DEGREE GUIDE

Dance

What do Dance degrees involve?

Dance degrees teach you how to develop technical ability, creative expression, and theoretical knowledge in a range of dance styles. You will explore key areas such as choreography, performance techniques, movement analysis, dance history, and somatic practices. These courses help you build physical strength, artistic versatility, and critical thinking skills while learning how dance contributes to culture, wellbeing, and education. You will also gain hands-on experience through performances, workshops, and collaborations with industry professionals. With practical training, creative projects, and opportunities to specialise, you’ll graduate prepared for careers in performance, choreography, teaching, or dance therapy.

Example
Modules

Body in Training 1: The Healthy Dancer: Explore how strength, alignment and conditioning support safe dance practice, with an introduction to key anatomical principles.

Dance Making 1: Develop choreographic confidence by experimenting with movement, improvisation and creative tasks to create original performance material.

Exploring Screendance: Learn how dance is reimagined for film and video, using editing, framing and digital tools to transform choreography on screen.

Common Degree Names

💼 A placement year is available at some universities, often in education, community arts, or professional dance companies.
🌍 Study abroad is offered by some institutions.

BA (Hons) Dance
BA (Hons) Dance and Performance
BA (Hons) Dance and Choreography
BA (Hons) Dance and Musical Theatre
BA (Hons) Dance and Education

A laptop displaying a screendance editing timeline with a dancer mid-leap alongside a dance anatomy textbook open to hip joint diagrams, a choreography notebook with stage pattern sketches, a Labanotation sheet, ballet shoes, knee pads, a foam roller and a water bottle on a sprung studio floor, illustrating the creative, technical and analytical skills developed in Dance degrees

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Dance degrees vary in focus – some are practical and performance-based, others include theory, choreography, or dance education. Most courses expect creative ability, technical experience, and academic study.

Subjects that can help:

Dance – usually essential or strongly preferred for performance courses
Performing Arts or Drama – helpful for movement and physical theatre
Physical Education – useful for anatomy and movement
English Literature or Media Studies – valuable for dance theory and writing

✨ For practical/conservatoire courses, technical ability is essential. If you don't have A-level (or equivalent) Dance, universities often expect substantial prior training through dance schools, graded exams, or performances.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Performing Arts or Performing Arts Practice
BTEC National Diploma or Extended Certificate in Performing Arts or Dance, alongside A-levels
UAL Level 3 Diplomas in Performing Arts or Dance Practice
T-levels (limited acceptance), likely to need to be paired with dance training
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with at least two IB Higher Level subjects (ideally three - see relevant subjects above) alongside your Career-Related Study; a Performing Arts pathway would be directly relevant — most Dance courses require an audition

Some Dance degrees are more academic, while others focus on performance and technique; make sure your qualifications align with the course type by checking the university website.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most universities ask for:

GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or equivalent such as National 5s or MYP

📘 GCSE Dance (or equivalent) is helpful if available, but not essential.

Strong English skills are important for writing about choreography, theory, and critical reflection.

💃 Auditions
Almost all Dance degrees require an audition. This might include:

A taught technique class (e.g. contemporary or ballet)
Performing a solo piece or short choreography
An interview or discussion about your dance background and motivation

Requirements vary, so always check the specific audition guidance from the university or conservatoire.

🔍 Work Experience
You don't need formal work experience to apply for Dance — your audition is what counts. If you're looking for ways to develop beyond your regular training, performing in as many contexts as possible, choreographing your own work, teaching or assisting younger dancers, and attending workshops or festivals all help you grow as a dancer and give you something to reflect on.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What draws you to dance - and how has your practice developed so far? Reflect on your journey as a dancer: the styles you've explored, the training you've had, the performances or pieces you've been part of, and any choreography you've created. Think about dancers, choreographers, or companies whose work inspires you and how they've influenced your own movement or creative ideas. Admissions tutors want to see your passion for dance and understanding of yourself as a developing artist - what excites you, where you want to grow, and your commitment to the discipline that serious dance training requires.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Diploma in Performing Arts or Dance

A common route into Dance degrees, particularly if you haven't studied Dance at Level 3. This helps you build your technique and audition preparation before applying for the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Performing Arts or Dance)

Accepted by some universities, particularly for Dance Studies or dance education courses. Your audition and practical experience will usually carry significant weight alongside the academic qualification.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Dance degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Theatre, Dance & Live Performance: The degree is built around dancing, choreographing, and performing. You'll train daily in technique, develop your own choreographic voice, and rehearse and present work to live audiences, finding how movement can express ideas that words can't reach.

Different Cultures, Languages & Beliefs: Most UK Dance degrees train you in traditions from across the globe, from ballet and contemporary to capoeira, bharata natyam, and African contemporary. You'll explore how culture is practised through movement and what each tradition asks of the body.

Sport, Movement & Physical Performance: Dance science runs through the degree. You'll study anatomy, conditioning, injury prevention, and the biomechanics of movement, learning how the body trains, recovers, and performs at its limits, and how to sustain a long career as a dancer.

Students who thrive in a Dance degree are often motivated by

Movement and Physical Activity

You're energised by work where your body is part of what gets the job done. Training and competing, dancing or performing, coaching others through physical activity, the hands-on side of nursing, midwifery, dentistry or veterinary practice, or the operational work of being a paramedic, firefighter or outdoor instructor: the actual job happens through what you do with your body. You'd rather be the one doing the physical work than the one analysing or organising it from a desk.

Sharing Your Work with Others

You take pride in showing what you've created to others, whether that's exhibiting artwork, demonstrating an invention, publishing writing, or presenting project results. The moment when someone else experiences or responds to your work gives you a buzz. You create with an audience in mind, even if that audience is small.

Personal Expression

You're energised by making work that's recognisably yours: putting your perspective, experiences, or imagination into something you create. Whether that's art, writing, design, music, film, or any creative output, you get the most from the work when your own voice or vision is showing through, not when you're producing something indistinguishable from anyone else's. Creative work that lets you leave your mark feels more satisfying than work that's purely technical, however skilled.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

Performing and Presenting

You love being in the spotlight, whether that's on a stage, in front of a camera, or giving a presentation to a room full of people. The energy of a live audience or the focus of all eyes on you doesn't make you nervous; it makes you come alive. You thrive on the immediate connection between performer and audience, and you miss it when it's gone.

What makes Dance click for the students who love it?

Some things can't be said, only moved, and that gap is exactly where dance lives for them. They've communicated through their bodies for as long as they can remember, and the sheer intensity of daily training reads as energising rather than draining. What they want is to shape movement into something recognisably theirs, an idea no sentence could carry, then put it in front of an audience. What drives them is the physical, expressive power of dance itself.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you love moving to music — and do you notice when your body just knows what to do before your brain catches up?
Do you enjoy making up your own routines or movement sequences rather than just following someone else's?
Do you like pushing yourself physically — working to get stronger, more flexible, and more precise over time?
Do you tend to think about how something felt afterwards — not just whether it went well, but how it felt in your body?

Careers a Dance degree could lead you to

Dance

What do Dance degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers a Dance degree could lead you to

Example
Modules