London Contemporary Dance Theatre

British modern dance company. It made its debut as the Contemporary Dance Group in 1967, with students from London Contemporary Dance School, and gave its first full season as LCDT in 1969 at the Place Theatre. Under the direction of Robert Cohan its early repertory featured works by Graham, Ailey, Taylor, Sokolow, and increasingly Cohan himself, but American works were soon replaced by company choreography by, among others, Alston, R. North, and S. Davies (the last two becoming associate choreographers in 1974). As the company expanded (to about twenty dancers) it played a key role in developing a British audience for modern dance, touring extensively round the UK as well as abroad (its US debut was at the American Dance Festival, 1974). By the mid-1980s it began to lose its artistic edge and in 1989 Dan Wagoner took over as director. He introduced new European and American works (including his own) as well as choreography by company members, including Jonathan Lunn and Darshan Singh Bhuller, but as a more varied repertory company it failed to secure a new popular image. After a succession of short-term directorships it was scaled down to become the Richard Alston Dance Company in 1996.