Creative Arts with Performance Arts BA (Hons) top-up
Why not study performance in the town that’s produced TV hits such as Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack and Last Tango in Halifax? UCAS Code: 2B16
Entry Requirements: Foundation Degree in Acting Performance or an FD/HND in a relevant subject area
Course Info
The BA (Hons) Creative Arts with Performance Arts will allow you to extend your skills and knowledge from a Foundation Degree or HND to honours level. It provides an opportunity to engage in the process of creating, performing and realising performance products according to your specialist interest.
Although the focus of the programme is aimed at those who aspire to work in the performing arts industry it has, over the years, produced many graduates who want to work as drama or dance teachers. In the second semester, there is the option to elect either the Production route or the Teaching route, which allows aspiring teachers to gain experience of teaching in this specialist area. Many of our BA graduates who take this module, continue onto a PGCE in Lifelong Learning which you can also study at the University Centre.
The course also focuses on employability in the industry and clear links are forged between the development of high level performance skills and the individual personal development in relation to career aspirations. The course culminates in an end of year show in which you are invited to showcase your work as an emerging practitioner within the field of performance.
You will be encouraged to make links and build relationships with relevant industry professionals as well as developing your own strategies for successfully gaining employment.
It is possible, for people who are currently working in some area of the industry to use professional work in the Performance modules.
The modules you will study at Level 6 are:
- Performance Project
- Practitioner Skills
- Performance Making: Scratch
- Professional Practice: Production -OR- Professional Practice: Teaching (shared module)
- Final Major Project: Production -OR- Final Major Project: Teaching (shared module)
Important Links:
Teaching
Teaching on the course is largely workshop based. Performance work forms a central part of the course and includes work performed in our own performance studios and at outside venues such as the Square Chapel Arts Centre.
You will have the opportunity to work with a wide range of visiting theatre companies and other professionals working in the industry, such as actors, casting agents, TV directors and writers. Throughout the course, trips are arranged to see large-scale touring productions, devised theatre works and backstage theatre tours.
Your teaching will include tutor- and student-led sessions, with discussions, activities, group-work, seminars, and one-to-one tutorial opportunities. You will be in an enriching and immersive learning environment, which will enhance your development as a critical thinker.
One of the key strengths of our teaching at the University Centre is the amount of time we dedicate to supporting you as an individual student to help you get the best out of your programme. One-to-one tutorials with your tutor are important as they allow you to raise any particular issues you may be facing. Your tutor will be as supportive as possible in helping you work through these issues.
Lecturer Profiles
Course Leader: Sophie Dixon, BA(Hons), PGCE, MScDip, MA, is a teacher, artist, performer, theatre-maker, wife and mother. Sophie’s practice-as-research is concerned with ‘taking up space’, and presenting the house and home as a site of creative expression and maternal frustration/joy. Sophie has most recently exhibited and performed at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and collaborated with a collection of artists on a virtual reality theatre project in Singapore.
Lecturer: Jessica Harris, BA (Hons), PGCE, MA is an actor, theatre director and actor trainer, passionate about human connections, and how artform and craft express the unseen collective consciousness. Previously teaching Acting at East 15 Acting School, she has also collaborated in community projects. She has over 20 years’ professional experience in film, theatre, tv and radio, including lead roles at the National Theatre and drama and comedy series including Being Human.
Entry Requirements & Interview Process
Applicants are expected to have achieved a minimum of Pass in the Foundation Degree Creative Arts, or an equivalent level 5 award (comprising 240 credits of which 120 must be at level 5), such as a foundation degree or Higher National Diploma in a closely related subject area.
All applicants must complete a satisfactory interview as part of the admissions process. A good level of English and Maths is expected, however passes in Level 2 or GCSE qualifications are not absolute requirements. Applicants may, at the discretion of the course team, be required to bring a portfolio of work to the selection interview. Applicants for the Performance Arts specialism will also be required to present a 3-minute monologue (contemporary or historical).
Applications for RPL (RPEL or RPCL) will be considered where relevant experience or learning can be demonstrated, and the University Centre process has been satisfactorily completed.
