning environment. We focus these programmes on the development of versatile, collaborative and individual dance artists with highly tuned technical, creative and performance skills. At 75% of the whole cohort, those enrolled on the undergraduate degree course represent the largest sector of the student body. For information on full-time study, please use the links below.

History

Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) was founded in 1985 as the first conservatoire dance school within the public sector. Nadine Senior was founding Principal, and she established the school to give the young people of Leeds vocational dance training following the success of her earlier teaching work at Harehills Middle School.

Since its inception in 1985, NSCD has produced some of the UK’s leading contemporary dance artists including Akram Khan, Tom Roden, Robert Hylton, Benji Reid and Fleur Darkin.

NSCD moved into its permanent home of a former synagogue in Chapeltown in 1987 and since then it has grown into one of the UK’s leading dance training institutions. Nadine Senior MBE retired in December 2001 and was succeeded by Gurmit Hukam as Principal in January 2002.

In 2012, Janet Smith left her position of Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre to become Principal of NSCD. Well known for her inclusive dance practise and passion for developing young artists, this marked the beginning of an exciting new phase for the school.

Student life

Course locations