Performing Arts
BA (Hons)
Intermediate award(s): CertHE, DipHEAlicia Morton
BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Full-time)
“The reason that I chose to study BA (Hons) Performing Arts at Anglia Ruskin University was due to discovering exciting elements that the Performing arts degree entailed such as, dramatherapy and individual instrumental tuition. Also, because the course is a fusion drama, music and movement. Something newly constructed to cater for students that didn't want to study just Drama.
The main aspect I enjoy of my course is the fact that we collaborate with students from many different pathways, giving me an opportunity to learn about many different skills and create diverse and interesting pieces of work. I also like the fact that there is so much scope within each and every module to explore and express your own creative freedom, each module is designed to be exciting and intellectually stimulating. With such a great variety of modules on offer it is certainly an enriching course.
We are often e-mailed regarding opportunities and I successfully auditioned for a lead female role in a play called "The Mirror", performing in a London theatre at a Fringe Festival in Summer 2011. I have also gained skills in dance and movement since being on the BA (Hons) Performing Arts and I auditioned to dance in the Olympics. I have recently heard that I have been accepted and I will be dancing in the Opening Ceremonies of London 2012 Olympics. In my second year, I undertook an internship with NIE theatre company, an opportunity gained through the course. Thanks to Anglia Ruskin I have developed many skills that have helped me get involved in these amazing opportunities.
The support of the teaching staff is fantastic. Each and every one of the lecturers in my pathway will go out of their way as much as possible to help you no matter how big or small the problem may be. It is thanks to my lecturers that I have developed and come on well in my written work through constructive feedback.
I would recommend this course to others because it is full of great opportunities. Working with students from different pathways, work placements, performing in local theatre: the list of experiences is endless. This course has not only helped me progress intellectually but it has also armed me with skills that will be needed when I finish the course.
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Course overview
The BA (Hons) Performing Arts degree draws on the unique strengths of music and drama within the University, allowing you the opportunity to explore their connections and the creative potential of both disciplines. The emphasis of the course is on developing you as a confident, versatile and exciting practitioner, who is able to work across music and drama in innovative and dynamic ways.To support this, we offer an exciting and stimulating environment for performing arts students. Our outstanding facilities include two dedicated drama studios, complete with a flexible black-box performance space, an additional rehearsal space, and the Mumford Theatre, a full-size receiving house for professional touring companies, and a purpose-built music centre with lecture and practice rooms, recital hall, and five state-of-the-art computer music studios. Plus there are countless opportunities to engage in performance locally.
Performance activities lie at the heart of the performing arts degree and you will encounter an extensive and varied range of events to complement your academic studies. A team of visiting specialists of national and international repute provides, individual instrumental and vocal tuition, and visiting performers, practitioners and academics provide additional workshops, masterclasses and lectures.
We are especially proud of our interdisciplinary performance events, where staff and students collaborate on projects across our disciplines. This has culminated in full-scale opera productions, such as Turandot, Peter Grimes, La Traviata, and La Bohème, alongside music-theatre projects, which have involved such things as dance, sensor technologies and actors. The chance to develop your creative skills in a professional, yet friendly atmosphere is sure to make this a challenging and hugely rewarding experience.
Additional course information
The majority of modules on the performing arts course have a particular emphasis on 20th century and contemporary collaborative performance practice. Students share modules with music and drama students, as well as having subject-specific classes, so that you develop your skills around collaboration and multi-disciplinary approaches to creative work.Module guide
Level 1 core modules
Performance Processes
This module aims to provide you with an introductory understanding of the development of Western performance, engaging in an examination of both practice and critical material. Through a consideration of significant moments, key movements and practitioners in the history of Western performance, you will be encouraged to question the nature and function of performance, theatre and music and consider their interdisciplinarity. Within this context, you will be introduced to a range of performance texts as examples for a practical exploration. The historical investigation of key movements and practitioners will be approached with an emphasis on performance processes rather than end product. You will be introduced to a variety of working methodologies and practices from the historical trajectory of Western performance, addressing their political, cultural and socioeconomic significance. Through relating theoretical and practical approaches, the module will seek to examine changes in form and conventions in performance practices.
Studio Performance
In this module, you will be part of a studio-based collaborative live performance, based on a selected text or combination of texts, which often involves our active deconstruction or reinvention of the piece to be performed. The notion of 'text' might include play-text, music theatre text, other devised performance works and live or recorded music too. We will analyse our text's significant actions and meanings, and explore the variety of ways in which these could be made manifest in performance. Lighting and sound designs will be developed for the performance and documented for use by back-stage technicians. You will be encouraged to explore the possibilities for effective set design in the studio and to make use of available resources for costume design. Throughout rehearsals, we will investigate ideas of postmodern performance in practice and consider how the production of such work might differ from traditional techniques in theatre-making.
Digital Performance
Digital Performance will introduce you to the creative use of technology in performance. You will engage with multidisciplinary performance and explore the distinctions between making live and recorded performance. This will involve the acquisition of skills in relation to a number of the traditional technical aspects of theatre (lighting, sound, stage management) as well as newer technologies (video making, use of live feeds, internet performance, using software packages). You will work in groups on small creative projects, developing a short performance using a mixture of live and recorded effects. You will be encouraged to draw on their own experience as spectators to inform the creative decisions made on this module.
Performance Skills - Introduction
This is a practically based module which aims to develop a knowledge and understanding of interdisciplinary performance skills. It aims to train you in appropriate technical skills, based upon an explicit understanding of their physical and conceptual origins. You will explore notions of physical awareness through the acquisition of artistic, technical and performance skills. Through a developmental series of group practical workshops, you will investigate a range of approaches to such questions as: the preparation and training of the performer; presence, physicality and voice; the work of the ensemble. Practical sessions will incorporate discussion that aims to contextualise the material and/or exercises being explored.
Performance Skills - Vocabularies
This module continues to enhance and extend your technical and artistic development as a practitioner through an extended enquiry into the roles, functions and identities of the performer. You will explore more complex performance vocabularies, which might include 'texts' with reference to their two fields of study, such as play texts, movement and music scores, and performance scripts.
Level two core modules
- Making Performance
- Performance Skills - Composition
- Performance Skills - Improvisation
- Politics and Performance
Level three core modules
- Devising Performance
- Major Project
Level one optional modules
- Performance Analysis
- Anglia Language Programme
Level two optional modules
- Anglia Language Programme
- Interdisciplinary Performance
- New Media Performance
- Performance Laboratory
- Performing Theatre
- Principles and Practice of Music Education
Level three optional modules
- Anglia Language Programme
- Art, Music and Performance
- Enterprise in the Creative Arts
- Music Theatre Studies
- Performance and Identity
- Principles of Music Therapy and Drama Therapy
- Special Subject
Assessment
Assessment is carried out via a very broad mix of methods including: essays, reports, critical reflections, presentations, studio and public performances, and a Major Project, which may include practical work. A proportion of the degree is aimed at facilitating your creative development and integrates practice and theory where appropriate. This extends to the forms of assessment that our students encounter.Practice-based research includes exploring a range of rehearsal techniques and strategies for making performance, training workshops, text-based work, devising, the interrogation of techniques in directing, dramaturgy and performance skills, and the use of interdisciplinary techniques and vocabularies.
Amanda Stuart-Fisher
Performing Arts External Examiner 2012
“The students have the option to experience a wide range of learning and teaching methods, which is also reflected in numerous different modes of assessment. I was also impressed by the breadth and depth that some of the students achieved in their presentations and practical work.”
Facilities
LibrariesOur campus libraries offer a wide range of publications and a variety of study facilities, including open-access computers, areas for quiet or group study and bookable rooms. We also have an extensive Digital Library providing on and off-site access to e-books, e-journals and databases.
We endeavour to make our libraries as accessible as possible for all our students. During Semester time, they open 24 hours a day from Monday to Thursday, until midnight on Friday and Saturday and for 12 hours on Sunday.
IT Resources
Our open access computer facilities provide free access to the internet, email, messaging services and the full Microsoft Office suite. A high speed wireless service is also available in all key areas on campus. If you are away from campus or a distant learner, our student desktop and its many applications can be accessed remotely using the internet. Your personal student email account provides free document storage, calendar facilities and social networking opportunities.
Throughout your studies you will have access to our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), providing course notes, reading materials and multi-media content to support your learning, while our e-vision system gives you instant access to your academic record and your timetable.
Special features
Our Performing Arts course offers a distinctive and creative integration of practice and theory, as well as vocational experience. Teaching is provided by first-class, research-active staff who are recognised, nationally and internationally, as experts in their field and who are often professional practitioners.In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, set up to monitor the quality of research in UK universities, 80% of the Department's work was judged to be of international standard, with 20% judged to be either 'internationally excellent' or 'world leading'.
Related Links
Fall in Love with TheatreMusic and Performing Arts Band Showcase success
The proof is in the pudding for drama students
Course Leader
Dr Nigel WardLinks with industry and professional recognition
We have fostered close links with a range of industry partners, including The Junction, an arts venue in Cambridge, where you can see a variety of theatre and music performance works, Hazard Chase, one of the leading international music management companies, and the Britten Sinfonia, one of Europe's most celebrated and innovative chamber orchestras.A range of visiting artists and performers are also regularly invited to give masterclasses and workshops across our courses.
Work placements
Work placement opportunities are available via the third-year Enterprise in the Creative Arts module, which encompasses such areas as music and theatre education, instrumental teaching, artist management, marketing, and events management.Associated careers
The varied disciplines and skills you will acquire on the Performing Arts course will provide a strong platform of employable skills for many walks of life. The emphasis on versatility that our degree fosters makes our graduates attractive to employers, and former students currently enjoy highly successful careers as performers, producers, directors, drama teachers and arts administrators, to name but a few.An important feature of the curriculum is those modules that have a vocational bias, in particular Enterprise in the Creative Arts, which encourages you to acquire and reflect on vocational experience through self-organised placement projects.
Research shows that the study of the creative and performing arts to an enhanced level provides the ideal training for any position requiring quick thinking, self-reliance, imagination, teamwork and the ability to organise both yourself and others.
| UCAS Tariff points: | 220 - 260 |
| Additional Requirements: | Required subject(s): A-level Performance or Theatre Studies, Drama, Music or related subject at grade B |
We welcome applications from International and EU students. Please select one of the links below for English language and country-specific entry requirement information.
How to apply
UCAS code
W491Location
Duration
3 yearsAvailable starts
September, JanuaryStudent finance
Open Day
Saturday 22 JuneUndergraduate Open Day
Advice & support
EmployabilityFaculty
Arts, Law & Social SciencesDepartment
Music and Performing ArtsContact us
UK and EU applicants:- Call 01245 686868
- Complete enquiry form
- Call +44 (0)1245 493131 ext 2609
- Complete enquiry form
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