Further your dance studies and specialise in areas such as pedagogy or working with a choreographer in repertory
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Wednesday 26 March
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Overview
This MA Dance Advance Practice degree encourages you to further your dance studies at a postgraduate level. You will have the choice to specialise in areas such as pedagogy or working with a choreographer in repertory as you focus on your employability.
In your dissertation you will undertake an extended research project to develop your skills and practice in the area that you are most interested in. This could be fully written, a practical piece of choreography/practice as research or a combination of the two.
On this course you will:
- Study core and optional modules with the flexibility to balance your studies alongside working.
- Specialise in specific topics.
- Be able to complete daily Techniques for Performance classes alongside your weekly modules.
- Learn from highly-experienced lecturing staff and dance practitioners all experts in their chosen fields.
- Work and study with dance critics, from dance company directors to choreographers.
Teaching and Assessment
How you will learn
You will study through theoretical and practical workshops, lecturers, seminars and rehearsals. You will be assessed through a range of assignments depending on which study options you choose.
All modules are assessed through programme work in the form of practical choreography presentations, essays, reports, presentations, learning journals, portfolios, online tasks and group working.
Class sizes vary depending on the modules you and other students select. For example dance technique classes usually have up to 20 students whereas Performing Politics may have around 10 students.
The Course
What you will study
This course is made up of core and optional modules.
This list is indicative and subject to change.
Artist As Producer
You will undertake initial research into a range of contemporary dance and performance related platforms, festivals, projects and artist-development schemes both within the UK and in European or international contexts. You will develop an articulation of your work and practice through the development of a website resource that includes a distinctive artist’s ‘statement’.
Dissertation
The dissertation is the culmination of your postgraduate study. You will develop a substantial dance research project of your choice. You can choose to include a varying amount of dance practice alongside written critical commentary.
Pedagogical Approaches
Through a combination of lectures, seminars and practical tasks, you will analyse, deconstruct and reconstruct technical exercises and phrases in order to build a critical base of teaching material. Planning, phrase construction and giving corrections will be explored in the context of somatic development and consideration of issues relating to health and safety. You will also be expected to undertake critical analysis and evaluation of professional dance classes. You will be introduced to lesson planning, devising schemes of work appropriate to different teaching situations such as primary and secondary syllabus work, special needs and working with the elderly and community-based groups.
Performing Politics
In this module, you will analyse a wide range of dance practices: historical and contemporary, popular and ‘high art’, Western and non-Western. You will consider these in relation to 20th and 21st-century debates about the politics of the body, for example: the role of the body in mass culture; the extent to which the body is controlled by or resistance to the state; the role of the body in colonisation and decolonisation; the role of the body in negotiating local, national and global identities; the role of the body in constructing sexual and gender identities; the relationship between the body and technology.
Philosophy and Aesthetics
In this theoretical module you will explore how knowledge about dance is rooted in philosophical and aesthetic ideologies, from both historicised and contemporary perspectives. You will look through a wide lens at dance and its evolving beliefs, with the main focus on dance as art, and contemporary dance.
Repertory
This practical module is an opportunity to work on the creation or re-staging of a repertoire work.
Dancing in the construction or reconstruction of a work of repertory provides you with opportunities to extend creative practical skills in dance performance. You will apply your choreographic knowledge and performance skills to devising and problem-solving within select frameworks linked to research processes (practical and contextual) underpinning the repertory.
You will engage with choreographic devising and performance as an independent group or as part of the MA company MapDance.
To study this module you must also select Techniques for Performance.
Facilities
Rehearse and perform in practical spaces
You will perform in an Arts Council funded Dance Theatre Space and rehearse in four superb dance studios, the large gymnasium and two sprung-floor spaces. You will also be able to take advantage of a programme of dance company performances, workshops and events supported by Arts Council funding.
Dance Studios and Rehearsal Spaces
The ShowRoom
A fully equipped 212-seat public theatre venue with a reputation for presenting some of the most exciting dance and theatre companies touring on the UK circuit.
Exercise Laboratory Facilities
Learning Resource Centre
The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) contains the library, a café, IT/teaching rooms, and the Support and Information Zone (SIZ).
Library
Our campus library holds more than 200,000 books and over 500,000 eBooks.
Work Placements
Gain workplace experience
You will have opportunities to complete specific placements during this course. There are placements opportunities on the Pedagogical Approaches module where you can apply your teaching knowledge in areas including primary and secondary education or in a community setting. You could work with a youth dance group, or an older aged group such as a Parkinson’s group.
Careers
Where this course could lead
This MA Dance: Advanced Practice course supports your development of a portfolio career that can progress into areas such as dance performance, teaching, choreography and arts administration.
Course Costs
Course Fees 2025/26
UK fee
International fee
For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fee page.
For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.
University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.
Entry Requirements
Typical offers (individual offers may vary):
Honours degree
IELTS
You will need to audition for this course.
Personal statement guidance
As part of your application for your chosen programme of study, you are required to complete a personal statement. The personal statement should not exceed 1000 words and as guidance, should include the following. To access your suitability for the programme, it is essential that your statement addresses all four areas below.
- Your reasons for applying: Why you have chosen the programmes(s) you have, which aspects of the programme(s) you find most appealing and why. Here, demonstrate your interests and passion for the programmes(s) applied for, share your academic and practice-based interests, career goals and how you feel you are ready for postgraduate study.
- Your preparation: Address how your undergraduate study and/or other areas of study has prepared you for postgraduate study, mentioning your independent work (e.g. dissertation), relevant professional performance; choreographic or teaching experience and any others examples you see relevant. Please feel free to include details such as conferences, placements, reviews and links to websites and/or digital archive materials.
- Evidence of your skillset: Highlight the relevant skills and knowledge you have that will encourage you to be curious and enable you to succeed at Postgraduate study. These can be with reference to both personal and academic and/or practice-based skills.
- Your research interests: Share insight into your research interests and experiences and how you might explore these in your Postgraduate Dissertation. In addition, please include what your research interests are informed by and writers, researchers and practitioners who continue to inspire your research and why.
International students who don't meet the entry requirements
If you are an international student and do not yet meet the entry criteria for this course, you may be eligible for our International Premaster’s Programme. This is a one-semester programme that allows you to progress onto a master’s course at the University of Chichester.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Click the ‘Apply now’ button to go to our postgraduate application form. We will consider your application and you may be invited to audition and interview.
