The MA Performance Design course explores scenography and performance-making from various perspectives informed by current research and innovative practices including immersive and participatory forms of performance design, design-led performance, audience experience and contemporary spectatorship.

On this course, you'll experiment with the creative application of design elements, including space, light, sound, costume and digital media, discovering how to shape live performance and generate meaning for contemporary audiences.

This course allows you to extend your own creative practice through developing an understanding of the theories and concepts of scenography and designing for live performance.

You’ll use our specialist facilities to explore the performance experiences that can be created with space, light, objects, costume, sound, projection and other digital technologies like virtual and mixed reality, creating original performance work that is design-led.

You’ll work collaboratively to create dynamic cutting-edge work and you’ll develop skills in documentation and reflection so that you can develop your individual creative practice. 

You’ll devise and carry out an independent research project into an aspect of performance design that interests you. You’ll also examine contemporary performance practices, from immersive and participatory experiences to site-specific work staged outside of traditional theatre spaces and locate these within their wider social and cultural contexts. 

Get creative with practical filmmaking, digital media and industry collaboration opportunities on our Media Studies degree.

Master creative production skills. Develop your knowledge of how the media industries operate, the ways that they represent society, and how you can shape their future. And learn about the opportunities and challenges of the industry.

You’ll benefit from our strong relationships with industry too, with awesome placement opportunities and extra-curricular activities that can help your CV stand out from the crowd.

This course offers you the chance to concentrate on your development as a performing musician, and benefit from studying with our expert professional instrumental/vocal teachers, our experienced performance staff and our resident repetiteur, to develop your skills in technical proficiency, presentation and interpretation in musical performance.

This flexible course enables you to enhance your technical prowess, expand your repertoire and hone your interpretative strategies as a performer, alongside developing your critical skills in commenting on your own performances and those of others. Through individual lessons, performance classes and masterclasses, you’ll prepare and perform a recital as the major part of your course. You’ll also choose one or two further modules offering opportunities to explore an extended work, undertake a distinctive applied performance study, engage with performance practice, or develop your understanding of relevant research methods and approaches in music to support your interpretation and discussion of performance. Depending on which performance options you select, you may also have the chance to expand your studies by choosing to do a Short Dissertation on a musicological topic of your choosing.

This course is ideal if you want to focus entirely on your performing interests by taking a smaller selection of modules than the more intensive MMus Performance course.

This course offers a wealth of performance opportunities and introduces you to a wide range of musical studies at advanced level. You’ll study with one of our expert professional instrumental/vocal teachers and – with the guidance of our experienced performance staff and resident repetiteur – develop your skills in technical proficiency, presentation and interpretation in musical performance.

You’ll be encouraged and supported to take an interest in performance research to enhance your musical and artistic development. Through individual lessons, performance classes and masterclasses, you’ll prepare and perform a recital as the major part of your course, and also explore the challenges of performing a large-scale musical structure through the concerto/song-cycle/extended work module. You’ll also be introduced to and supported to apply performance research methods, enabling you to situate your performance interests and repertoire within a wider academic context, and will devise and undertake an applied performance project that might focus on performance practice, ensemble work, pedagogic studies, doubling on a second instrument, or another area of performance-related interest.

The course is ideal if you wish to pursue advanced performance studies, or are an existing performer wishing to enhance your skills or undertake continuous professional development. It can also be used as preparation for undertaking a performance-based practice-led PhD.

This distinctive course offers you the chance to develop a range of research and analytical techniques needed to evaluate and evidence the relationship between musical engagement and wellbeing.

Your contextual understanding of the topic will be expanded through the core Music, Wellbeing and its Evaluation module, and you’ll develop the skills needed to conduct independent research. You’ll examine the physical and mental benefits and problems associated with musical participation, exploring current research in the field, and the innovative Applied Professional Practice module will provide you with opportunities to take a proactive and self-reflective role in your work, developing professional relationships with our partner organisations.

The course is ideal for existing practitioners wishing to enhance their skills or undertake continuous professional development, or students wishing to develop their interests by taking a smaller selection of modules than the 180-credit MA Music and Wellbeing course.

We have a variety of excellent facilities to support your learning, including a music psychology lab, rehearsal, performance and practice spaces, recording and electronic music studios, and five libraries that provide access to a wide range of books, periodicals, and online resources.

We have close working relationships with prestigious arts organisations: we host BBC Radio 3 concerts, Leeds Lieder and the Leeds International Piano Competition, and we engage with the flagship DARE partnership between the University and Opera North. We are also closely associated with Leeds Baroque and we engage with many other performing arts organisations in Leeds, which enjoys a thriving music and cultural scene.

Elements of local fieldwork may be embedded in modules that take you outside teaching spaces as part of the learning experience. You might undertake fieldwork as part your 30-credit Short Dissertation.

You'll also have access to Helix, the University's learning innovation hub for students, staff, and the local community. Located in the heart of campus, Helix offers cutting-edge digital provision, including immersive technologies, multimedia production studios, as well as a physical makerspace. You'll be able to bring your own initiatives and ideas to life through collaboration, creation and innovation.

It all starts here. Develop your dance practice, teaching and leadership skills over two years with vibrant and supportive teachers

As a dancer with an interest in expanding your skills, this practice-based programme will help you to:

Build a rewarding career as a professionally-qualified registered dance movement psychotherapist. Graduates are eligible to register with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy UK. This programme is designed for people who have prior dance experience and professional or volunteering experience with people in need.

We believe that focusing on the creative potential of individuals in a relationship creates a sound ethical basis for psychotherapeutic work.

You will be taught by leading experts who will equip you with the skills, experience, and confidence to work as a dance movement psychotherapist.Read More

All graduating students are eligible to apply for registration with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMP UK). Graduates often create their own positions; facilitating dance movement psychotherapy sessions within settings including: social services; special needs; schools; psychiatry; probationary and rehabilitation units; forensic psychiatry. 

Fast-track your career with a degree that champions individuality, delivers competitive advantage and prioritises skill in an exciting creative field

This MFA course will help you refine your artistic practice by advancing your creative, technical and performance skills. The programme includes:

Go higher with a degree built around you. This is a programme for dance professionals with industry experience who want to understand practice as a form of research.

This programme is designed for experienced professional choreographers, dancers, performance makers and interdisciplinary artists who wish to deepen their choreographic or performance practice through studio-based enquiry and research.

You will also gain a range of reflective and critical skills including:

Performing, composing, writing, debating – this course is geared towards the needs of the contemporary musician. There’s an emphasis on being able to thrive in different professional and industry contexts.

At Sussex, Music focuses on performance, composition and critical thinking. Designed to be expansive, this BA cuts across genres such as popular, classical, film, global and avant-garde. You’ll:

You’ll learn from composers, performers and musicologists. There’s an emphasis on creativity and challenging assumptions. Our faculty combine practical musicianship skills with performing and writing music, arranging and music history.

You’ll also benefit from our connections with local music organisations. These include Glyndebourne, the world-class opera venue in the Sussex Downs near Lewes, and The Rose Hill, an independent music venue and creative hub run by artists and musicians in Brighton.

Some of our recent graduates have been signed to labels, made the BBC Radio 6 Music A-list, toured professionally, played at SXSW, released albums or composed music for advertising. Others have gone on to record labels, to Nordoff Robbins music therapy, or to jobs in film and game composition.

Read me aloud