The BA (Hons) Dance programme is the first two-year work-based dance degree in the UK, representing a unique partnership between the University of Suffolk and DanceEast. Responding to growth in demand for dance artists working in health, education and community settings this innovative course will prepare you for a successful career within this context. The course is delivered intensively over 40 weeks each year, from mid-September to the end of July.
DanceEast is one of the UK’s leading national dance organisations. It hosts an eclectic selection of internationally renowned dance companies and choreographers such as Rosemary Lee, Luca Silvestrini's Protein, Julie Cunningham, Matthew Bourne’s Re:Bourne, Russell Maliphant Company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and Anna Williams. Artists create new work and perform alongside local community projects in a diverse programme bringing people together through dance from across Suffolk and the region. DanceEast’s reach extends far beyond what is presented in the theatre – through a wide range of projects professional dance artists bring dance to people in schools, hospices and sheltered housing.
Working with people from all walks of life; from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special needs, we’re privileged to see how dance changes lives every day. DanceEast delivers ground-breaking work through projects working with ‘looked after’ children and those at risk, as well as children in hospitals and older people in care homes, offering them all the opportunity to use dance for creative expression and physical and psychological therapy. Dance can energise, motivate, encourage creative thinking, and develop expressive minds and healthy bodies.
The BA (Hons) Dance course at DanceEast is designed to facilitate your development as a versatile dance artist. You will gain the technical, creative and professional skills and knowledge to work in a range of community, education and health settings. Your experience and employability will be enhanced through a unique interdisciplinary approach to dance that brings together a number of departments at the University, from health science to education to photography and film.
Are you interested in musical theatre? Are you thinking of applying for a specialist triple threat college?
This Diploma in Musical Theatre course is designed for students aged 18+ who have completed a three A Level programme, which includes drama / dance / music or an Extended Diploma in Performing Arts. The underpinning experience in dance, singing and acting gained on these courses is essential to engage fully with this one year intensive triple threat course.
Students will:
- further develop a range of acting, voice and movement skills
- be assisted in their preparation for auditions, including classical and contemporary speeches and songs
- engage in a variety of performance projects in professional venues
- work with professional theatre directors, musical directors and choreographers
- attend a range of theatre performances
- Have regular lessons in tap, ballet, commercial and jazz sessions
- Learn about musical theatre history and context
The course is delivered through various practical and theoretical units and performance projects. A large proportion of the work undertaken is of a practical nature and is assessed continuously. There are no examinations on this course. The course is full time and students are required to be available for up to 18 hours contact time per week.
Students accepted on this course should be aiming to apply to specialist colleges or university.
Past graduates of the Level 4 Musical Theatre course have progressed onto a number of nationally acclaimed colleges including the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Mountview, GSA Conservatoire, Italia Conti, BiPA, and the Leeds Conservatoire, as well as various prestigious universities.
The YAFTA Acting for Screen Diploma is an 18-month, blended learning course. The diploma has been designed for those with little or no experience of screen acting who wish to undertake intensive training to equip them with the necessary tools and experience to progress from beginner to professional screen actor within 18 months. Students will have the unique opportunity to work directly with TV directors who are looking to help YAFTA students secure their first TV role.
YAFTA’s 18 month diploma course is a Spotlight accredited programme. This means that upon successful completion of this course, you will be eligible to join Spotlight.
The Musical Theatre Company course combines rigorous conservatoire training with continued, collaborative, student-led development of new work, preparing students not only to gain employment in the musical theatre industry, but as artists creating their own work.
With weekly classes in a range of dance styles, voice, acting, and singing (including audition technique), students will form a company and use these skills to engage in continued and collaborative development of new work (alongside students from the other MAs), guided by leading directors and practitioners working in the industry today.
Working towards public performances at the end of the year, students will leave prepared for auditions, the rehearsal process and the life of a working actor, having developed the knowledge, skills and contacts necessary to succeed in this highly-demanding industry.
RSL Level 3 Diploma in Performing and Creative Arts (Actor Musician Pathway).
Each term has a different focus and tutors - giving you the chance to stretch and improve your skills. It is intensive and requires a full commitment. The 2021 year ends in a big public show at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell (July 2021 is Disney's Beauty and the Beast). You will also appear in an acted play for National Theatre Connections (Bracknell and London theatres), and up to three additional full scale productions (Easter, Summer and Pantomime) with South Hill Park (subject to audition).
The course specialises in Musical Theatre for actors who play instruments, but the course is blended and offers Acting, Singing, Screen Acting, Dance, Performing with instruments and technical aspects. You will share many classes with our Musical Theatre and Producers pathways, but also have classes unique to your specialism.
Taught by industry professionals including Sam Spencer Lane - West End choreographer and former head of musical theatre at Mountview and Jonathan Ashby Rock - CEO of Hounslow Arts Centre. We will prepare you for the next level of your training!
You will have one to one weekly meetings with a mentor tutor to help you apply to the right course for your next stages, and arrange real work experience. You will have support with UCAS, and preparation for auditions for any creative university courses.
Accredited full time gap - year and vocational prep performing arts training for musical theatre performers who have completed year 13. RSL Level 3 Diploma in Performing and Creative Arts (Musical Theatre Pathway, with Screen Acting)
The course specialises in Musical Theatre, but the course is blended and also offers Acting, Singing, Screen Acting, Dance and technical aspects.
Taught by industry professionals including Sam Spencer Lane - West End choreographer and former head of musical theatre at Mountview. We will prepare you for the next level of your training!
Units will include (and have many other options): Musical Theatre techniques; vocal techniques; singing techniques; conditioning; ballet (beginners and company class). The work is vocational and practical - but you will also have to undertake written coursework and homework as part of the evidence needed for the course. As far as possible this takes place during the college day, and supervised study periods are timetabled to help get this done.
In addition to the qualifications there are dance and show-choirs you can audition to join as part of the college week. These companies perform for the public and attend competitions and events. Outside college time - you can join our Acting company Medusa Pro, Musical Theatre Company, Cheer squads and senior Hip Hop. All free for college students.
This course is accredited (you will get a L3 qualification if you complete it), and it is for students who want to prepare for vocational drama/musical theatre university courses, or have a university place already but would like a years intensive vocational training first.
The course is taught at second year Level 3/professional prep. It is designed for young people with experience of performing who would like to re-apply to vocational higher education, but do not feel prepared or ready currently, or who have maybe chosen a different pathway at uni and would like one last full year doing what they love.
Our graduates have gone on to Russell Group universities, Mountview, GSA, Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UAL, PPA, and more (including scholarships!).
Re-frame and challenge your artistic practice
This new course is expansive in how it interrogates the conventions of cultural, aesthetic or historical assumptions about contemporary dance. You will explore how dance practices are experienced and how they can be situated within wide social, political and artistic contexts. As a practice-led, and student centred course, you will develop professional skills and your portfolio of work, whilst we offer the space and support for you to re-frame and challenge your practice.
The course supports artists at different stages of their career who are forging their own paths as dancers, makers, teachers and facilitators, helping graduates to transition into or continue working confidently within the independent dance sector.
Throughout this course you will develop a portfolio of work which aims to build your confidence in how you contextualise your practice and how you can communicate your ideas.
The course:
- Is a 12-month MA course running from January to December.
- Has a strong research focus.
- Is centred around the learning journey of the individual within a community of researchers.
- Offers group learning and peer feedback.
- Explores different modes of communication and presentation including live performance, presentation, project proposals, digital outputs, and reflective portfolios.
You are encouraged to:
- Critically reflect on your own practice, acknowledging your own personal narratives and histories.
- Be autonomous and self-motivated in your own learning.
- Come with an open mind, be curious and be willing to take risks!
It will give you the opportunity to:
- Engage in a range of embodied, collaborative and reflective practices, choreographic approaches, political debate and creative experimentation.
- Build the necessary skills to be able to initiate and realise creative projects independently.
Validated by University of the Arts London (UAL).
Join us for a 10-week term of Saturday Youth Theatre COMPLETELY FREE. We have received funding to provide many more bursary places for our upcoming year of Youth Theatre. We would love to have you join us!
This full time course is designed for 16-18 year olds who aspire to make musical theatre their professional career; be it working in the West End, performing for companies, cruises, cabaret shows, the list goes on. There are many options for a professional career in musical theatre and this two-year course will predominantly focus on singing and acting skills for Musical theatre (both ensemble and one to one lessons) but will also provide the high quality dance training needed to set solid foundations in commercial dance, street dance, jazz, ballet, contemporary, tap, Latin, choreography, and much more.
Working in partnership with Stamford College we place teaching and learning at the heart of what we do, all of our staff are still working in the industry to ensure our students get current training that is relevant and effective. Our staff work in many areas in the industry including choreographing for X Factor, West End and The Royal Ballet and have performed in all areas of the industry, including West End musicals such as 42nd Street, Wicked, Chicago, Sweet Charity, along with many commercial artists like Anne-Marie, Zara Larsson, Rita Ora, and Camila Cabello.
During each year of training our dancers can audition to take part in main stage and showcase performances at Move It London (UK biggest dance convention attracting an audience of 70,000), CYD? Super Convention, Mass Movement and perform in a variety of UK venues as part of our Winter Tour. All students will also take part in termly shows. Alongside these performances throughout the course, students will study four mandatory modules as follows:
- Performing arts skills development
- The performing arts industry
- Personal performing arts profile
- Collaborative performing arts project
Once the BTEC Extended Diploma qualification is completed the students then have the opportunity to audition for a Higher Education course; enabling the performers to complete their training fully qualified and ready for the industry.
Our BTEC in Dance is run in partnership with Stamford College therefore course fees are fully funded and the awarding body for the qualification is Pearson.
Leeds Conservatoire's jazz degree was the first in the UK, and over the last 50 years we've become a leading authority in jazz across the UK and Europe.
Our course was the first Jazz degree to be established in Europe. Led by Programme Leader, Jamil Sheriff, and supported by a host of renowned jazz musicians, this highly collaborative curriculum will shape you into a forward-thinking, creative artist grounded in the tradition but with a hunger to take music to new dimensions.
Improvisation is the very essence of jazz, and a way of life at Leeds Conservatoire. We provide a uniquely supportive and collaborative space in which you can explore, experiment and create your own unique sound.
You’ll play with jazz musicians from all backgrounds, from raw talent to polished, and from progressive to purist. You’ll also benefit from working alongside students from other pathways, collaborating with producers, sound engineers, composers and entrepreneurs on your own independent projects.
As well as one-to-one tuition with experts in your specialism, you will form innovative ensembles, develop composition, musicology and critical listening skills, and receive expert advice and instruction from illustrious performers, composers and music industry professionals.
Recent guests have included Mark Turner, Clarence Penn, Nikki Iles, Maria Argiro, Leila Martial, Tim Garland, Champian Fulton, Aaron Parks and Eric Harland.
