MA Dance Performance

Course Booklet 2025/26

Validated by University of the Arts London

COURSE BOOKLET
MA Dance Performance

Award Title Length and Mode of Course

MA Dance Performance 12 months Full-Time

Awarding Body Locations of Study

University of the Arts London The Place in Euston, London
Other Arts Studios in Central and East London
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

The Couse

This MA recognises that portfolio performance careers in dance require self-motivation, reflective
evaluative tools, creative versatility, resilience and adaptability, in addition to freelance management
skills and autonomous continuous professional development. As a student on the course, you will build
a portfolio of performance experiences and will investigate the various skills and frameworks that
optimise your development and sustainability as a dance performer.

The course:
• Has a joint focus on your development as an independent dance artist, alongside your capacity to
contribute meaningfully to collaborative creative processes and ensemble performance projects.
• Is centered around the learning journey of the individual within a community of researchers.
• Explores different modes of communication and presentation including live performance,
presentation, project proposals, digital outputs, and explorative and reflective portfolios.
You are encouraged to:
• Critically reflect on your practice, acknowledging your personal narratives, biases and histories.
• Be autonomous and self-motivated in your learning.
• Come with an open mind, be curious and willing to take risks.
The course will give you the opportunity to:
• Engage in a range of embodied, collaborative, explorative and reflective performance projects.
• Build the necessary skills to be able to initiate and realise creative performance projects and career
trajectories independently.

What You Will Study

Unit 1 - Performance Encounters (60 credits)

This unit will focus on experiential learning through exposure to different processes of researching,
creating and sharing dance performance. This will serve to establish a community of practice within the
cohort, fostering a sense of belonging and developing a supportive peer group, alongside familiarising
students with the demands of project work and the rigours of daily training experiences.

Students will explore methodologies for contributing to, and reflecting upon, devised performances, the
learning of existing repertory and the use of improvisation skills in performance. These will be
investigated through their application to modes of presentation to various audience contexts, both live
and virtual. Students will be exposed to different performance mediums representative of established
and emerging mediums of performance from the professional environment. Students will critically
investigate strategies for self-evaluation and peer feedback as methods for enriching intrinsic motivation
and for the dissemination of their embodied research. These will be supported by practical classes for
physical and mental preparation and seminars which explore discursive contexts and professional
frameworks alongside seminars exploring theory and academic literature from the fields of Dance
Science and Performance Psychology.

Unit 2 – Performance Contexts (60 credits)

This unit will build on the experiential learning in the previous unit and continue to expose students to
new collaborative processes for researching, devising and improvising and they will further interrogate
how these processes modulate across contexts for performance. Students will be introduced to a range
of mentors from across the professional sector and investigate how to initiate and resource self-directed
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

research into performance experiences, resulting in a proposal for a professional trajectory portfolio
project.

This unit will emphasise ongoing self-practice as the means by which the professional dance artist
maintains and develops a base of technical proficiency and artistic availability. Students will be
supported to lead sessions with the cohort sharing the development of their own personal embodied
practice as a means of exploring how to disseminate individual interests in training and skill building.
Supplementary seminars will explore freelance skills of negotiating contracts and devising and
managing budgets, network building and the development of multi-stranded communication and
promotional skills.

Unit 3 – Professional Trajectory Realisation Project (60 credits)

This unit will consolidate the learning from the previous units and enable the student to plan, realise
and reflect upon a period of self-directed exploration into the career trajectories of contemporary dance
performing artists. Together with support from the course team and a mentor the student will actualise
a process through which they will investigate their own performance practice within a wider industry
setting. They will initiate the communications support required for this independent exploration and
resource the technical skills and training needed to support this process. The final presentation of a
reflective portfolio and artistic manifesto will draw upon the previous encounters with performance
alongside the consolidation and integration of the knowledge gathered through their independent
process, and the student will explore modes and multimedia strategies for documenting, framing, and
disseminating their experiential learning from these events. This will culminate in a final sharing in which
live work and documentation can be shared with peers and relevant professional audiences.
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

Course Diagram

On the below diagram you will be able to see how each unit is structured across the course.
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

How You Will Learn

Unit 1: Performance Encounters

• Embodied practice and technical development sessions
• Workshops and Intensives on Performance Practice
• Seminars to explore supportive materials from Dance Science and Performance Psychology
• Workshops on documentation of practice and reflections on creative process
• Initial Performance Projects led by a industry active artists to explore approaches to performance
skill and realisation
• Performance opportunities

Unit 2: Performance Contexts

• Embodied practice and technical development sessions
• Workshops and Intensives on Performance Practice
• Seminars to explore supportive materials from Dance Science and Performance Psychology
• Lectures from visiting artists on freelancer skills and reflective processes
• Performance Projects led by a variety of industry active artists to explore approaches to
performance skill and realisation
• Performance opportunities

Unit 3: Professional Trajectory Realisation Project (PTRP)

• Independently accessed embodied dance practice and technical development sessions
• Individual tutorials with course leaders and mentors to examine the realisation of ideas shared in
the PTRP proposal
• Seminars with industry experts to situate the student within a wider network of industry
professionals and communities

Your Hours

Scheduled Guided Total credit-

Learning & Independent bearing hours
Teaching Hours Study (exc. personal
tutorials)
Hours % Hours % Hours
Unit 1 360 60% 240 40% 600

Unit 2 330 55% 270 45% 600

Unit 3 65 11% 535 89% 600

Total 755 42% 1045 58% 1800

Assessment Methods

The three units will be assessed holistically. Assessments include:

Unit 1: Presentation of reflections on performance encounters
Unit 2: Professional Trajectory Realisation Project Proposal
Unit 3: Presentation of reflections on PTRP with supporting documentation including Artistic
Statement
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

Staff teaching on the course

Staff teaching on the course include the Course and Unit Leaders for You can find out more
MA Dance: Performance programme alongside a range of guest about the staff teaching on
artists and companies. the course here.

Location

This Course is delivered through the following structure:

• Induction weeks, assessment weeks, seminar weeks and all training and workshops outside of
the performance projects are delivered at LCDS’ main study site at The Place in Euston

• All performance projects are delivered in professional arts spaces and studios, based on the
artistic needs of the project. All spaces are within the area of Central and East London and easily
accessible by public transport

• There may be occasions when you are based at The Place 2 – a venue 5 minutes walk from
The Place in Euston, and houses one studio, a rehearsal space and a lecture space.
Students will not have to travel between study sites unless for self-organised reasons such as
physiotherapy appointments or the use of free studio space. During all units of the course students will
have access to The Place’s facilities including the learning resources (Library, student space hire,
academic support etc.) and Physical and Mental Health support. There will also be opportunities during
the course to collaborate and meet with other students on other courses at London Contemporary
Dance School.

Admissions Process

Application Process
You must attend an admissions workshop and submit a statement outlining how you intend to use the
course to expand your dance performance practice. The admissions process will include an interview.

The selection criteria are:

• Commitment and willingness to challenge your methods and practices evidenced in the personal
statement
• Awareness of an appropriate range of practical, conceptual and technical knowledge(s)
evidenced in the admissions workshop
• At interview where you critically reflect and evaluate your practice.
• Clear and critical articulation of artistic intentions, in both workshop and statement.
• Evidence in the workshop of the capacity to reveal creativity and innovation in relation to
personal, professional and academic standards of dance performance

Entry Requirements

Standard Minimum Entry Requirements

• BA (Hons) degree or equivalent academic qualifications
• Alternative qualifications and experience will also be taken into consideration (please be
aware that for international students who will require a Student Visa, proof of a bachelor's
degree or equivalent level qualification is usually required)
• Personal statement
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

• Attendance at admissions workshop (online admissions workshops are available by request

for students unable to attend any of the admissions workshops in person)

APEL – Accreditation of Prior (Experiential Learning)

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements will still be considered. The course team
will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This
might, for example, be demonstrated by:

• Related academic or professional experience in dance, film, arts, media, fine arts, performance,
or similar field
• The quality of the personal statement
• A strong academic or other professional reference
• A combination of the above factors
• Please be aware that for international students who will require a Student Visa, proof of a
bachelor's degree or equivalent level qualification is usually required

English Language
IELTS level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Course Costs

Course Fees For more information on

course fees and the Tuition
Fees for 2025/26academic year are: Fee Deposit please see the
Fee Policy and Course
£12,950 UK Students Deposit Policy on our
website
£24,050 Overseas students

Tuition Fee Deposit

All Postgraduate students will need to pay a deposit of £1500, payable within 21 days of an offer being
made. More information can be found in the Course Deposit Policy.

Student Visa
Currently a student visa costs £490 if applied for outside the UK. Students will also need to pay the
Immigration Surcharge, students will receive a 25% discount, and the discounted rate for student visa
holders is currently £776 per year. Find out more about the Student Visa here.

Student Support Package

London Contemporary Dance School also offers a Student Support Package for an annual fee of £50,
payable on registration / re-registration at the start of each academic year. More information can be
found on our website.

Other extra costs

Other extra costs may include:

• The cost of your dance clothing over the course of your studies
• Trainers for use in the studio
• The cost of materials which you may choose to use in your creative projects
 MA Dance Performance
Course Booklet 2025/26
Validated by University of the Arts London

• Travel costs for curricular activities which take place off site. This might include performances
and work in the community or in schools. (LCDS will cover the cost of any travel for events
outside of London)
• Printing costs
• The cost of books that you might wish to purchase (there is a well stocked Library on site at
LCDS, but you may wish to consider purchasing your own additional books as well).
• The cost of a computer and broadband for online learning

Onsite Delivery

Our onsite teaching will be delivered in accordance with public health guidelines in place at the time
(for example small group sizes to allow for social distancing requirements) and may also retain some
aspects of blended, online learning where this has proven to lead to positive learning experiences for
students. Also, whilst we are planning for delivery to be on site, if government guidelines and
requirements change through a further national or local lockdown, LCDS may need to move all or some
of its provision online.