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Dance BA (Hons)

UCAS code: W500

Experiment. Push boundaries. Celebrate dance. Explore your creative potential in performance and choreography with tutors employing the latest teaching practices. Refine technique and theory as you grow as a reflective and creative dance artist on Edge Hill University’s dance degree.

Overview

Course length: 3 years full-time
6 years part-time
Start dates: September 2024
September 2025
Location: Edge Hill University
Example offers: BBC-BBB (A Level) or DMM (BTEC) View full entry criteria
Subject(s): Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre
Faculty: Arts and Sciences
Department: English and Creative Arts
A group of dancers jump in the air in the arts centre theatre

Follow your dreams as a creative practitioner with a dance degree that gives you the knowledge, skills and experience to launch a professional career.

Dance to your heart’s content on our BA (Hons) Dance course. We’re top ten in the UK for Teaching (National Student Survey 2023 – Dance), so you’ll be immersed in practical performance projects, technique classes, and inspiring seminars. Collaborate with professionals in dance-making for a wide range of performance settings. You’ll study dance techniques and theories essential to current practice. We’ll encourage you to perform and grow in our Arts Centre theatres and studios.

Your artistic and creative development is everything to us. See dance through different lenses as you explore performance and choreography, applying your skills in different contexts. Our research-active practitioners will help you elevate your perception and experience of the body, and develop cultural perspectives.

Our culture of performance will expand your portfolio. Workshop new ideas and make connections with visiting professionals. Learn to fund and pitch projects. Gain industry skills as part of our staff and student-led dance companies. By the time you graduate, you’ll be ready to work as an independent dance professional.

Course features

  • International students can apply

  • Learn a language option available

  • Sandwich year option available

  • Studying abroad option available

What you'll study

What goes into a performance? How can we describe dance? You’ll discover why dance remains a dynamic and important contemporary artform. Develop your skills in devising and creating dance alongside your technical and performance ability. See how theory and history inform applied dance projects as you investigate choreography, dance-making and performance for stage and other settings.

Compulsory modules:

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Dance Practices: Knowing Bodies
Making Dance: Choreographic Cuts
Making Dance: Choreographing Worlds
Performance Contexts
Writing Dance Landscapes

One of:

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Applied, Community and Outreach Practice 1
Language 1

You’ll develop as a dancer and choreographer in Year 2. Creating as individuals and within a collective, you will make new work guided by your tutors – planning, collaborating and choreographing to perform on a public stage. As well as celebrating dance as an inclusive practice, you will strengthen your progress by refining your technique, learning to question and analyse approaches to dance-making.

Compulsory modules:

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Body Matters in Performance
Creative Dance Portfolio: Choreograph, Perform, Archive
Making Dance: Practice Makes Political
Performance Contexts 2

Two of:

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Applied, Community and Outreach Practice 2
Dance Practices: Preparing for the Profession
Language 2

In your final year you’ll refine your technique, performance and choreography skills to become industry-ready. You’ll build your portfolio and learn how to fund projects. We’ll encourage you to pursue your own interests in an independent research project that will also prepare you for work or postgraduate study.

Compulsory modules:

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Creative Entrepreneurship: Production and Touring
Dance Practices: Employability and Professional Portfolio
Research Project

Two of:

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Dance Practices: Exit Velocity
Jazz Dance Routes
Live Art
Performance, Gender and Sexual Politics
Language 3

Where your course includes optional modules, these are to provide an element of choice within the course curriculum. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed. Optional module selection may also be affected by timetabling requirements. Some restrictions on optional module choice or combinations of optional modules may apply.

How you'll study

A wide range of teaching styles are offered, delivered through practical workshops, technique classes, performance projects, formal lectures and seminars.

Through creative projects, ensemble work and personal research, you will acquire critical and creative skills which will be of use in a wide range of future careers. You will develop a personal portfolio and prepare practice CVs for employment, supported by sessions in career planning.

The Dance team work closely with professional bodies to ensure the course teaches cutting edge practices and enables you to develop teamwork skills, lead group projects, and participate in management activities with an emphasis on self-efficacy.

Students will have the opportunity to undertake creative opportunities with companies and organisations such as Company Chameleon, Levantes Dance Theatre, LUDUS, and a wide range of dance artists from different backgrounds. Students are also offered the opportunity to take workshops and performances into educational and community settings.

In addition, the award-winning student-led dance society delivers evening classes and organises performances on campus, as well as competing in dance events.

Timetables for your first week are normally available at the end of August prior to enrolment in September. You can expect to receive your timetable for the rest of the academic year during your first week. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week. Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities.

How you'll be assessed

As part of your student journey, your tutors will support you towards your assessments which are a way of celebrating your learning. The different points of assessment prepare you for real-life scenarios, whether that be performance, presentations, portfolios, written work, or a viva. As part of your personal development, you will reflect on your learning to recognise and build your skill sets.

There are no formal written examinations as part of the current assessment methods on this degree.

Who will be teaching you

You will be taught by a dedicated team of academic specialists and professionally-experienced dance practitioners and you will benefit from a wide range of dance experiences. Learning is driven by the principle of research-informed teaching and supported by a team of experienced theatre technicians.

To enhance your experience, the department has industry links with a wide range of professional bodies both regionally and nationally. These include Ludus Dance, The Grand Theatre Blackpool, Lisa Simpson Dance, Curious Minds, Company Chameleon, Company Carpi, Culture Warrington, The Everyman and Playhouse, Tate Liverpool, and Arts Council England.

These well-established links have enabled students to gain experience creating, performing and touring work by professionals including Theo Clinkard, Joss Arnott, Company Chameleon, Garry Clarke, Charlotte Broom, Alesandra Seutin, Eleanor Perry and Daniel Gay Gordon.

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

Typical offer 112-120 UCAS Tariff points. No specific subjects are required.

Relevant experience will be taken into account and all offers are made on the basis of an audition.

Example offers

Qualification Requirement
A Level BBC-BBB.
BTEC Extended Diploma (or combination of BTEC QCF qualifications) Distinction, Merit, Merit (DMM).
T Level Overall grade of Merit.
International Baccalaureate (IB) We are happy to accept IB qualifications which achieve the required number of UCAS Tariff points. Subject-specific requirements at Higher Level (HL) Grade 5 may apply.
Access to Higher Education Diploma 45 credits at Level 3, for example 15 credits at Distinction and 30 credits at Merit or 24 credits at Distinction and 21 credits at Merit. The required total can be attained from various credit combinations.

Please note, the above examples may differ from actual offers made. A combination of A Level and BTEC awards may also be accepted.

If you have a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent), there is no maximum number of qualifications that we will accept UCAS points from. This includes additional qualifications such as Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), AS Levels that haven't been continued to A Level, and General Studies AS or A Level awards.

English language requirements

International students require IELTS 6.0, with a score no lower than 5.5 in each individual component, or an equivalent English language qualification.

If your current level of English is half a band, one band, or one-and-a-half bands lower, either overall or in one or two elements, you may want to consider our Pre-Sessional English course.

How to apply

Apply full-time

Apply online through UCAS

Read our guide to applying through UCAS to find out more about the application process.

International

Apply as an international student

Please see our international student pages for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Part-time applications require a direct application to Edge Hill. Please select the year of entry that you wish to apply for.

Apply for September 2024 part-time.

Apply for September 2025 part-time.

Should you accept an offer of a place to study with us and formally enrol as a student, you will be subject to the provisions of the regulations, rules, codes, conditions and policies which apply to our students. These are available at www.edgehill.ac.uk/studentterms.

Did you know?

If you join a full time undergraduate degree at Edge Hill University, we will guarantee you the offer of a room in our halls of residence for the first year of your course.

Discover our accommodation

Facilities

The Arts CentreDance, Drama and Musical Theatre students at Edge Hill University enjoy industry-standard teaching and learning facilities in the £7million Arts Centre which is also home to the Rose and Studio Theatres.

The Department of English and Creative Arts’ outstanding resources ensure you gain practical experience to a professional standard. Contemporary performance environments include dance studios, black box drama studios, rehearsal rooms, a theatre construction workshop, costume construction workshop, scene dock, theatre design studios, digital sound studio, digital design suite, music technology room, music practice studios, a recital room and an outdoor amphitheatre. The Studio Theatre also functions as a fully equipped aerial performance space.

The Arts Centre hosts a diverse range of high-quality productions and performers, including comedy, dance, drama and music, designed to supplement English and Creative Arts programmes and entertain both students and the local community.

Where you'll study

Arts Centre

Finance

Tuition fees

UK Full-Time

£9,250

a year

UK Part-Time

£77 per credit

for 360 credits

International

£16,500

a year

The University may administer a small inflationary rise in tuition fees, in line with Government policy, in subsequent academic years as you progress through the course.

EU/EEA and Swiss students who have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, as well as Irish nationals, may be eligible for the UK tuition fee rate.

Financial support

Subject to eligibility, UK students joining this course can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan from the Government to cover the full cost of tuition fees. UK students enrolling on the course may also be eligible to apply for additional funding to help with living costs.

Please view the relevant Money Matters guide for comprehensive information about the financial support available to eligible UK students.

EU/EEA and Swiss students who have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme may be eligible to apply for financial support. Irish nationals can ordinarily apply to Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). If you are an EU student who does not have settled or pre-settled status, or are an international student from a non-EU country, please see our international student finance pages.

Your future career

A dance degree at Edge Hill sets you up for a career in the creative arts. Our EHU-Arts HUB offers professional opportunities to ensure you are industry-ready.

Our graduates have the specialist skillset to work as artists, performers, choreographers and teachers. Past students now run their own very successful businesses, or are employed by organisations like Company Chameleon, Déda, Ludus Dance, Volcano Theatre Company, The Bluecoat, Aintree University Hospital, Arts Council England, and WigLe Dance CIC.

Many dance students go on to work as freelance dance teachers and community artists. Roles you could aim for include:

  • academy manager
  • freelance commercial dance artist
  • artistic director
  • dance development and learning coordinator
  • choreographer
  • teacher
  • director

Some graduates choose to move into teaching or lecturing in education. Others complete further education and training or diversify into careers outside dance.

So, do you need a degree for dancing? Some do make it without a degree, but the rich, diverse knowledge of dance and performance that you’ll gain on our course will help open doors to a long-lasting career in the arts or other industry sectors, and make a difference to people’s lives. Whatever profession you’re interested in, our dance degree will help you follow your dream.

Course changes

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information, however our courses are subject to ongoing review and development. Changing circumstances may necessitate alteration to, or the cancellation of, courses.

Changes may be necessary to comply with the requirements of professional bodies, revisions to subject benchmarks statements, to keep courses updated and contemporary, or as a result of student feedback. We reserve the right to make variations if we consider such action to be necessary or in the best interests of students.

Track changes to this course

Discover Uni: Full-Time Study

Discover Uni: Part-Time Study

Download our course leaflet