Dance

Program Overview

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MA Dance

Overview

Our postgraduate Dance course supports a broad range of artistic practices and includes specialisms in screen-based dance practice, interdisciplinary performance work and site-based performance.

What you'll learn

• Develop your postgraduate level research skills, which will help you develop your own creative practice.
• Explore and create choreography for live performance and film.
• Develop your dance practice in an interdisciplinary environment that balances taught and research components.
• Collaborate with other artists as part of an international dance community and broaden the possibilities of your practice.

Course structure

This MA Dance course will take one year. As a full-time student you’ll take one 30 credit module and two 15 credit modules in term one, two 30 credit modules in term two, and one 60 credit module (your final project) in term three.

Trimester one

• This trimester has a substantial taught element, with a number of optional classes.

Trimester two

• Following your first trimester, your second also has a substantial taught element, with optional classes available.

Trimester three

• Trimester three, your thesis module, is largely self-directed, with tutorials and peer presentations leading to course completion.

Course modules

• Creative Practice 1
• Contemporary Issues and Perspectives
• Collaborative Engagement
• Creative Practice 2
• Professional Practice
• Final Major Project

Creative Practice 1

• This module provides you with an opportunity to explore and develop an area of your creative practice and will lead to you completing a new creative work.

Contemporary Issues and Perspectives

• This module will encourage you to engage in a range of ideas that are pertinent to current debates within the field.

Collaborative Engagement

• This module allows you to explore a range of approaches that artists may use when working together within creative contexts.

Creative Practice 2

• This module enables you to build on your knowledge and understanding of creative practices as artistic, political, social, and cultural phenomena within a practical research framework.

Professional Practice

• This module provides you with the opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of the demands of the professional dance arena.

Final Major Project

• This module requires you to undertake a significant project that consolidates and builds on the skills, knowledge and experience that you have acquired in the previous trimesters.

Assessment

• You'll be assessed through a range of methods including performances/screenings, presentations, written work and journals.
• Practical project assessment may focus on your creative process as well as the final product.
• All work is assessed against generic criteria so you can compare your achievements against your previous work.

Teaching

• Weekly seminars form the central axis of the course.
• These are complemented by optional dance skills classes including technique and choreography, or additional research seminars.
• Study will also be strengthened by one-off events and intensive weekends where you’ll work with tutors and visiting artists.

Opportunities

• Study abroad through our GALA scheme.
• Previous students have performed or created work in Indonesia, Malta and China.

Careers

• Having a postgraduate qualification opens up a range of options in the world of dance-related work and beyond.
• You’ll be positioned to become a choreographer, performer, teacher, screendance maker, or any combination of these things.

Facilities and resources

• You'll have access to our dance studios, University Theatre, Apple Mac Editing Suites, TV studios, Newton Park Library, Commons, and Ultra.
• Bath Spa MA Dance students have access to a range of quality filmmaking equipment using the University’s free equipment loan service.
• Fully up-to-date editing software is installed on our University computers and your work is supported by specialist technicians.

Staff, students and alumni

• Michelle Elliott, Subject Leader for Dance
• Luke Antysz, Lecturer in Dance
• Silvia Carderelli-Gronau, Teaching Fellow in Dance
• Yifei Liu, MA Dance
• Chris Lewis-Smith, Associate Lecturer in Dance
• Stephanie Scheubeck, Associate Lecturer in Dance
• Rouxuan Zhao, MA Dance
• Sarah Alexander, Course Leader for BA (Hons) Dance

Fees

• 2025 entry
  • UK full time: £9,225
  • UK part time: £4,613
  • International full time: £17,835

Additional course costs

• You may need to pay additional course costs over and above your tuition fees, for example, for specialist equipment or trips and visits.

Funding opportunities

• Please visit our Funding pages for an overview of the funding options that may be available, including scholarships and bursaries.

Entry requirements

• We’re looking for dancers and dance makers with a specialist interest in performance, screen-based dance practice, alternative performance spaces and interdisciplinary work, where the texts of dance and one or more other media intersect.
• You’ll need a dance-based first degree (2:2 or above) or a relevant professional qualification/experience equivalent.