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This year Northern School of Contemporary Dance turns 40.
Kaleidoscope is a year-long anniversary project celebrating the people, stories and communities that have shaped NSCD and those who will carry it forward.
Rooted in local stories and shaped through co-creation, Kaleidoscope brings together students, alumni, local communities, young people and partners to reflect on our shared heritage and imagine the future together.
So far we’ve thrown a day-long festival for our local community, created new artworks and collected stories and ephemera for our digital archive. Find out more about what we’ve done so far and what’s coming next…
In January 2026, NSCD kicked off the anniversary year with 2 key events celebrating 2 communities at the heart of our history. These celebrations focused on the people who were at the very beginning of our story and set the course of the project, centring reflections, memories and joy.
On Saturday 11th July 2026 the Kaleidoscope team unveiled a day-long festival for our local community called Party in the Park. Throughout the day we showcased, celebrated and thanked those who are part of the NSCD past, present and future.
Party in the Park featured a main stage with NUMBER of performances, including youth and community performances newly created for the event, alongside professional companies. Our main stage welcomed:
SAA-UK, Hillcrest Boys Dance, Yorkshire Coast School of Ballet, Gateway Studios, NSCD Youth Company, Kick Off Boys Dance, RJC Dance, Balle Balle Sangeet, Echo Ground Dance Company, Glitterbomb Dancers, In the Front Room and DJ Fluid.
The stage was hosted by local SOMETHING Shanchez Payne, who also led an old-fashioned sports day with children and adults!
There was also a new walkabout performance commission by Cusan Theatre, The Keeper of Memories, made in collaboration with students from MA Interdisciplinary Dance Performance. This new creature used archive materials, photographs and costumes to bring the memories of the school to life and emerged throughout the day to meet festivalgoers.
Alongside the performances we had workshops from DECOdance, Boom Chikka Boom, and local artists Mo Robertson and Jules Pluta.
The community artworks we created in the first half of the project had their debut exhibitions, showcasing the creativity and rich heritage of those who have made Chapeltown and Harehills their home over the last few decades. Find out more about these below.
The Bohemia DJ collective also hosted their own tent with an installation of their archive photographs, flyers, posters and recreations of iconic Leeds nightlife signage. Throughout the afternoon Bohemia programmed 4 iconic DJs to bring a flavour of what Leeds was listening to in the late 1970s.
We were also joined by local artist Hyro Graff who live painted a mural to reflect on the atmosphere of the event and create a beautiful new artwork to be displayed in the local area.
In January, we worked with SHINE, which now runs the old Harehills Middle School (HHMS) building, to bring alumni back to the school. Alumni shared memories of the teachers, the ambitious school productions and the playground games and dances. We saw the old classrooms, desks, and architecture and shared Caribbean food, music and dancing.
The group heard the debut performance of a newly commissioned poem by Khadijah Ibrahiim, weaving stories of the school and life together, as well as speakers from the class and teachers. A re-staging of Khadijah’s much-loved installation, In the Front Room, took us back to a 1970s Caribbean family front room, and we ended the night with music and dancing from the iconic DJ Fluid.
January also saw us host an important event, which brought back people who had worshipped, or whose families had worshipped, here in the building when it was Leeds New Synagogue. The Rabbi held a short service or remembrance, and the congregation had the opportunity to see important elements of the building that have been retained, such as the seating, plaster work, windows and stonework. The congregation also shared memories, stories and photographs at what was only the second opportunity they’ve had to come back to the school since its deconsecration in 1985.
A core strand of Kaleidoscope is working with communities from Chapeltown, Harehills and the wider Leeds area to reflect on the cultural, creative and heritage life of our city, revealing what type of world NSCD came from and was born into.
To do this we’ve been working with people across a range of ages, backgrounds and life experiences, who are key to our learning about the past as well as looking to the future. Those groups are:
Kaleidoscope is running throughout 2026 so there’s still lots of opportunities to get involved.
On 20th September we will be welcoming anyone who would like to find out about our Kaleidoscope project and learn more about the NSCD’s 40-year heritage. Tickets are free, and there’s lots of different things to see and do. Find out more and book your ticket on our event page: www.nscd.ac.uk/events/nscd-40th-anniversary-heritage-open-day
At the end of 2026 we will be launching a publication celebrating 40 years of NSCD and featuring personal testimony, photos and ephemera, some of which hasn’t been seen before! We’ll be releasing details of how you can get your copy later this year.
We will also be launching a digital archive, that will allow members of the public to see everything collected throughout the Kaleidoscope project, and some of the current archive materials in the NSCD library collections.
Heritage open dayWe’re still taking written submissions from alumni, past collaborators and anyone with a story they’d like to tell about NSCD. Please drop us a line on Kaleidoscope@nscd.ac.uk to speak to one of the team about contributing your memories, objects, photographs or video.
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