- UCAS Code
- W501
- Location
- Penryn Campus
- Length
- 3 years full-time
- Direct line
- 01326 213730
- Admissions
- admissions@falmouth.ac.uk
Dance at Falmouth promotes the development of dance artists eager to build a portfolio career. We offer rigorous training in a variety of physical skills alongside theoretical and contextual studies, encouraging you to become a creative, entrepreneurial and independent dance practitioner.
This course is for people who want to dance, learn about devising and performance techniques and make a valuable contribution to choreography and performance projects, collaborating with artists from different disciplines.
We teach an unprecedented amount of physical training and technique classes for a university degree, offering you highly skilled performance training that will enable you to become a versatile dance artist.
Contemporary dance classes in Cunningham, Release and Contemporary Ballet techniques form the basis of your training, and are informed by somatic approaches including Body-Mind Centering, Yoga and Pilates. With daily technique classes, as well as tuition in Contact Improvisation, partner work, repertoire, devising methods and performing skills, you'll be ready for a career in dance.
You'll also have a unique opportunity to work with emerging choreographers studying on BA(Hons) Choreography, forging a new wave of artistic collaborations between performers and choreographers.
How is the course taught
Closely linked, BA(Hons) Dance and BA(Hons) Choreography have a common first year, during which you'll attend classes together - looking at the same issues from your different perspectives. You'll learn through classes, lectures, workshops, performance projects, group critiques/seminars, individual tutorials, lecturer and/or student-led initiatives in performances and presentations of work.
Visiting artists, such as Lea Anderson, Angus Balbernie, James Finnemore (Hofesh Shechter Company), Shobana Jeyasingh and Ben Wright (bgroup) run workshops and residencies as part of our course. Along with our staff - active dancers, choreographers and researchers themselves - they'll help you form ideas, develop physical skills and explore the languages of movement and choreography, encouraging individual composition and performance methods.
Careers
- Work as a freelance dance performance artist
- Work in film, theatre, opera, television or music videos
- Career in dance production consultancy
- Career in teaching, cultural industries or further studies
Assessment
Assessment is based on written assignments, studio and site-based practice, performance and presentations, two final year projects and a dissertation.
Experience you'll get
- Regular visiting artists delivering week-long workshops and residencies
- Producing public events
By choosing to study for a degree in Dance at Falmouth you will:
- Be taught by friendly and approachable staff who are also practitioners active with their own dance companies or in areas of professional research.
- Undertake a variety of contemporary dance classes like Cunningham, Release Technique and Contemporary Ballet.
- Enhance your dance technique with somatic approaches, such as Body-Mind Centering, Yoga, Alexander Technique and Pilates.
- Receive tuition in Contact Improvisation, partner-work, repertoire and devising methods to assure you'll be more than equipped to meet the challenges of a career in dance.
- Be based at the new Performance Centre, a high-specification facility purpose-built for students' specific needs with the very latest equipment.
- Work closely alongside BA(Hons) Choregraphy students and have the opportunity to collaborate with Falmouth's music and composition students.
- Benefit from the expertise of regular visiting artists, such as Kirstie Simson ("one of the legends of British dance and one of the greatest exponents of contact improvisation" - Time Out) and Marie Gabrielle Rotie, a Japanese Butoh expert who has presented works at the Royal Opera House, Laban and the Royal National Theatre. They both run week-long workshops with our students, focussing on specific areas of expertise.
- Have the opportunity to benefit from exchanges with other institutions such as SNDO (Amsterdam), Towson (Maryland), Hollins University and the American Dance Festival .
- Benefit from the course's close links with artists and arts organisations in Devon and Cornwall, including C-Scape, Kneehigh, Wildworks, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Hall for Cornwall Truro and The Arts at Dartington. Many of our workshops are run in conjunction with Falmouth's Theatre students, so you'll also have the chance to work with innovative performance groups like Gob Squad and Goat Island.
Interview and selection process
We invite all applicants to an audition.
The audition will last for approximately five hours and will include a tour of the campus, talk about the course, group technique class, group creative workshop, and individual auditions. We invite up to 30 applicants to each audition.
You will need to wear suitable practice clothes for the workshop. You will be asked to prepare a simple phrase of movement for development within a small group. You will need a written piece in response to a performance you have recently seen or a book on dance/choreography that you have recently read.
We are looking for technical dance ability, as well as a strong interest in contemporary dance movement, ideas and research. Successful applicants will have a real desire to learn and collaborate well with others.
Interviews are currently taking place.
Location: Penryn Campus
What you'll do
Stage 1
During your first year, you'll attend classes with BA(Hons) Choreography students and work together on projects, sharing ideas from your different perspectives. You'll gain confidence in using improvisation and develop your understanding of anatomy, techniques, choreography and performance in cultural contexts.
Stage 2
Building on your experiences, you'll continue to develop your role as a performer, fully engaging in the creative process and product. You'll improve your practical skills and expand your knowledge of technique histories, while learning from constructive critical analysis of your own performance and that of peers and professional practitioners.
Stage 3
In your final year, you'll continue to develop your innovative performance practice by focusing on your own specialisms, as well as taking part in cross-disciplinary collaborative projects. You'll do a dissertation and complete a professional practice project in preparation for the world of work.
