MFA Dance and Embodied Practice

Program Overview

This two-year MFA program in Dance and Embodied Practice combines practical exploration with theoretical inquiry, emphasizing dance as a tool for artistic expression, cultural critique, and community engagement. By embracing diverse dance practices and encouraging experimentation, the program prepares students for careers as performers, choreographers, educators, researchers, and curators. Graduates gain a deep understanding of dance's potential to enhance wellness, promote social change, and foster creativity.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Develop your dance practice, teaching and leadership skills over two years with vibrant and supportive teachers. This unique practice-based programme promotes understanding of the notions of wellbeing and safe, healthy dance practice, and relates directly to social, political and cultural issues around embodiment, community and the environment. This programme investigates the application of dance practice and knowledge in a wide and ambitious range of artistic, educational and community contexts, and, less conventionally, in galleries, museums and outdoor sites. You will be supported by the mentorship and teaching of experienced staff in our modern studios and have the opportunity to gain experience with in-house and visiting artists and tutors alongside a diverse community of peers. You will also have the opportunity to undertake an independent project which uses original practice-research and is underpinned by tutorials, peer review, work experience and open rehearsals. Students will also have access to the full range of optional modules which are offered to all our postgraduate students.

Outline:

Level 7

Compulsory modules (Year 1)

• Mediated Choreography: This module is built around explorations of choreography and media where the concept of media is framed in two interrelated ways.
First, 'media' is taken to mobilise questions of intermediality and transdisciplinarity in dance, questions which concern the variety of fields in which choreography is practised and experienced including the visual arts, performance arts, architecture and design. Second, 'media' is taken to imply questions of technological mediation and the new devices and environments which transform the making of dance including screen media, computers, online spaces. Focusing on the ways in which choreography is made outside of theatre auditoria by artists and audiences, the module invites students to conceive of the critical and design possibilities of art that works both at the edges of disciplines and with bodies in mediated spaces.
• Practice-as-Research: This module introduces and interrogates the nature of artistic practices as a method of research.
It does so from the perspective of the practitioner within dance, performance or any creative practice. Students are invited to question conventions for conducting research and for pursuing artistic practice. In doing so, the module supports students to understand that artistic processes can be used to generate, and offer encounters with, types of knowledge that cannot otherwise be accessed; and that artistic practices can be conceived and engaged towards rigorous research that might be applied in contexts inside and beyond academia and arts industries. Its interrogation of systemic assumptions in the exercise of practice and other research methods contribute to a decolonising and decentring of methodological conventions, and embrace of multiplicity in conceiving, engaging and generating knowledges. The module aims to develop skills for students to identify, articulate and enact an independent project of research. The project will be contextualised through appropriate references including artistic and scholastic sources. Delivery is via workshops that will encompass case studies, practical processes and strategies from which students will build a toolbox of approaches to building their own project. The module equips students with an understanding of practice-as-research methodology. This enhances other modules in which the focus is on other aspects of artistic practice, such as skills for composition, facilitation, technical production or movement. When students then move into final projects, they can choose to apply the latter skills through a practice-as-research methodology or not, depending on their individual interest and focus post-graduation. For those interested in moving onto practice-as-research based doctoral research, or in applying their artistic practices beyond arts settings, this module will be important. For those who don’t currently wish to apply their artistic practice as a form of research, it offers an understanding of the potentials of their practice that will enhance their understanding of its aesthetic, social and political reaches, as well as the terms through which to articulate and discuss those qualities: essential for graduates entering the professional arts world today.
• Dance Practice 1: These practical classes provide a framework for students to explore movement potential using a variety of approaches.
Technical, performance, improvisational and interpretative skills are addressed using the interplay between action, imagination, observation and questioning. Students will be involved in expressive and interpretative tasks in response to music, sound accompaniment or text and work with other dancers to locate synergies and sensitivity in their danced relationships. Students will experience a variety of practices as part of the portfolio. The approach and demands of each class will vary according to the interests and expertise of each tutor offering a range of experiences from within the professional field.
• Dance Practice 2: This module develops the work studied in Dance Practice 1.
Dance Practice 2 will deepen technical and artistic understanding and their exploration of movement potential using a range of practices. Students will critically interrogate their technical knowledge of dancing and deepen their awareness of communicating movement. Students will be involved in expressive and interpretative tasks in response to music, sound accompaniment or text and work with other dancers to locate synergies and sensitivity in their danced relationships. Focus will be on performative qualities alongside essential technical practice. Via a performative presentation students can demonstrate advanced performance skills and the problems and possibilities of ‘being seen’ (Deborah Hay) considering ‘dancing as an ensemble’ as well as the performer-audience relationship. Students will experience a variety of practices as part of the portfolio. The approach and demands of each class will vary according to the interests and expertise of each tutor offering a range of experiences from within the professional field.
• Dance and Embodied Practice: This is one of the programme core compulsory modules for the MFA Dance and Embodied Practice.
It will anchor students’ knowledge and understanding so that they are able to interrogate their existing dance practice and training with a view to developing new ideas and new movement forms. The module will be strongly underpinned by the Practice as Research, Dance Practice 1+2, and Mediated Choreography modules, which are compulsory to all programmes, drawing particularly on the central themes of creative methods of artistic enquiry from the point of view of the practitioner, decolonising and decentring of methodological conventions, and embracing of multiplicity in conceiving, engaging and generating knowledges. Through a collaborative and constructive laboratory environment, the module will give opportunities to adapt dance practices for engagement in a range of contexts. Weekly questions, tasks and assignments will encourage students to investigate and to question the shifting roles of ‘a dancer’. Workshop tasks and provocations will sit alongside site, museum and gallery visits to develop dexterity, personal resources, communication skills and versatility. The module also seeks to develop students’ working knowledge of dramaturgy and their capacities of observation, responsiveness and critical awareness in constructing self/peer review and feedback. This year-long module operates as a series of practical workshops, laboratory tasks, offsite visits, feedback sessions, seminars and tutorials. Key assessment points will be allocated during the year – typically at the end of each term alongside an ongoing portfolio of smaller formative assignments.

Compulsory modules (Year 2)

• Choreographic Practice: In a collaborative and constructive laboratory environment, this module will enable students to interrogate their existing choreographic practice.
Weekly questions, tasks and assignments will encourage students to investigate choreographic identity and to question the shifting notion of the roles of 'a choreographer'. Workshop tasks and provocations will sit alongside site, museum and gallery visits to develop crafting dexterity, personal resources, skills and versatility. The module also seeks to develop students' capacities of observation, responsiveness and critical awareness in constructing self/peer review and feedback.This autumn term module operates as a series of practical workshops, laboratory tasks, off-site visits, feedback sessions, seminars and tutorials. It sits inside the 60-credit year long choreography module but is completed and assessed at the end of the autumn term.
• Philosophy and Performance: The module covers a variety of philosophical themes and encourages students to interrogate their dance practice(s) critically.
It explores concepts, theories and assumptions which underpin and inform dance and performance more generally – empowering learners to question, challenge and transform the artistic fields in which they are engaged. Drawing on both analytic and continental philosophy, and strands of contemporary critical theory, the module develops skills of critical analysis in relation to dance contexts. Students will engage through reading, class discussion and practical tasks with questions such as the nature of dance as art, choreography, and the ethics of dance practice, relevant to dance practitioners and professional artistic work. These will also be explored through embodied experience, providing a space to consider questions raised in and by studio-based studies, as well as the wider ramifications of dancing, creating and performing in a variety of settings. This module thus aims to foster and develop a clear sense of the premises, scope, value and limits of (among others) artistic-aesthetic, cultural-political and ethical perspectives on dance practice and scholarship, and of the possibilities and tensions found therein. This module will extend and inform work in Dance Practice and Practice as Research, and develop students’ thinking towards their Final Projects.

Optional modules (Year 2)

• The Performance of Heritage: Dance in Museums, Galleries and Historic Sites: Performance of dance, story telling, and music has now become a part of contemporary curatorial practices in the context of museums, Gallery exhibitions and historic sites.
A more inclusive and broader understanding of curatorial interpretation has led to a more widespread use of dance performance as an interpretive tool. This module investigates these newer uses of dance as an instrument for the performance of heritage and the impact of dance as a medium of learning in museums and at historic sites. The module combines lectures, seminars, workshops and visits to galleries and museums, aiming at observing, analysing and mapping out a range of dance performances in such locations, through a number of case studies.
• Dance Facilitation in Social Context: The module explores socially engaged participatory dance.
Its aims are to equip students with the understanding of the principles and practices of community dance, both practically and theoretically, as well as the political and social contexts from which socially engaged participatory dance emerges. Students will have a greater understanding of how to facilitate dance in various contexts, as well as how and why dancing can become a meaningful activity for non-professionals. The module particularly speaks to students who want to use their skills and knowledge of dance to bring people to movement in various contexts, to facilitate dancing with non-professionals. It will be attractive to those who would like to situate their study of dance politically and socially.

Independent Research module (Year 2)

• Dance and Embodied Project: This is the main ‘exit’ module of the MFA Dance and Embodied Practice: the thesis is a ‘practice dissertation’.
The module provides opportunities for students to undertake independent practice research in order to deliver a range of materials relating to their interests as dance practitioners including classes, workshops. screen dances and performances. Students will be encouraged to develop professional, outward-facing projects in order to engage with a unique vision for the impact of their practice – a dance manifesto. The module explores the inception, planning and production of longer periods of teaching and workshop delivery in order to examine the scope of curricula and artistic aims or perspectives, and the implications of these for design and evaluation. Students develop original research which is supported by tutorials, peer review and open classes and workshops. The year-long module operates as a series of practical workshops, laboratory tasks, offsite visits, feedback sessions, seminars and tutorials. Key feedback points are allocated during the year; these will be negotiated events with students making choices about the aims and structure of feedback processes.

Teaching:

The programme includes:

• technique classes,
• choreography workshops,
• collaborative working,
• writing and reflection.
You will be encouraged to develop and test new ideas and skills in dance ‘laboratory’ situations in order to research and practise notions of dance facilitation, dance teaching, dance leadership, dance intervention and dance-making in a variety of contexts. The School is home to the internationally recognised Centre for Research in Arts and Creative Exchange where, together with inquiry into dance as cultural and artistic expression, students are encouraged to investigate a broad range of dance and somatic practices as they are deployed in performative and choreographic situations and experienced though the lived body. These artistic activities are positioned as both critical, scholarly enquiry and creative, imaginative assembly, both of which are essential tools for the development of original and independent approaches to teaching and facilitating dance. We have excellent links with dance companies and creative organisations which enable us to provide stimulating workplace-learning opportunities.

Careers:

The programme is specifically designed to appeal to students seeking a portfolio career which involves performing, teaching, choreographing, community dance practice and curational practice. You could work in roles such as:

• Embodied Movement Specialist
• Dance/Movement Therapist
• Dance Researcher
• Dance and Wellness Consultant
• Choreographic Researcher
• Dance and Technology Collaborator
Students who have a desire to apply their knowledge of Dance to improving communication, manifesting social change and advocating for the broad range of benefits of participating in Dance will be able to develop their ideas and projects as part of this programme. We will help you build your CV, prepare for interviews, and meet and learn from successful graduates working at the top of their careers.

Other:

Did you know? University of Roehampton is top ten in the UK for postgraduate student satisfaction (PTES 2022, 2023).

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