Teerachai Thobumrung, first year BA Hons student from Thailand, talks about his first year at the School:
"I started dancing three years ago, mainly ballet and contemporary. I'd heard about the School's reputation before I arrived so I was expecting hard work, which is what I've experienced here. I thought the teachers would be really tough, and they are but they also look at you as an individual, give you options and support you in your choices.
Since joining LCDS I have learnt Cunningham, ballet, release and some Kathak based techniques. Studying different dance styles is really fun and although you learn a different way of moving, there are some things similar between the styles. Because I came from Thailand to London it's nice to see a lot of people from different cultures, in my class we have students from the UK, the rest of Europe, the USA, Canada and Asia. As an International student you don't feel as different from one another as you would think, we respect each other even though we are from totally different cultures. Everyone in the class moves in a different way and you learn from their experience.
The school is in a great location, very easy to get to and it's very central so you can see a lot of London, it's nice to explore different forms of art as well as dance. I've always thought that it's really nice we have the Robin Howard Dance Theatre right here at The Place; some of my friends who are at other schools don't have a theatre programme like we have so it's a real effort for them to get to see performances. The programme of work in the theatre is really inspiring and an important aspect of being at LCDS is to be able to see what's happening now, it's important to see different work. I'm hoping that one day I will be performing as part of the professional programme in our theatre.
An average day for me is to wake up at 5am (I live in Kent) and get to school at 8am and sometimes stay until 8/10pm, and then start again at 5am every morning - it's hard to be a dancer but I'm happy to be here, it's my second home. I expect to work harder and learn a lot more over the next two years."
Teerachai Thobumrung