Course Structure

In this module, you will work on developing your skills as a creator and maker both individually and in small groups. You will explore a range of ideas and processes related to choreography, collaboration, improvisation, movement research, and performance art, looking in particular at identifying, investigating and developing your own artistic practice.

Throughout the module, the emphasis will be on making and exploring creative practice, allowing you to investigate a range of modes and approaches, from short studies to larger scale works and collaboration across art forms.

This module provides you with space to consider the business side of art production. You will learn a range of advanced research and organisational tools to assist you in the initiation, planning, execution, management and evaluation of a project throughout all its phases. It will enable you to explore current funding structures and opportunities for generating income and resources for the Arts. Solutions explored include sponsorship, foundations and trusts, awards, national government funding, dance development agency funding and self-generated income.

By the end of the module, you will know how to write a proposal for a significant arts project that is feasible, manageable and could be brought to a successful conclusion on time and within a specified budget.

Students will participate in daily classes/workshops as a method of developing their technical and performance skills in studio-based sessions. Students will experience a range of sessions developed to extend their interpretive abilities, enhance their physical execution of technical material and also provide strategies for movement observation and analysis.

Classes will be led by a range of tutors and will ensure that students experience relevant styles and approaches which are current in the dance community. There will be a focus on individual personal practice, enhancing skills of reflection to ensure that students are able to identify and apply their skills in a range of contexts.

Being able to market yourself, create an artistic identity and have online visibility is crucial to any emerging dance artist. This module will prepare you for traditional approaches to marketing, as well as exploring the ever-shifting landscape of social media and digital technologies. The module will put particular emphasis on practical and reflexive learning enabling you to engage with a wide range of approaches necessary to be a successful artist.

With this Module, all MA students come together and have a chance to work with one another across courses. You will undertake a series of lectures and workshops prior to working independently on a focused and original research project with a critical and systematic understanding of current knowledge.

Research outcomes may take a range of forms including performance, choreography, lecture demonstration or dissertation. You will be expected to draw on your experiences and expertise from earlier in the course. This module is seen as an opportunity to apply the specificity of your learning so far to a project directly relevant to your on-going professional development. The projects on this module will be presented in a final sharing/mini-festival of work.