An impressive start for Regent’s Park Theatre’s Theatre Dance Lab

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London
September 19, 2025

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre on a sunny afternoon, a friendly audience, talented choreographers and smiling dancers. What’s not to like! Yes, the gods were smiling on us but artistic director, Drew McOnie, really has also got a good thing going. Keeping ahead of the game, he has inaugurated Theatre Dance Lab, billed as “an exciting new artist development programme set up to nurture and elevate the next generation of musical theatre choreographers.”

We were invited to Regent’s Park Theatre to view the finished product; a showcase of work from the two musical theatre choreographers who had made it through the hordes of applicants and the short-listed ten who made it to the interviews.

Musical theatre is one of the main employers of dancers. In both provincial theatres and London’s West End dozens of diverse musicals are playing all needing a dazzling range of skills. Choreographing for a musical is a specialist field. Jerome Robbins who could jeté from West Side Story to Dances at a Gathering without missing a beat was an exception. Now the astronomical production costs of launching a new musical demand total professionalism from the creatives and particularly a choreographer who knows the business.

Musicals have changed. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals written for a dancing and a singing ensemble are very different from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s through-composed style where the music is continuous. The modern musical theatre performer needs to be the triple threat: to sing, to dance and to act. Our musical theatre schools are turning out an amazing number of these versatile performers and choreographers are similarly having to be more adaptable.

Tinovimbanashe Sibanda and Rhys Wilkinson came out tops as the two nominated early-career musical theatre choreographers for Theatre Dance Lab. Both are seasoned performers with an impressive list of credits to their names. Their choreographic credits already show the diversity of skills needed in the job as their commissions include theatre, videos and film, the venues varying from major theatres to studio pub spaces while the performers range from opera singers to school shows. There are certainly exciting opportunities to explore but adapting to the venue, the production and the performers require a veritable chameleon of a choreographer.  

The pair were mentored by a range of professionals in various aspects of the business, from designers to directors and producers as well as other choreographers. This would have given them insider knowledge that most take a lifetime to gain. They were also financed to enable them to view other shows. Finally, the big test came over ten days working with a team of professional dancers to prepare their choreographies. The finished products were shown in the afternoon showcase of six short works. They were given a precise brief: one song and dance number with music selected by McOnie, one dance number, and one big dance number fitting for a finale or opening of a show.

Each choreographer was introduced by McOnie and given the opportunity to talk about their choreographic process. Each gave an articulate, lively account of their journey. I particularly liked Tino’s words about her dance number in that it needed to take the story forward and that movement could say what words can’t. Rhys made the very important point of creating a safe space in the studio, a space where performance could play creatively and dare to fail and then try again.

It seems that finding work in the theatre is harder than ever and the standards are very high but it does also seem to be a kinder place and that is all to the good. I look forward to seeing more work from these two highly talented choreographers.