Performing Arts Courses & Classes in London and Online
City Lit offers performing arts courses in the heart of Covent Garden in Central London during the evening, daytime and at weekends. Explore our range of subjects including acting, (including accredited acting courses), dance, radio and screen, and voice, speech and communication as well as a full range of music courses, such as piano, singing, strings and wind instruments to jazz and pop, music technology, music theory and history
Some of our courses are delivered online. For more information about our live online courses, please see our guide to online learning .
Our courses are labelled clearly for beginners or those with previous experience and you can speak to a specialist advisor to help you choose the right level. If you would you like some help or advice:
For music courses email music@citylit.ac.uk. You can also view our music auditions and advice page.
For drama, dance and speech courses email drama@citylit.ac.uk
- Introduction to music productionCourse start date: Fri 1 Jul 2022 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Max La VillaCome and learn the basics of recording and editing using a free or cheap digital audio program that can run on either Mac or PC. Turn your musical ideas into completed songs you can share!Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 - Piano/keyboards 1A
Course start date: Thu 22 Sep 2022 (and 8 other dates)Location on this date: Keeley Street (other locations are available)
Tutors: Polly HewettThis is the beginning of our piano programme, designed for absolute beginners to both piano and music-reading. This classic course is the perfect way to start your piano playing.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 - Sing music theatre workshopCourse start date: Thu 28 Apr 2022 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Heather LongmanThis popular course explores music theatre singing. Grow your knowledge of the repertoire. Suitable for singers and actors wanting to improve their singing technique. Be guided through the basics to find the right singing qualities for this repertoire.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £81.00 - Tap dance: beginnersCourse start date: Thu 22 Sep 2022 (and 7 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jacqueline PertIf you are new to tap then this is the place to start. Come and find your dancing feet. Suitable for students of all ages with good general fitness. Tap shoes are essential.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Tap dance: improversCourse start date: Thu 22 Sep 2022 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jacqueline PertPractise and improve your basic Tap skills and increase your vocabulary of steps and sequences. Gain a greater understanding of rhythm, tempo and syncopation. Suitable for students of all ages with good general fitness. Tap shoes are essential.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Classical ballet: improvers 2Course start date: Mon 25 Apr 2022 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alexander SimpkinsWe will continue developing ballet technique through barre, centre work and allegro exercises. Suitable for those who have been practicing for some time and have a strong grasp of techniques and terminology.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Flamenco: beginnersCourse start date: Thu 28 Apr 2022 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Danielle AllanLearn fundamental flamenco dance moves, steps and rhythms in an energising and supportive atmosphere. Experience the rich complexity of this Andalucian Gypsy art form, and develop presence, fitness and coordination.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Classical ballet: improvers 1Course start date: Thu 22 Sep 2022 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alexander SimpkinsWe will focus on developing ballet technique using barre, centre work and allegro exercises. Suitable for those who have completed at least one year of our beginner's ballet classes or equivalent and have a good grasp of the basic techniques and terminology.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Improve your speaking voiceCourse start date: Thu 29 Sep 2022 (and 5 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Giles AbbottImprove the quality of your voice and standard of speech through relaxation, stance, breath capacity/control, articulation, forward placing and expression. This course will be delivered in the college.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £111.00 Concession £90.00 - Acting the text: classic and contemporaryCourse start date: Thu 6 Oct 2022
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyActing the Text is an online course in which we will explore two linked plays from different periods of history – a classic text, and a modern script that was inspired by it. This term, we will read and rehearse scenes from a pair of completely different plays.Our Country’s Good & The Recruiting Officer.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Rachmaninov: an introductionCourse start date: Thu 19 Jan 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Katy HamiltonThe train whistles past the camera in the opening scene of Brief Encounter (1945) and we hear the opening bars of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – an iconic film that made this already wildly popular piece even more successful. But what of the work’s composer, who had died just two years before? We trace the turbulent career of this virtuoso musician.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Amy Beach: an introductionCourse start date: Thu 2 Mar 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Katy Hamilton
In the last few decades of the nineteenth century, as American composers were starting to determine their own nationalist approach to art music, the brilliant pianist and composer Amy Beach was a hugely popular figure in US musical life – in defiance of her family and husband. Come and learn about this symphonist who offered her own ‘reply’ to Dvorák’s Symphony ‘From the New World’.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00
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