Course Detail

The Course

This course is intended for committed students interested in a career in the dance and performing arts industry. Students will develop their technique and performance skills as well as enhance creativity. This varied course is taught as a range of practical and theoretical units. Over the two-year course, your training will consist of technical grounding in contemporary dance techniques, ballet, jazz, tap and urban dance forms. You will have the opportunity to perform in each of these styles to live audiences and within performance projects in both our professional Centre Stage theatre as well as external performance venues.

A large part of the course is aimed at encouraging ownership of practical work and is designed to be student-led in terms of project work. You will also learn the fundamentals of choreography and have the chance to create work in groups as well as taking on the responsibility of primary choreographer as part of your final major project. Further study and non-practical elements of the course aim to help students to gain an understanding of the nature of the industry and recognise the professional requirements needed to gain employment within the sector.

You will gain an understanding of the jobs available and recognise how your skills might match a role within the sector. You will also study the historical context of performance to encourage an appreciation of how the performing arts came to be created within a given context and to gain a working knowledge of the way contemporary working practice has been influenced and shaped into its current form. Assessment is largely through practical work; however, you will also be required to produce written work, reviews, log books, presentations and evaluations.

A background in dance is preferred, but not it is not necessary to have studied for a formal qualification in dance.