Dance and Aerial Arts
Dance and aerial arts is a degree that explores the full range of human movement as a creative and expressive medium, combining the established disciplines of dance practice, choreography, and dance theory with the increasingly prominent practice of aerial performance. Aerial arts, which include disciplines such as aerial silks, trapeze, aerial hoop, and aerial straps, are forms of circus and contemporary performance practice that have moved significantly from their circus origins into contemporary arts contexts, appearing in theatre, dance, site-specific work, and community performance. Studying them alongside dance opens a creative space where different movement practices inform and challenge each other.
At the University of Chichester, this three-year full-time programme offers what is a distinctive combination in UK higher education. Chichester has invested in dance and performance facilities that support both conventional dance training and aerial work, and the programme draws on staff with expertise in both areas. You will develop technical proficiency in dance across styles including contemporary, ballet, and possibly other forms, alongside training in aerial techniques, and you will study choreography, performance practice, dance history, and the critical and theoretical frameworks that contextualise movement-based performance.
The degree is both practically intensive and academically engaged, requiring you to develop as a performer and creator while also thinking critically about what dance and aerial performance are, where they come from, and what they can do. You will build a portfolio of practical and creative work across the three years, developing your artistic identity alongside your technical range.
Graduates move into careers as performers, choreographers, aerial performers, dance teachers, community arts practitioners, and arts administrators. Many graduates develop portfolio careers that combine performance with teaching, community work, and artistic creation across different contexts and venues.