If you’re reading this, you must be thinking about taking a degree in performing arts. That’s a good decision, and you won’t regret it. But which course? You need to research the options – go to tees.ac.uk/ ug/performingarts&music for detailed
information, and come to one of our open days – you’ll find the next one at
tees.ac.uk/opendays. And while you’re
waiting, check out our facilities at
tees.ac.uk/campustour.
So you’ll know more about the course and the career it leads to – but can you imagine what it will be like? You don’t have to wonder – in the following pages you can read how people just like you chose their course, enjoyed their studies, and went on to a satisfying and successful career.
Read on … make your mind up … apply … and you’ll never look back.
See you soon
Professor Gerda Roper
Dean
School of Arts & Media
Welcome
Find out more
T: 01642 384019
E: arts@tees.ac.uk
tees.ac.uk/ug/performingarts&music
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FOCUS ON
Rachel Highfield
BA (Hons) Dance
4 5 6
Helge Musial
Senior lecturer
–
Dance
First-class facilities
8 9 10 11 11
Elizabeth Sayer
1
BA (Hons) Performance
for Live and Recorded
Media
News
Gabriella and Sophie
seize the moment
Charlotte
Brinksman
BA (Hons) Dance
Student work
Find out more,
> We are the UK’s top new university for student experience (Times Higher Education survey 2011)
> Learn transferable skills such as teamwork, communication skills and critical skills that employers are looking for, as well as technical proficiency and artistic expression
> Use our dedicated music labs, performance spaces, professional-level recording studios and sound stage
> We are in the UK’s top five universities for Students’ Union satisfaction (National Student Survey 2012)
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Use our dedicated music labs, performance spaces,
professional-level recording studios and sound stage
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I have danced all my life, and when I saw that my local university was offering a new degree in dance, I jumped at the opportunity. I was part of the first cohort. We were all very close, we learned a lot from one another, and I’m still in touch with most of my fellow graduates.
The course covered everything I needed. We started every day, five days a week, with 1½ hours of technique, learning different styles. All the modules were useful, but two were particularly relevant to my career plan – Dance in Education and Dance Facilitation. We were inspired by visiting lecturers, including international choreographers.
When I graduated I set up Full Swing
Dance, www.full-swing.co.uk with another graduate. Full Swing provides dance education in schools and in the community. We deliver one-off workshops in primary schools, afterschool classes, and evening classes which are open to everyone within the area around our studio. As well as our website, we market our classes by distributing leaflets to schools and through social media. Above all, we rely on word of mouth – recommendations by people who have enjoyed our classes.
After a hard year getting established, we now have so much work that I have taken on two new members of staff. One of them will teach Zumba, a Colombian dance fitness programme with dance and aerobic
elements. As the business develops, I hope to offer a Saturday performing arts workshop, bringing in staff to teach drama and music.
The degree was just what I needed to live my dream of running a dance company. I learned so many styles of dance, how to teach dance, and I gained the encouragement and confidence to set up a business. The dance students who graduated along with me are doing similar things back in their home towns.
The course covered
everything I needed.
Rachel Highfield
founder, Full Swing Dance
BA (Hons) Dance, class of 2011
Rachel’s dance degree helped her set up a successful dance company.
A graduate
I studied dance in Berlin in the days before the Wall fell. There was an exciting experimental scene at the time – my dance style was inspired by my interest in martial arts, and I mixed dance with music performance, playing saxophone. Later I trained in contemporary dance and classical ballet in New York, Amsterdam and Riga. As well as performing, I started teaching at the Berlin University of the Arts. And I studied choreography and worked with theatre people as well as dancers. After performing and teaching in Berlin and elsewhere around the world, I spent five years teaching at Dartington College in Devon. And after returning to Berlin for two years as Professor in Choreography to implement three new courses, I joined Teesside University in 2010.
I was excited by the opportunity to teach on a newly established degree and join a team of excellent teachers. Although I had never been this far north in England before, I took to the area at once. I live in Saltburn – I love living by the sea. We teach different approaches to dance and all the necessary dance skills, of course – and we also place a strong focus on our students’ personalities, skills and interests. Popular television programmes have given dance a high profile, but they have also trivialised it. There’s more to dance. Above all, it’s important to be serious about making a career in dance. Yes, we are playful, creative and expressive about our ideas – and we need to treat our bodies properly, and think long term by having strategies to be creative and inventive.
So, if you love to dance, come to Teesside. We’ll teach you all the skills and styles you need, and help you turn your passion into a career.
Helge Musial
Senior lecturer
– Dance
Helge brings to his
teaching decades of
experience as a performer
and choreographer, and an
infectious enthusiasm for
the possibilities of dance.
It’s important to be
serious about making a
career in dance.
Staff
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Stage
SEE MORE
OF OUR
FACILITIES
Watch a great video about our facilities at tees.ac.uk/campustour
our first-class facilities
Dance studio
After school, I went to my local college and took a national diploma in acting. I chose Teesside’s performance for live and recorded media degree because I hope to teach drama at secondary school level. When I graduate I will take a PGCE so I am qualified to teach. Teesside is my local university and I live with my parents. I have a well-balanced social life – I can go out on week nights and stay with friends while having all my home comforts
too. Another big plus is that I got a scholarship from the University to cover my tuition fees for getting the highest possible mark on my college course.
I really love my course. We spend most of our contact time in practical workshops rather than lectures. We have lots of rehearsal space and free time to plan and study. The campus has everything I need – I don’t want for anything.
Elizabeth Sayer
BA (Hons) Performance for Live
and Recorded Media
A student
SAYS
Elizabeth’s degree is a key step towards her chosen career.
We spend most
of our contact time in
practical workshops
rather than lectures.
NEWS
Sophie and Gabriella are Year 2 students on the BA (Hons) Dance. ‘One of the best features of the course is that staff encourage us to go out and find things, to take opportunities’, says Sophie.
So when Debbie Waistell, a local dance practitioner, came in to talk to students about her work and offered places in a new dance group, Youth Dance England, Gabriella and Sophie auditioned. They were offered roles along with two other dancers – and rehearse every Tuesday evening and Saturday. The group will perform in schools around the North East. ‘It’s great experience which will look good on our CVs, and we can use the dance
studios in Stockton any time we are free’, Gabriella enthused.
Sophie, from Leicester, and Gabriella, from Sunderland, became friends within the first weeks of their course. As Gabriella points out, ‘It’s in the nature of dance to work together, and we do a lot of group work.’ The pair, along with Charlotte Brinksman (see p10), plan to take up an even more exciting opportunity. They will spend the summer of Year 2 at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst ‘Ernst Busch’) in Berlin, an exchange organised through the Erasmus scheme. They had to apply for the exchange and write a
proposal, explaining how a term in Berlin would benefit their studies. It’s another experience to enhance their CVs. Both Gabriella and Sophie auditioned at several other universities before deciding to come to Teesside, mainly because they found the staff so welcoming. The prospect of the Erasmus exchange was another big attraction.
One of the best
features of the course is
that staff encourage us to
take opportunities.
A graduate
Gabriella Garroway and Sophie Read are taking all the opportunities offered on
their BA (Hons) Dance course.
Gabriella and Sophie
seize the moment
Charlotte Brinksman
BA (Hons) Dance
A student
SAYS
The teaching offers us
ideas… and encourages us to
develop our own style.
Dance has always been my passion – I took it for granted that I would do a dance degree. I researched the options through various prospectuses and the final choice was between Teesside and one other university. When I came here for my audition, I fell in love with the campus – I knew that I had already made my mind up. There’s more to the degree than I had expected. Obviously we spend a lot of time learning dance techniques and styles, but we also had a Year 1 module – An Introduction to Dance Science where we learned anatomy and physiology.
The teaching offers us research ideas about dancers, choreographers, musicians whose work we might look at – and encourages us to develop our own style. We also have workshops with visiting specialist teachers on styles such as Zumba, Pilates, hip hop and jazz which helps us to understand different styles. Of course our written work still has to meet academic standards – in Year 1 we had to produce a research portfolio which, in my case, was a series of essays reflecting on what we had been taught and what I had read.
I had never been to Middlesbrough before – I’m from Warrington – but I settled in well. I lived in halls of residence in my first year, and now I’m sharing a house with other dance students. My social life also includes taking time to attend performances at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Stockton Arts Centre to keep my creativity fresh. In Year 2 I’m particularly enjoying the Dance for Camera module – we learn how to create dance pieces specifically to film and edit. At the end of the year I will be spending three months, with two other Teesside students, at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. The teaching will be predominantly in English but I’m learning German from friends so I can cope with ordinary life there. The option of an exchange was another of the reasons I chose Teesside.
My long-term ambition is to have my own
contemporary dance company. I’d like to challenge the conventional image of dancers – petite, pretty girls who trained in ballet. I’d like a company which focuses on how people dance, not how they look.
Charlotte, inspired by the dance
degree, dreams of running her
own dance company.
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