Professional Dance

Professional dance is a discipline that develops the technical, creative, and intellectual capacities of a performing artist to the level required for a professional career on stage, screen, or in the wider creative industries. It encompasses classical and contemporary dance techniques, choreography and creative practice, performance skills, the history and theory of dance, and the physical conditioning and body knowledge that professional dancers need to sustain long and healthy careers. At its best, a professional dance degree trains not just the body but the artistic mind.

At the University of Chester, this three-year, full-time programme includes a year abroad, providing you with the opportunity to study and train in a different national dance context. Different countries have distinct dance traditions and industries, and the year abroad can be transformative for your development as an artist, exposing you to new techniques, choreographic approaches, and professional networks. Chester has a strong creative arts tradition, and the professional dance programme develops your technical skills across multiple styles and genres while also giving you the theoretical and analytical grounding to engage critically with dance as a cultural and artistic form.

You will study choreography, producing your own work alongside performing in the work of others, and you will develop the professional skills, including audition technique, self-management, and the business of the performing arts, that a career in dance requires. A typical entry tariff of 120 UCAS points indicates the entry expectations.

Professional dance develops physical excellence, creative confidence, collaborative skills, and artistic resilience, all of which are genuinely transferable.

Graduates work as professional dancers, choreographers, dance teachers, and movement directors across stage, screen, community dance, and education. Others move into arts administration, dance journalism, and dance therapy. The skills developed are also valued in a range of creative and performance-adjacent industries.