MA/MFA DANCE PERFORMANCE

Course Details

Please note that all postgraduate dance programmes are in the process of re-validation and are subject to change. Any changes will be confirmed post validation in March 2021.

Incorporating your Transitions Dance Company year, these programmes offer you the opportunity to go beyond that professional model experience: to critically reflect on your practice as a performer, to research and explore the role of the performer in the artistic process, and to deepen your understanding of both the artistic and technical complexities inherent in dance performance.

You will collaborate with three professional choreographers to create a varied programme of work. Emerging and established dance makers are commissioned and previous makers have included Crystal Pite, Lost Dog, Lea Anderson, Rosemary Lee, Karole Armitage, Ben Wright, Hetain Patel and Theo Clinkard.

A UK and international tour of the programme offers the opportunity to explore your performance practice, enhancing your versatility and expertise as a performer in a repertoire company. Touring also supports you to develop a teaching practice through experience of delivering educational workshops.

This programme is undergoing periodic review in 2020/21, which may result in some changes to the sructure and/or content of the curriculum. Trinity Laban will update applicants on any changes to the published programme specification before offering places. 

Module Map

For further information:

• MA Dance PerformanceProgramme Specification
• MFA Dance Performance Programme Specification

Teaching and Learning

Hours

• Overall number of learning and teaching hours for the MA/MFA Year 1 is 2000
• Average contact hours for the MA/ MFA Year 1: approximately 35 hours per week
• Other types of learning and number of learning hours required of students (e.g. for self-directed study/group study etc) MA/MFA Year 1: 1050
• Overall number of learning hours for Year 2 (MFA only): 1400, including 15 hours of supervision and 5 hours of contact with your faculty mentor

How will I learn?

• Learn in an environment which closely resembles and prepares students for a professional company context. 
• Develop advanced technical and performative skills through daily classes of three contrasting but complementary dance techniques in Year 1.
• Collaborative skills are encouraged through your active engagement as learners in the creative process through discussion, reflection and evaluation.
• Reflection on both performance processes and individual development is encouraged in the studio and via seminars which relate closely to the phases of the practice being undertaken and the issues that arise from them.
• Three professional choreographers are selected to lead you in intensive creative processes which involve you in devising new works, and introduce you to a range of choreographic styles and working methods.
• To prepare for the professional performance milieu, you normally undertake 15-17 performances over a three month period of national and international touringwhere you perform in a wide range of performance contexts – from small spaces with minimal production capacity, to well-equipped professional theatres. You are led in this process by the Artistic Director with support from professional production staff.
• For MA students, the year culminates in an independent research-led project, enabling you to consolidate your skills and understanding of performance practice.
• MFA students undertake an extended independent project, and are expected to devise, plan and direct your own learning pattern in conjunction with your supervisor.

How will I be assessed?

• assessment of performance practice (e.g. technical skill, dance performance)
• a journal demonstrating the student’s ability to critically reflect on and contextualize their progress
• lecture-demonstration, and a practice based research project, which test the student’s ability to critically reflect on, synthesize and apply knowledge and understanding across both theory and practice

Entry Requirements

These programmes are open to recent graduates and more experienced performers who wish to return to study to gain a postgraduate qualification and applicants must demonstrate high-level technical, performative and creative skills as well as an aptitude for study at Masters level.

Entry Requirements

• Normally a UK undergraduate degree in an appropriate or related subject, or an overseas award of equivalent standard (e.g. USA degree – GPA 3.00 or above).
• Applicants without formal qualification are subject to the Institution’s recognition of prior learning (RPL) process.

English Language Requirements

Applicants for whom English is not their first language should demonstrate proficiency in English equivalent to IELTS 6.5 in all four areas or Trinity ISE III. In addition, meeting external requirements of UK Visas and Immigration is essential. 

AUDITIONS

Fees and Finance

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its affect on touring dance companies, this programme will not be running in 2021/22.

Fees for September 2020 entrants

Fees are reviewed annually and may increase by up to 5% each year. The following fees are confirmed.

Accommodation and Living Costs

This information can be found on our Costs of Living page.

Financial Support

Read about financial awards and external funding opportunities in the Fees and Finance section.

Alumni Destinations

Graduates have gone on to work with choreographers and companies such as: Sir Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Akram Khan Company, Siobhan Davies Dance Company, DV8, Rambert Dance Company, Random Dance Company, The Cholmondeleys, CandoCo, Michael Clark, BalletBoyz, Punchdrunk, Tavaziva, Arthur Pita and Miguel Pereira. 

Graduates have also created their own companies and presented work as independent artists.

“Transitions helped strengthen me and my work in a healthy and challenging environment which prepared me for my professional life. David Waring (Artistic Director) gave me time and space to explore these ideas that were dormant within me for a long time.”

– Brooke Smiley, MADP alumna (Michael Clark Company)

To view more of the impressive organisations that our alumni have worked with, visit Alumni Destinations.

For more information on the successes of Trinity Laban’s MA Dance Performance graduates and what they have to say about the course, visit Alumni Profiles.