MA Dance Cultures

Entry standards

Prospective students are normally required to hold a First or Upper Second class honours degree at Bachelors level or equivalent. Non-graduates are accepted if dance qualifications and experience are equivalent to a degree. 

English language requirements

Non-native speakers of English will normally be required to have IELTS 6.5 or above, with a minimum of 6.0 in each component (or equivalent).

Please note that the University of Surrey offers English language programmes and is also an IELTS Test Centre.

MA Dance Cultures - structure and modules

Module Titles

Compulsory Modules

• Politicising Practice
• Performing Theories
• Research Methodologies

Optional modules include:

• Culture, Power and Difference
• Professional Internship
• Site-specific Performance
• London Casebook

Module Overview

You will study three compulsory modules, select three to four optional modules and, for a Masters qualification, research and write a dissertation. Examples of modules available are:

Politicising Practice

This compulsory module provides the foundation for the degree and considers the interplay of cultures, histories and politics in twenty-first-century performing arts production and practices. It also seeks to develop a complex understanding of theoretical models that investigate the construction of the body, and social frameworks, as a strategy to analyse performance practice.

Performing Theories

This compulsory module explores the roles, positions and functions of authorial voices, texts and readers as employed in writing, dancing and theatre-making. It investigates concepts and practices – such as translation, reconstruction and reinvention – in the creative work, and engages critically with circular interchanges between practice and theory deployed by artists, practitioners and scholars.

Culture, Power and Difference

This optional module examines a range of dance practices that have been represented as ‘cultural’ forms, situating their ‘cultural’ identity in relation to colonialism, nationalism and to global political and economic forces, as well as in relation to their historical context. Artistic practices and discourses will be investigated in relation to selected aspects of technological, social and cultural development in global theatre culture.

Professional Internship

This optional module allows you to participate in a professional internship supported by a mentoring and peer-observation scheme. The scheme gives you the opportunity to engage with skills, processes and ideas that relate to your own field of work, but with the opportunity to discover and reflect upon how other industries and practitioners operate.

Site-specific Performance

This optional practice-based module traces a range of non-theatre performance practices to define the term ‘site-specific’. Situating site-specific performance as a potential agent for change in audience perceptions or in the sites inhabited, you will examine intersections between performance and other social spheres, including tourism, geography, urban planning, local government, ‘the everyday’ and archaeology.

London Casebook

This optional module is designed to support creative practitioners and address changing and innovative agendas in the performing arts. This module engages critically with the processes of making performance, film, theatre, dance and writing. By viewing and discussing key cultural events in London, you are encouraged to locate themselves in current cultural practices and the debates that shape London as a global and cultural destination.

Programme Structure

Semester 1 modules: Students study for 90 credits in semester 1

Semester 2 modules: Students study for 90 credits in semester 2

MA Dance Cultures - entry standards

Entry standards

Prospective students are normally required to hold a First or Upper Second class honours degree at Bachelors level or equivalent. Non-graduates are accepted if dance qualifications and experience are equivalent to a degree. 

English language requirements

Non-native speakers of English will normally be required to have IELTS 6.5 or above, with a minimum of 6.0 in each component (or equivalent).

Please note that the University of Surrey offers English language programmes and is also an IELTS Test Centre.

Application procedure

Applications for a one-year teaching assistantship must be received by 31 May. Applications for self-funded students must be received by 30 June. Enquiries are welcome at any time of the year and we will arrange either an in-person or phone interview as required. Potential applicants are invited to visit the campus and attend a research seminar. Although places are limited, we will consider late applications until 31 August if places are still available.

Planned intake

Full-time: 9
Part-time: 8

Start date

MA Dance Cultures - fees and funding

Fees

Dance Cultures (full time):

UK/EU - £6,400 
Overseas - £11,865

Dance Cultures (part time):

UK/EU - £3,200 
Overseas - £5,935

www.surrey.ac.uk/pgfees/2012

Funding

The Arts and Humanities Research Council offers a variety of studentships to support research and taught postgraduate students in the field of performing arts. The University and the Department offer teaching assistantships. Information about the latter is available from the Department at interview.

Prizes

Prizes

The University awards two academic prizes: 

•  The Janet Lansdale Prize awarded annually for the most outstanding MA dissertation 
•  The Pauline Hodgens Prize awarded biennially for the most outstanding piece of coursework on dance analysis

MA Dance Cultures - professional context

Industry Links

The Department of Dance, Film and Theatre has a long-established tradition of placing students in industry through its undergraduate Dance programme. We offer a professional internship programme that draws upon over 60 partners in the creative industries at internationally recognised companies and performing arts institutions. These include Sadlers Wells, The Place, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Phoenix Dance Company, South East Dance Agency, Greenwich Dance Agency and Woking Dance Festival.

MA Dance Cultures - teaching

Teaching

In the Autumn semester,you are required to study two compulsory modules. Politicising Practice provides the theoretical and methodological foundation for postgraduate study. Performing Theories addresses relationships between practice and theory in making performance work with reference to current debates. 

In contrast, the Spring semester offers a range of optional modules including: Site-specific Performance; Culture, Power and Difference; London Casebook and Professional Internship. This enables you to build on areas of interest developed in the first semester, using theoretical and/or practical methods of enquiry. During the summer, you will write a dissertation on an approved subject of their choice. Each student is assigned a tutor who guides them through the process of writing the dissertation in one- to-one tutorials.

In addition to the taught programme, a range of extra-curricular opportunities are available to you during their period of study. Regular research seminars with guest speakers and bi-yearly research weeks are held in the Department. You may sample undergraduate practice modules, such as Kathak and African Dance, or build up your intellectual apparatus with theoretical modules such as Dance Politics and Identities or National Forms, Global Forms. 

In addition, the Department runs a range of activities such as Composer and Choreographer weekends with the Department of Music and Sound Recording, and programmes a series of arts events on campus.

The MA Dance Cultures is currently delivered on Thursdays and Fridays and part-time students attend on one of these days according to the module choices they make. Typically, a module will comprise of ten three-hour taught sessions. 

The teaching delivery of  the programme varies according to the modules and includes seminars, lectures, workshops, independent study, visits and tutorials. Assessment methods are likewise dependent on the learning outcomes of a module and include performances, essays and presentations. Formative assessments are built into the compulsory modules in order that the students may be given effective individual feedback at an early stage. 

Dissertation supervisors are allocated with great care and every effort is made to match student interest with staff expertise. Part-practical dissertations are welcomed in the Department and members of staff have extensive experience in guiding you through such projects.

MA Dance Cultures - learning

Facilities

The University Library contains the majority of set texts, key journals and conference proceedings in dance scholarship for the programme. The MA Dance Cultures is also supported by the National Resource Centre for Dance, which is located on the University campus. Students have access to extensive facilities through IT Services, and additional support is available in the Learning Resource Centre in the University Library. 

An office equipped with computers has been designated in the Nodus building for postgraduate students. The Nodus building, which is the home of the Department of Dance, Film and Theatre, has a seminar room, the Seedpod, which is used for teaching. It provides a well-equipped, comfortable and welcoming space amongst the Department offices particularly suited for teaching MA students. Modules that rely in part or entirely on practice-based learning require specialist studio provision. 

The PATS studio and AC studio are dedicated dance spaces for the sole use of the Department. In addition, new Guildford School of Acting facilities provide enhanced studio space.

Each student is assigned a personal tutor who provides academic guidance and pastoral support throughout the period of study. In addition, the University provides a range of student support services. These include a Medical Centre, Counselling Centre, International Office, Student Advice and Information Service, various library support services, Additional Learning Support and English language tuition.

MA Dance Cultures - graduate profile

Graduate Profile: Elena Catalano

MA Dance

When I was planning to do an MA in Dance in the UK, I spent time finding the right university for me. I wanted a programme that would best suit my interests and for an institution that would be considered one of the best in the field of dance. I was also looking for a location that would let me enjoy student life but guarantee the tranquillity necessary for studying. The University of Surrey gives me all of this.

The most attractive aspect of my programme is the well-balanced combination of theory and practice. I would definitely recommend Surrey to those interested in approaching dance in all its complexity. Not only through learning technique and practical skills, but also to understand dance as a human expression, with political, historical,
artistic and many other implications. 

When I graduate, I will have the right tools to undertake a PhD programme as well as a career in dance, as performer and teacher. 

I particularly appreciate the theoretical approach to dance practice, which has inspired me and will drive me to create performances that are multilayered and deep in meaning. I have also found the feedback sessions very useful, in which I learned how to share ideas and how to stimulate changes in a positive way. I consider this a skill that I will be glad to apply in my teaching sessions. 

I found coming to Surrey a shock-free experience, thanks to the kind and very efficient welcome services offered by the different University support staff. I became a full postgraduate student in less than one day and without making any effort. Attending an MA in the UK has been one of the best choices of my life.

MA Dance Cultures - more

Outstanding International Reputation 

The Department of Dance, Film and Theatre at the University of Surrey has an outstanding international reputation for its contribution to dance research and teaching. As the first institution in the country to offer academic programmes in dance studies, Surrey has led the way for dance in higher education. Strengths of the postgraduate programme at Surrey include: 

• A highly qualified academic staff respected professionally at national and international levels 
• A friendly and supportive working atmosphere with good studio, rehearsal and teaching facilities 
• A wide range of high-quality performing opportunities, including site-specific work and projects with visiting professionals 
• A professional internship programme with over 60 partners in the creative industries at internationally recognised companies and performing arts institutions 
• Excellent employment prospects in education, the community, theatre and industry 
• The University is only 40 minutes by train from the international cultural scene in London, providing innumerable opportunities to see the latest dance, film and theatre works from Britain and overseas and meet other dance practitioners, scholars, choreographers and dancers 
• Optimum Fitness provides inexpensive sports therapy activity on campus 
• The National Resource Centre for Dance holds a unique archive of dance-related materials in the main University Library 

Research 

Surrey’s approach to performing arts research critically engages with the archives of the past and the embodied imagination of the present. It also rigorously articulates new frameworks for understanding interactions between dance and culture in the twenty-first century. 

The Department’s interdisciplinary approach is sustained by innovative approaches to documentation, analysis and performance investigation of the arts in a global context. Surrey has led the field in the development of cross-cultural dance, choreographic analysis and popular dance research. 

Three themes give historical and cultural scope to the current research agenda: 

• Performing the Archive 
• Performances of the Popular
• The Surrey Documentary Group

The Department of Dance, Film and Theatre hosts and supports established research centres, research groupings and networks, such as Popular Music and Dance Matters, as well as individual research projects. Our research extends to partnerships with the artistic community; for example, in support of public debates or in the dissemination of arts practice through the digital and print media. 

Ideas, Practices, Professions 

We believe that a Masters programme should introduce the most exciting ideas and practices of the moment. 

It welcomes students from around the world and enables them to speak back to that world: through practices, ideas, their professions and lives. 

Dance and theatre at Surrey are closely related. We invite you to find your own way through these disciplines intersecting and follow your own path. 

We welcome applications from those who wish to develop existing or emerging careers, reflect on ideas and practices and respond creatively to professional worlds.

MA Dance Cultures - apply

Applications for a one-year teaching assistantship must be received by 31 May. Applications for self-funded students must be received by 30 June. Enquiries are welcome at any time of the year and we will arrange either an in-person or phone interview as required. Potential applicants are invited to visit the campus and attend a research seminar. Although places are limited, we will consider late applications until 31 August if places are still available.

• MA Dance Cultures - Full-time - starting September 2012
• MA Dance Cultures - Part-time - starting September 2012