Professional Dance BA (Hons)

Be part of a vibrant dance community. Immerse yourself in the activity of a national dance hub. Connect to dance in the studio and beyond.

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Overview

This course is offered by North East dance organisation, Dance City, in partnership with the University of Sunderland.

Our unique course has been designed by leading dance professionals to prepare you for a varied and multi-faceted career, ensuring you're able to thrive in a range of roles and settings within the dance sector and beyond.

The course begins and ends in the studio, and you’ll be dancing from morning to evening most of the time. It is a challenging course that'll require much of you physically, socially, and creatively across the three years of practice and study. We're committed to offering a foundation of support and care to enable you to make to the most of this opportunity.

Dance City graduates are top-class performers, teachers, choreographers, producers, and cultural managers. We've mapped our graduates into more than 50 creative career paths so far. We're proud to be empowering the next generation of dance professionals and invite you to create your dance future.

Why us?

Our Drama, Dance and Cinematics courses are 1st in the north-east for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2025)
You'll be based at Dance City in Newcastle, the National Dance Agency for the North East of England, which can offer further opportunities to explore a variety of dance styles, as well as your daily rigorous technical training
You'll benefit from the passion, experience, and dedication of inspiring tutors who've worked within the dance industry as professional performers, choreographers, teachers, managers, or academics
As a University of Sunderland student, you'll also benefit from all of the University facilities and support on offer

Our Drama and Dance courses are 10th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2025)
Dance City has a unique approach, nurturing dance careers in education, health, and management, as well as performance
Nationally renowned guest artists and choreographers are regularly invited to teach and these may include Joss Arnott, Angus Balbernie, Kerry Biggin, Gary Clarke, Neus Gil Cortes, Kerry Nicholls, ReGina Wielingen, Renaud Wiser, Voxed Theatre, Patrick Ziza, Eleanor Sikorski, and Roberta Jean

#WeAreCreativeIndustries

Course structure

The Dance City BA (Hons) Professional Dance course is practically focused and has a strong emphasis on developing your dance technique and performance skills in a range of forms. You'll have strong core training in contemporary dance practices and will design a pathway of individual technical development in a distinctive model that works with our public class programme to enable you to engage regular, high-quality technique classes including commercial, ballet, tap, Bollywood, street dance and breaking, salsa, jazz, and ballroom, along with supporting practices such as pilates and yoga.

Each year, you'll work with in-house and guest choreographers to create original dance work performed in the Dance City theatre, building on your technical skills to develop your unique artistry and collaborative experience. You'll also create your own work, supported by experienced choreographers, ensuring your ideas and creative identity are allowed to flourish.

Course modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

Dance Technique and Performance 1

In this module, you’ll study contemporary dance techniques and develop dance work as a performer. The emphasis will be on establishing a solid technical foundation, recognising your own progress and applying technique in a performance setting. By the end of the module, you’ll be able to demonstrate key components of contemporary practices in dance, including the dynamics of technical movement, strength, stamina, and flexibility developed in relation to artistic and musical responses to movement tasks.

Choreographing History

Explore choreography in relation to its original contexts and evolution, including the different understandings of the role of a choreographer across time and space, and the consequent variations of other roles involved in the creation of dance. Examine the key points in the history of dance practices, including imperial and romantic periods in ballet, modernism, postmodernism, conceptual dance, and Afrofuturism. Dance and movement analysis will be explored and applied through models such as Adshead’s or Laban’s, enabling you to facilitate your engagement with choreographic works and processes.

Managing Dance

Gain an introduction to the different roles of those working in dance, including an understanding of how dance projects and organisations are run. Get insight into the planning of a project, looking at historical and existing dance projects, and reflecting on how to ensure plans are realistic, achievable, and impactful. Critically reflect on how to ensure accessibility and inclusion are embedded in dance projects and consider logistics and costs associated with policies required for diversity.

The Arts and Social Change

Address how change can be facilitated through artistic and creative processes, which could be the result of an educational programme, community activity, or any other form of interaction, and the work of an individual artist. Explore the interdependence between art and community, recognising how art influences activism and social contexts influence art. Analyse examples of dance leaders, exploring notions of leadership and community engagement in relation to dance practice. Develop tools both in practice and theory which will support the work of a socially engaged artist.

Guided Project

The guided project will provide you with the skills to work collaboratively and practically to support the year 3 Festival Project through a series of workshops and shadowing opportunities, preparing you for your own year 3 project. You’ll choose two areas within management, production, or marketing. If you choose management, you’ll develop skills around time management, rehearsal planning, scheduling, curating, and collaborating to prepare a dance festival. Production will allow you to record and support choreographic processes and performances, shadowing the technical aspects including light, sound, costume and set design, and visual and aural environments. Choosing marketing will mean you support, create, and get involved with social media and marketing content for the festival.

Introduction to Reflexive Dance Practice

This module will help you develop an understanding of your individual and collaborative place within national and global arts contexts. You’ll engage with historical and current critically reflective skills and practices in dance discourse and industry to push your own boundaries. Explore a wide range of reflective practices relevant to professional dance and other creative industries. Have the opportunity to investigate, explore, and share understanding of critical reflective strategies to gain an understanding of your place in the creative industries.

Year 2 (national level 5):

Dance Technique and Performance 2

Build on your learning gained through the year 1 module and deepen your knowledge and practical execution of dance technique through an examination of contemporary practices in dance. Explore the ways in which techniques can be drawn on to complement each other and the technical methods by which artistry and movement dynamics are developed and executed. Develop your physical ability and tools to perform, as well as contribute choreographic ideas to process, training, and performance, with attention to practical exploration and experimental practice.

Choreographing the Contemporary in Facilitating Dance

Focus on your own creation in relation to the current choreographic scene and explore key practitioners in the context of current practices. Explore dance and movement analysis, facilitating your engagement with choreographic works and processes. Learn about the role of the dance teacher, leader, artist, and practitioner. Gain an understanding of the different ways people learn and what contributes to a healthy learning environment, including inclusive dance practice and barriers to learning. Examine the principles of safe and effective practice, gaining an anatomical perspective on dancing bodies, exploring dance in formal education, and learning the legal requirements for dance practitioners. Explore dance teaching in practice, including the processes of inclusive session planning, managing groups and sustaining engagement, developing and improving practice, and peer to peer practice teaching.

Placement Project

Gain an introduction to the roles and career possibilities in the dance industry, including examples from dance professionals and their own career journeys. Get insight into the demands of the career, creating realistic expectations, and gain an understanding of the skills and experience necessary for each career path in the industry. Carry out an analysis and reflect on what to expect from a career in dance, including examining the role’s responsibilities and day to day activities. You’ll evaluate your placement experience and apply your own learning to your future career prospects and interests.

Reflexive Practice, the Choreographic, and the Creative Industries

This module will help you develop an understanding of your individual and collaborative place within national and global arts contexts. You’ll engage with historical and current critically reflective skills and practices in dance discourse and industry to push your own boundaries. Explore a wide range of reflective practices relevant to professional dance and other creative industries. Have the opportunity to investigate, explore, and share understanding of critical reflective strategies to gain an understanding of your place in the creative industries.

Year 3 (national level 6):

Dance Technique and Performance 3

Develop the ability to contribute to process and performance at the advanced, pre-professional level of contemporary dance practices, relevant to styles covered across the module. Explore a range of contemporary practices to enhance your understanding of how to use technical and performance skills in professional settings, expanding interpretive, creative, and physical abilities as artistic and expressive dance practitioners and collaborators. Work with guest artists to create and evolve dance works towards a performance opportunity.

Producing and Curating Dance

Develop your learning from earlier modules to understand how resources, including venues, personnel, equipment, and funding are sought, negotiated, and obtained. Work through contemporary practices of programming and curating dance venues, seasons, festivals, and events. Draw on your historical and contemporary dance knowledge to analyse programmes and consider creative responses through curation. Address the contemporary concerns regarding access and inclusion, for example, relaxed performances and online programmes. Gain an introduction to the documentation and evaluation of programmes and curated events. Examine and explore tools for managing activity, including deal memos, production documents, and technical specifications.

Festival Project

Conceive an individual project within the collective festival and realise a choreographic, pedagogical, research, or other outcome on which you’ll be assessed, according to your own career projections and desired outcomes. Collaborate to realise the festival outcome and negotiate roles and responsibilities, producing the festival independently, but under supervision. Develop and explore formats of documentation, reflection, and critical analysis, so that you can consider the details of the creative and critical portfolio. Examine principles, methods, and theories of practice in order to unfold the knowledge generation potential of your individual and collaborative practice.

The Reflective Dance Practitioner

Extend your development of critical reflective practice towards the professional level related to current dance discourse and engagement, and a career and employment. Explore an advanced level of agency, independence, and specificity with your critically reflective strategies and skills, through a professional placement in a dance-related context.

Facilities

All of your practical and academic sessions will take place at Dance City in Newcastle upon Tyne, which will give you access to professional tutors and facilities as well as placing you at the heart of the region’s dance industry networks.

You will access the library, a range of student support services, student accommodation and generous scholarships through the University of Sunderland.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

Our admissions policy uses a range of flexible options to support you in studying with us. This may include a reduced offer of up to 16 UCAS tariff points, (or equivalent). Find out if you are eligible.

Find out how many points your qualifications are worth using the UCAS Tariff Calculator.

If you've studied for a GCSE which has an alphabetical grade, you'll need to achieve a grade C or above. Students should be able to apply for an Enhanced DBS check to support placement activity. This will be administered by University of Sunderland. If any applicant has endorsements or criminal convictions that may affect their DBS status, they should contact the programme team to discuss this further.

All applicants must audition and interview for a place on the BA (Hons) Professional Dance, either at an in-person session or through a self-tape process if preferred. We want to make this a positive experience; if you have questions about the application process or require an alternative, please contact us. Our team has the skill to see potential even if your experience is limited, so please get in touch if you feel you have the potential to thrive on our course.

For more information on this course and details of upcoming open days, please visit Dance City.

Fees and finance

The annual, full-time fee for this course is:

£9,535 if you're from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled

Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2025/26 will be £9,535. You will pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.

Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements, and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.

Please note this course isn't available to international students.

Take a look at the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

This professional dance course develops skills, knowledge, and understanding that'll equip you for a range of careers in performance, dance marketing and management, choreography, dance journalism, community dance, and technical aspects of production.

At Dance City, we're experts in supporting dance professionals. We do this in our professional programme and in our artist development activities, as well as in our BA and MA courses. We support and nurture our graduates to create their dance futures, and work with our graduates as colleagues, collaborators, and peers.

Career options

Dance performance and choreography

Our students have gone on to perform with companies including balletLORENT, Company of Others, Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company, Lo-Giudice Dance, Fertile Ground, Tavaziva Dance, and Anna Watkins Dance Company, and many create their own work as independent artists, including Beth Veitch, Benedicta Valentina, Alyssa Lisle, and Lila Naruse.

Dance education and community practice

Dance City graduates have embarked on successful teaching and facilitation portfolios with organisations including Phoenix Dance Theatre, Royal Grammar School, Dance City Engagement Team, Dame Allan’s, One Day Creative, Circus Central, and various private dance schools.

Dance management and producing

Graduates from Dance City BA courses include arts managers, producers, and administrators, running their own production companies, festivals, and arts organisations, including Moving Arts Management and Curious Arts.

Postgraduate study

Graduates often choose to continue onto postgraduate study with conservatoires.

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries.

Page last updated: 20 November 2024

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.