Stefflon Don Showed Up to Support the Room

Choreography by Amber Rae, presented by Empress LDN

Some classes peak with the choreography. This one peaked twice. Empress LDN and Amber Rae had already delivered a powerful heels class at The Manor LDN — fierce movement, an empowering atmosphere, the kind of energy that makes a room feel electric before the first combination even lands — when Stefflon Don walked in. Not as a headline booking. Not as a planned appearance. She simply showed up to support the dancers, and turned an already-great class into the kind of moment people are still talking about.

That's the effect Amber Rae has built a career on. As the founder of Empress LDN, a company and collective built around exactly this kind of fierce, empowering energy, Rae's own credits — Stefflon Don, Ms Banks, Sean Paul, Lizzo — explain precisely why an artist of that calibre would want to be in the room in the first place. It's the same reason The Manor LDN keeps becoming the room where these moments happen: not by accident, but because a studio built to the standard of one of Europe's leading dance spaces, and unmistakably London's best, is exactly the kind of place where an artist feels comfortable walking in unannounced.

This was one of 2024's standout moments at The Manor LDN, and part of a growing programme of heels classes and dance workshops connecting London dancers with real industry professionals — not watered-down versions of the real thing, but the genuine article, taught in a room built to actually hold it. It set the tone for everything that's followed since, and for anyone who missed it, a clear sign of exactly what an Empress LDN class at The Manor LDN can turn into.