• The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training
• Training
• Projects
• Open Days
• Audition
• Funding
• Foundation Classes
• CAT Associate Scheme
• South Asian CAT
• Modulate: The National Dance CATs Performance
• The CAT Research Project
• Contact
• Meet the Team
• Formal Training & Education
• Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning
• Continuing Professional Development

The Department of Education and The Leverhulme Trust are jointly funding this ground-breaking three-year longitudinal dance science project at Laban. The study uses scientific methods to examine the processes of developing talent in dancers aged 10-18 years.

Over 800 young people training at the government funded Centres for Advanced Training (CATs) in dance around the country are taking part. The research is interdisciplinary, measuring the physiological, biomechanical and psychological characteristics of talent in dance and exploring the factors that may contribute to its optimal development. Qualitative interview-based research is also exploring how these factors relate to both creativity and commitment. The project's findings will contribute to the development of the CAT programme, ensuring that the dance training scheme is developed in a rigorous and consistent way. The findings will also inform pedagogic practice with young people across the wider sphere of dance education.
This is the first time a longitudinal study has examined young dancers in depth from a scientific perspective. Never before have dancers of any age or dance genre been studied in an interdisciplinary project that measures the characteristics of dance talent and their interrelationships and potential links to performance and creativity. It is also the first time an organisation has been in the position to follow a population of young people already identified as talented across a period of three years, thus enabling the notion of talent to be studied in depth.