BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice

The BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice, is a forward-thinking course that continues to increase in popularity nationally and internationally since it started in 2007. This vibrant and distinctive course offers students the chance to study with a dynamic and specialist skilled dance team in a great location that is the cultural hub of East London. This course is also offered with a foundation year, as a four year course. 

BA (Hons)

We cover hip-hop, club, social and popular dance styles, with contemporary techniques from across Europe, Africa and Asia. Whether it is popping or locking, contemporary or capoeira, afro-house or bharata natyam, our course continues to be the first of its kind to offer a degree in dance without borders or limitations.

You will have great opportunities to perform your work in our annual student led festival, studio sharings and external events. The dance team will support and guide you to develop your skills as a researcher, choreographer, performer and in events management whilst giving you networking opportunities from our varied and exciting industry links.

We help create dance all-rounders preparing you for a portfolio career in the arts. So you will theorise, create  and collaborate in dance managing yourself and others.  You will discover and practise many various types of dance.

BA (Hons) with foundation year

The Level 3 Foundation year in Performing Arts is designed to equip students with a range of performance and academic skills. It will prepare you for university level study. Once you complete the foundation year, you will be able to progress onto the BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice.

One of the great attractions of our three-year course is its sheer variety in both study and practice.

Sometimes, you'll combine both as you create and perform dance that communicates a response to political, cultural and aesthetic questions.

You'll study a wide range of dance forms, such as hip-hop, club and funk styles, and international forms including capoeira, African contemporary, Afro-house, bharata natyam, kathak and kalaripayattu.

Each year, you'll take modules in technique, choreography, professional development and research. There'll be opportunities to focus on performance and choreography through film and video practice, and you will have the opportunity to collaborate with your music and theatre student colleagues.

In your final year, through our excellent links with partner organisations such as East London Dance, Breakin' Convention and Stratford Circus, you'll undertake a work placement.

In addition, thanks to our reputation, you'll have numerous opportunities throughout the course to work with acclaimed professional artists, such as renowned choreographers Kenrick Sandy (Boy Blue) and Hofesh Shechter and top dancers such as house dance's Clara Bajado and popping and locking master Fred 'The Realness' Folkes.

• Tawjihi: 60% for Foundation
• 3 x AS Levels: Foundation
• US High School Diploma: GPA 2.0 for Foundation
• US High School Diploma: GPA 3.0 + SAT1 1070 for Direct Entry to Bachelor's
• International Baccalaureate (IB): 25 points with minimum 15 at Higher Level for Direct Entry to Bachelor's
• 3 x A Levels: Direct Entry to Bachelor's

The breadth of our course means you'll graduate with a wide set of skills to equip you to be a true dance all-rounder.

Many of our graduates go on to enjoy what we call a 'portfolio' career, making a thriving living in varied areas such as teaching, choreography, performing and managing.

Through your work placements, dance management studies and your involvement in creating and staging community dance projects, you couldn't be better prepared for the world of work.

Our graduates are working in teaching, dancing, advertising, marketing, design and arts administration. One graduate, Dani Harris-Walters, even became a TV star as runner-up on Sky TV's Got to Dance series in 2014.

We're proud to have helped shape the careers of our students, whether they've gone on to run their own companies, to work as dance administrators and managers, to deliver and teach workshops in communities and schools or to produce, choreograph and direct works for stage and screen.

The graduates who succeed on our course are innovative, confident and original. People like Brian Gillespie, who got his degree a few  years ago and now runs his own company, B-Hybrid Dance, in which he's artistic director, choreographer and performer.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.