Dance MA / PGDip

Program Overview

This MA/PGDip program in Dance Performance and Choreography fosters artistic development and creative practice. It emphasizes innovative dance-making, research methods, and critical frameworks, preparing students for careers as performers, choreographers, educators, and more. The program offers expert tuition, collaboration opportunities, and access to state-of-the-art facilities.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This MA/PGDip program is designed for aspiring dance performers, choreographers, filmmakers, or educators who seek to challenge themselves creatively and develop their professional skills. The program emphasizes innovative creative practice and offers expert tuition in various aspects of dance, including creative dance making, compositional forms, research methods, and critical frameworks.

Objectives:

The program aims to:

• Develop students' creative dance skills, theoretical understanding, and research interests.
• Provide advanced-level teaching in essential theories and practices, performance and creative approaches, technological platforms, and research strategy, analysis, documentation, and essay writing.
• Support students in realizing their creative ambitions through a written research dissertation or a practical project culminating in a substantial piece of creative work, such as a performance, workshop, lecture, or event.
• Foster artistic development through active self-discovery, enabling students to execute highly engaging and creative work.

Outline:

Year 1:

The program is structured around modules designed to enhance students' skills and knowledge in creative dance-making practices.

• Research Methods (Compulsory): This module introduces students to various research methodologies, covering topics such as fieldwork methods, ethnography, practice-based research, retrieval skills, referencing, and academic writing.
• Major Practical Project (Optional): This module offers students the opportunity to undertake a substantial project that allows them to explore their artistic expression in greater depth.
Students may work individually or collaboratively with peers, undergraduate students, or external contacts and agencies.
• Research Dissertation (Optional): This module enables students to produce an academically informed piece of research, subject to tutor approval.
Students are required to identify and justify a viable research area, frame a relevant question, demonstrate extensive knowledge of previous research in the field, and make informed decisions about appropriate research methodologies.
• Creative Platforms (Compulsory): This module focuses on exploring compositional and creative practices, encouraging students to develop their personal research agenda and translate their proposed work from intention to realization.
It includes seminars and workshops that engage with contemporary debates and practices in dance performance, choreography, perception, and reception.
• Creative Platforms 2 (Compulsory): This module builds upon the previous Creative Platforms module, exploring more experimental and creative dance approaches.
Students delve deeper into their practice-led research processes, expanding their abilities in performance documentation and aligning theoretical frameworks with their research practices.
• The Dance Practitioner (Compulsory): This module encourages students to investigate dance practice within various contexts and cultural positions, mapping out emerging territories of current discourse, theoretical frameworks, and practice-based research.
It aims to establish students' authorial engagement and ownership of discursive language used to frame and navigate personal research, theory, and practice.

Assessment:

Assessment methods include:

• Critically informed practical presentations, performances, or practical pieces
• Oral examinations
• Written work
• Documentation of performances and practical work
• Portfolios of written and visual evidence
• Other traces of performance

Teaching:

• Methods: Teaching is delivered through lectures, workshops, seminars, and tutorials.
• Faculty: The program benefits from a dedicated faculty, including Dr. Evelyn Jamieson (Associate Professor and Programme Leader for MA Dance and MA Drama), Richard Molony (Deputy Head, Communications, Screen and Performance), Caroline Ford (Senior Lecturer - Division of Communication, Screen & Performance), Nicole Wellings (Programme Leader for BA Performing Arts and BA Dance), Dr. Pamela Barnes (Programme Leader for BA Acting), and Dr. Stef Kerrigan (Lecturer).

Careers:

The program prepares students for various career paths within the dance industry and related fields. Potential career opportunities include:

• Dance performer
• Choreographer
• Rehearsal director
• Artistic director
• Screen dance artist
• Dance development artist
• School teacher
• Community arts practitioner
• Dance therapist
• Dance company manager
• Education officer
• Creative learning practitioner
• Private dance studio teacher
• Further education lecturer
• Dance producer
• Creative producer
• Arts facilitator
These roles are typically found in local authorities, theatres, arts centers, community centers, national dance agencies, secondary schools, colleges, professional dance companies, sports and recreation, social services, health services, and other areas of the creative industries.

Other:

• Location: Teaching takes place at the Creative Campus, Kingsway, which offers extensive facilities, including a 200-seat lecture theatre, rehearsal and performance studios, a learning resource centre, subject-specific IT labs housing 200 Macs and PCs, and two catering outlets.
• Collaboration: Kingsway provides opportunities for collaboration between artists, designers, writers, producers, and performers.
• Student-to-Staff Ratio: The University of Chester has an excellent student-to-staff ratio at Kingsway, offering opportunities to connect with highly regarded and experienced staff.
Kingsway also boasts excellent links with influential figures and organizations from local, national, and international agencies.
• Facilities: Students have access to specialist studios and workshop spaces, including art and photography studios, a metal casting foundry, sound and video editing suites, dark rooms, a reprographics room, lighting studio, and workshops for printmaking, textiles, digital art, and sculpture.
• Music Facilities: Kingsway offers sound-proofed rehearsal spaces equipped with the latest technology for recording and live sound, four fully equipped rehearsal and performance studios, an outdoor performance space, and a smaller indoor space for intimate performances.
• Contemporary Art Space Chester (CASC): The University has its own Contemporary Art Space (CASC) Foyer Gallery, providing on-site exhibition space for internal and external shows.
• Equipment Loan Provision: The University offers an extensive loan provision, including video cameras, audio recording devices, and specialist kit.
• Careers Support: The University of Chester provides an award-winning Careers and Employability service, offering various employability-enhancing experiences through the curriculum, employer contact, tailored group sessions, individual information, advice, and guidance.

Tuition Fees and Payment Information:

Home Students

• £9,360 per year (2024/25)

International/EU Students

• £14,750 per year (2024/25)
The University of Chester offers generous international and merit-based scholarships for postgraduate study, providing a significant reduction to the published headline tuition fee. You will automatically be considered for these scholarships when your application is reviewed, and any award given will be stated on your offer letter. For more information, go to our International Fees, Scholarship and Finance section. Irish Nationals living in the UK or ROI are treated as Home students for Tuition Fee Purposes.

Additional Costs

Your course will involve additional costs not covered by your tuition fees. This may include books, printing, photocopying, educational stationery and related materials, specialist clothing, travel to placements, optional field trips and software. Compulsory field trips are covered by your tuition fees. If you are living away from home during your time at university, you will need to cover costs such as accommodation, food, travel and bills.