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The Playground is a free platform for professional artists to come together and share the space with

The Playground is the initiative of Rambert dancer Simone Damberg Würtz, and this page is run by The Playground Τeam which consists of Simone, alongside Rambert dancer Nancy Nerantzi and former Rambert dancer Julia Gillespie. Professional artists can download a sign-up form here:
rambert.org.uk/Playground-sign-up-form-Word rambert.org.uk/Playground-sign-up-form-pdf

25/10/2026

A look back at Friday 23 October at The Playground 🍂

Another wonderful evening of creativity, exploration, collaboration and connection.

A huge thank you to our brilliant choreographers, vocalist and musician .dances .me.lin & Steve Ashmore, for sharing their ideas, artistry and energy with us, and to everyone who joined in and brought the studios to life.

Special thanks to .danesh for Taking Over, to the wonderful Playground team .white Reception and 🤍

And of course, to our incredible community — thank you for continuing to show up, create, support and inspire one another. Nine years on, and The Playground is still growing because of you! 🫶

See you on 13 November for our anniversary! ✨

22/10/2026

✨ MARITA SANGUINETTI IS BACK ✨

Next up at The Playground, we’re delighted to welcome Marita Sanguinetti Marita Sanguinetti back with her session:

BREATHING SPACE – Recovering Our Unique Charismatic Being

In the beautiful Kleinwort — with its view of the National Theatre all lit up like a Rothko painting— in dim lights — we will create an intimate, living piece that will evolve as we bring it to the sharing space.

There are places in your life that, when you go there, you feel well and happy — you just feel fully.

There are places like that in your very being. That is where your high sense of esteem lies. Your somewheres to what is innately yours — your charismatic being.

Beginning with self-regulation through pure dance — grounding, release and connection — through movement, breath and imagination —
A deeply sensitive, sensory and playful exploration of self-confidence and self-esteem, as dancers and as people in everyday life.
An invitation to heighten our frequency and reclaim our charisma by elevating our self-esteem. Because the fine art of Dance is Joy.

Expect an intimate, joyful and powerful session — working with what reveals itself in the moment — with final sharing.

Everyone is welcome!

“It is a performance, but don’t perform. Dance, talk to me — and people will lean in.”

Marita is a fine artist, choreographer, dance artist and researcher with over 30 years of experience, bringing together movement, performance art and her practices of Meditation Dance, Self-Regulation and Breathing Space.
What we do in dance is what we do in life. How do we stay present, connected and open to the world around us?

20/10/2026

✨ MEET C(P)LAY! ✨

Next up at The Playground, we’re excited to welcome C(P)LAY (pronounced clay) c_p_l_a_y_ a London-based contemporary performance collective founded by dance artists Christina Lai and Yvonne Wang.

Working as a female-led Asian duet, C(P)LAY explores human behaviour, connection and the ways we influence one another through movement, partnering and structured improvisation.

For this session, they’ll be sharing material from a new work currently in development! 💫
Expect to learn choreography, experiment with texture, speed, rhythm and dynamics, and discover how movement can transform through repetition and collaboration.
From individual exploration to group formations, this is a chance to play, challenge familiar movement habits and discover new possibilities together.

✨ Open to dancers and movement practitioners of all backgrounds and levels. There is no single right way to move — bring your curiosity and willingness to play!

📸 Photo credits: Sifan Dai & Katie Ho

16/10/2026

✨ MARTHA THOMPSON IS BACK! ✨

Next up at The Playground, we’re excited to welcome back choreographer Martha Thompson Martha Thompson, vocalist Emmélin (Emma Sand) Emmélin and musician Steve Ashmore for an exploration of movement, voice and RAGE! 🔥

Martha Thompson – London-based dance artist and choreographer creating theatrical, punchy work through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Emmélin (Emma Sand) – Multidisciplinary artist, musician and composer working across contemporary and experimental music.
Steve Ashmore – Musician, performer and producer with extensive experience collaborating with dance artists and companies.

What happens when we allow ourselves to express the emotions we’re so often encouraged to suppress?

Continuing Martha’s choreographic research, this session explores how movement and voice can come together to express and release rage, reconnecting us with our primal instincts and the physical power of emotion.
Through vocal warm-ups and breathwork led by Emma, we’ll explore the different stages of anger in the body, building through improvisation towards a cathartic release.

Expect bold movement, raw expression and choreography driven by Steve’s gritty, hard-hitting LIVE MUSIC! 🎸🥁

A chance to make noise, move freely and discover what happens when we give our bodies and voices permission to let go!

📸 Photo: Cath Dupuy Cath Dupuy

09/10/2026

✨ BOOKINGS IS NOW OPEN! ✨

Join us for another evening of creativity, exploration and collaboration at The Playground!

An open space for artists to connect, experiment, take risks and share ideas, led by inspiring choreographers and brought to life by everyone in the room.

📅 Friday 23 October 2026 ⏰ 18:30–21:00 📍 Rambert Rambert , London Southbank

Whether you’re a familiar face or joining us for the first time, we can’t wait to welcome you into the studios!
 Spaces are limited, so book your place via the link in our bio.

See you on the Playground! 💛

Image by Playgrounder and Photographer Dominic Farlam Dominic Farlam 📸

16/09/2026

✨ ADÉL BÁLINT & WILLIAM SOUTH ✨

This Friday at The Playground, Adél Bálint Adél Bálint is back and will explore the human desire to always want something more, constantly moving towards the next thing while struggling to stay present.

We want what we don’t have, and once we have it, we begin to want something else. We leave places, people and moments behind, only to miss them once they’re gone — caught between what we’ve lost, what we have now, and what we imagine might come next.

Working with a small group through improvisation, play and physical tasks, Adél will explore wanting, chasing, resisting, being stuck, leaving and returning. Playing with instinct, repetition, following, attraction and avoidance, dancers will explore the tension between wanting to stay and wanting to move.

Adél is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Trained at the Hungarian Dance Academy, she has danced with Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, Pécs Ballet and Győr Ballet, worked on projects with Hofesh Shechter Company, and spent eight years with Rambert. Her choreography has been presented at The Place, Rambert and, most recently, Győr Ballet.

Joining Adél is William South William South a composer and musician whose career spans nearly 40 years across TV, film and live performance. Following his work as co-composer and musical director on Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man, William has specialised increasingly in contemporary dance and ballet, working with organisations including English National Ballet and Trinity Laban.

Together, Adél and William will explore the relationship between movement, rhythm, musicality and impulse — and that very human feeling of always reaching for what comes next.

📍 The Playground at Rambert 📅 Friday 18 September 🕡 6:30–9pm

The session is currently fully booked, but you can join the waiting list via the link in our bio.

14/09/2026

✨ MARIE CHABERT, TOMMY KHOSLA, RICH THORNTON & MIA OSTINELLI ✨

This Friday at The Playground, Marie Chabert Marie Chabert will be exploring rest, dreaming and collective imagination through Contact Improvisation, somatic exploration and devising, with pillows as the starting point. ☁️💭

Beginning from a somatic dreaming state, dancers will tune into weight, touch, sensation and imagery — exploring floating, collective rest, and bodies gathering and stacking in space.
From there, the group will explore the physical properties of pillows and how their weight, texture and density might echo, alter or extend our own physicality. Through Contact Improvisation and choreographic tasks, they’ll play with pillows and bodies in motion — throwing, catching, bouncing, falling and suspending — developing both improvisational scores and set choreography.

💭 How might our bodies collectively dream, rehearse or embody possible futures?

Marie Chabert is a performer, choreographer, Contact Improviser and teacher whose multidisciplinary practice explores touch, space, bodies, gravity and liveness through somatic and experiential approaches.

Joining Marie is Tommy Khosla Tommy Khosla , sitarist, composer and founder of interdisciplinary collective JAWARI; Rich Thornton Richard J Thornton , artist, anthropologist and theatre director, bringing together anthropology, theatre and body-focused storytelling; and Mia Ostinelli Mia Ostinelli supporting the research through assistant dance and photography.

Together, they’ll bring these different practices into the studio for an evening of movement, music, experimentation and collective dreaming. ☁️

📍 The Playground at Rambert 📅 Friday 18 September 🕡 6:30–9pm

The session is currently fully booked, but you can join the waiting list via the link in our bio.

Image credit | Adam T Deen | Moe Matoba Moe Matoba |

12/09/2026

✨ STEPHANIE BURRELL & MICHAEL MENDONES ✨

For our first PLAYGROUND back after the summer break, we’re delighted to welcome Stephanie Burrell Steph 🔐 & Michael Mendones Michael Mendones into the space!

Stephanie is a conceptual artist working across dance, theatre and film, and together with Michael they will be exploring the choreographic and thematic elements of ‘Gregor’, a film sequence from Michael Mendones’ (be)longing.

Inspired by Kafka’s The Trial and Metamorphosis, ‘Gregor’ moves between system and anomaly — exploring bureaucratic repetition, social absurdity, and the tension between internal logic and external misunderstanding through surreal movement and cyclical choreography.

Michael describes himself as an “accidental dance filmmaker”, exploring the outer reaches of human emotion by fusing music, text and movement. His 2023 film Oscillations explored bipolar disorder, while (be)longing (2026) explores late autism diagnosis and the neurodivergent experience.

In the studio, expect to learn choreographic material alongside task-based generative phrases, giving you the freedom to make the movement as complex or as simple as you wish. Some material will play with proprioceptive awareness, but adaptation is very much welcomed.

✨ All levels of movers are welcome.
And there’s a rather lovely full-circle moment behind this collaboration: Stephanie and Michael first connected at The Playground, when Stephanie approached Michael to compliment his musical accompaniment. Now, she is developing ‘Gregor’ further as part of her own work — with Michael returning to support her exploration in the very space where they first met. 💥

📅 Friday 18 September ⏰ 18:30–21:00 📍 Rambert

SEE YOU AT THE PLAYGROUND 🤍

04/09/2026

WE’RE BACK! 💥✨

Summer break is officially OVER and The Playground is back in the studios! 🕺🔥

Our September Playground is coming and BOOKING IS NOW OPEN! 🎉

📅 Friday 18 September 2026 ⏰ 18:30–21:00 📍 Rambert, London 🎟️ FREE — booking via Momence link in BIO

We’ve missed you and we cannot WAIT to play, create, experiment and be back together again. ❤️

⚡ This session is limited to just 70 artists, so grab your spot!

SEE YOU AT THE PLAYGROUND! 💥

Image by the late photographer Elliott Franks Elliott Franks 🕊️

30/08/2026

In November 2017, The Playground was just beginning.

These photographs were taken at our very first session by photographer Elliott Franks, who sadly is no longer with us 🕊️

Founder Simone Simone Damberg Würtz still remember Elliott looking at her during that very first Playground when moving from space to space to capture it all and saying, “This is bonkers.” ❤️

And we think he was right. There was something a little bonkers about it, a room full of artists coming together to experiment, create, take risks and play, with no real idea of what The Playground might become.

It’s special to be able look back at these, before we could ever have known how many artists would pass through the doors, how many connections would be made, or how many moments of creativity and play would follow.

We feel incredibly lucky to have these photographs and that Elliott was there to document that first chapter of our story, and we will be forever grateful.

Thank you, Elliott, for capturing the beginning and for being part of it. May you rest in peace.
Elliott will always be part of The Playground’s history❤️

📸 Elliott Franks The first ever Playground — 10th November 2017

Address

99 Upper Ground
London
SE19PP

Opening Hours

6:30pm - 9pm

Telephone

+442086300600

Website

http://rambert.org.uk/playground

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