3 year diploma in professional dance

Students are introduced to a wide variety of subjects and will predominately focus on re-evaluating and refocusing existing technique to ensure that any pre-existing technical faults have been addressed. Understanding and awareness of safe practice, nutrition and injury prevention will be fundamental to any technical development. In addition to the core dance subjects such as ballet, contemporary, jazz and tap, students will take acting and singing classes.

Within Contextual Practice, students explore health and safety as an emerging performer in theatre. This focuses on areas such as safe practice in class, injury prevention and overall positive health and well-being. Lessons are also used to contextualise the landscape of dance and themes covered in other classes.

By the end if the first year students are expected:

• To have made technical progress relevant to their starting point
• To have a clear understanding of human anatomy and physiology in the context of professional dance training and safer practice
• To have a good knowledge of dance history
• To have a good knowledge of dance composition
• To have the capacity to reflect and plan for their ongoing progress
• To have completed and passed all contextual requirements​​

In year 2 students’ core skills become more advanced and more integrated. You will consolidate existing skills and develop a wider range of styles within the dance genres as well as deepening your technical and expressive abilities. More project work is introduced, in which the core disciplines become interdependent.

Dance Performance projects provide students with the opportunity to develop their collaborative, creative, rehearsal and performance skills in two contrasting projects.

Within Contextual Practice, students explore the history of dance. This focuses on the development of dance as a social and politic influence, as well as recognising the chronologic evolution of theatrical trends. Lessons are also used to contextualise the landscape of dance and themes covered in other classes.

By the end of the second year students are expected:

• To have adapted to complex movement, demonstrating technique and performance skills
• To have made sense of individual corrections and directives to inform ongoing progress
• To have the confidence to improvise and create
• To have applied anatomic and health principles for prevention of and care of common injury
• To have objectively critiqued and referenced contextual material
• To have evaluated and planned for their ongoing progress

In year 3 the emphasis is on preparing students for a career as a professional performer. This final year bridges the gap between professional training and the professional dance world. The priority for this year is to develop our students’ capacity to engage with the profession in multiple ways, maximising their employability and innovative skills in readiness for entry into the dance profession.

Professional Preparation and Employability workshops will hone audition technique to ensure that students have all the skills necessary to embark upon a successful professional career. This also extends to preparation for all wider soft-skills and supporting areas for professional practitioners including sourcing and choosing headshots, joining and populating Spotlight, creating personal showreel performance reels and meeting with leading industry creatives, agents and casting directors to begin networking.

Students will participate in two fully staged dance theatre productions and an industry showcase, working with outside industry choreographers/directors. Agents, casting directors and other industry professionals are invited to performances to facilitate your representation and exposure.

Within Contextual Practice, students engage with two main focuses:

• Employability Skills and Professional Practice
• Research and Reflection

Employability skills and professional practice will hone audition technique to ensure that, when they leave, students have all the skills necessary to embark upon a successful professional career. This also extends to preparation for all wider soft-skills and supporting areas for professional practitioners including sourcing and choosing headshots, joining and populating Spotlight, creating personal showreel performance reels and meeting with leading industry creatives, agents and casting directors to begin networking.

Research and Reflection promotes the reflective practitioner and draws upon learning acquired across the first two years of training and placing this into a professional capacity. Students will reflect on their engagement with productions, research into choreographic practices, and reflect upon their training as a whole and the progress they have made.

By the end of the third year students are expected:

• To have achieved technical and artistic development to a professional level
• To have quickly responded to complex instructions and reproduce work with the intended directives
• To have audition experience and an awareness of the professional industry
• To have researched, referenced, critically appraised and reflected all contextual work
• To have completed and passed all contextual requirements
• To have established the necessary skills to withstand the pressures of professional life, adapt to change, and be self aware of the need for continuing professional development