MA Expanded Dance Practice

A person in a long-sleeved brown top and black trousers lies on their stomach on a dark floor, arms softly outstretched above their head and legs separated to create a star shape with their body. Around their body is a large circle of salt.
Rocio Chacon (2022) LCDS EDP Sharing 2022, Bethany Martinez 'Solo B Lonja'
Applications
Applications for this course have now closed. If you wish to submit a late application, please email our admissions officer, cindy.cheung@theplace.org.uk

Make, Reflect, Reimagine

This course focuses on expanding your creative artistic practice in dance and related fields. It runs from January to December.

You will develop skills to contextualise, re-frame and challenge your practice and to plan research projects to resource and communicate your ideas.

Through workshops and seminars with faculty and invited artists, you will explore and discuss how your artistic ideas are conceptualised, developed, and experienced and how they can be situated within and across social, political, historical, and artistic contexts.

You will build a portfolio of work throughout the course, supported by the faculty, multiple visiting artists, mentors and peers, and you will explore how to invite audiences into relationships with your practice.

You will be part of a small group (8 - 15 students) so the exchanges are rich with peers, faculty and visiting artists.

I spent a long time looking for the right MA programme for me, and I found this one. It was a good mix of space to explore my movement practice and also bringing in my other interests like visual arts and voice

Loren McKillop

A large wooden studio and in the background you can see a wall that has A3 black and white art posters covering the majority of the wall, there is a ladder on the left hand side and a person crouching at the bottom of the wall putting up another poster
EDP Sharing 2022, 'Postering' by Loren McKillop, photo by Rocio Chacon

You are encouraged to:

  • Critically reflect on your own practice, acknowledging your personal narratives and histories
  • Be autonomous and self-motivated in your own learning
  • Come with an open mind and be willing to take risks

Things you need to know

What Will I Be Studying?

You will have one unit each term, so three units in total.

1. Locating Practice - Who are you as an artist?

Locate your practice within wider international, social, and political contexts. You will have the chance to share your work in process to an invited audience. You will be encouraged to share and value your own historical and cultural narratives. Critical race studies, ethical considerations and postcolonial practices will be a major departure points for critiquing existing power structures.

You will work with visiting artists, sharing practices and ideas. This changes from year to year, but so far we have enjoyed working with; Charlie Morrissey, Florence Peake, Carolyn Roy, Charlotte Spencer, Tom Goodwin, Joe Moran, Funmi Adewole, Simon Whitehead, Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Matthias Sperling, Amy Voris, Janine Harrington, Jamie McCarthy, Seke Chimutengwende, Alberto Ruiz Soler and Orrow Amy Bell.

Studio practice will include embodied techniques, choreographic workshops and the development of your own creative practice.

2. Resourcing Practice - How do you present your work?

Using what you have learnt in Locating Practice, you will work to develop this in relation to wider contexts, audiences, and applications. Regular visits from visiting artists will continue. You will gather the professional skills you require to take your work beyond the institution, for example, weekly artistic development seminars, workshops on lighting and sound design and dance filmmaking. Developing a sustainable and responsible arts practice that promotes longevity.

3. Applying Practice - Realising your ideas and presenting them

Through practice-based learning and the skills you gain throughout the course, you will apply your practice by creating a final project or portfolio work. You will work closely with a supervisor, chosen in collaboration with you who will guide, support, and challenge you throughout this process.

Entry Requirements

The standard minimum entry requirements for this course are:

• BA (Hons) degree or equivalent academic qualifications

• Alternative qualifications and experience will also be taken into consideration

• Personal statement

• Portfolio of work

If you don't meet the above requirements, you might still be considered with additional strengths or alternative evidence such as:

• Related academic or dance performance experience

• The quality of the personal statement

• A strong academic or other professional reference

• A combination of these factors

English language requirements

IELTS level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening, and speaking

Student Visas

If you are an overseas student, you might require a Student Visa to study with us.

How do I apply?

First, you are required to complete our online application form where you input details about you, your educational and employment history, a portfolio of your work, and a personal statement about why you want to join EDP.

You will then be contacted by our Admissions Team who will let you know if you have been invited to a one-to-one interview. This can be hosted online or in person, depending on your location and availability.

After the interview, please allow up to two weeks to hear an outcome from our Admissions Team.

Fees

£11,500 – UK students

£23,500 – Overseas students

Find out more about our financial support for your studies.

Summary documents and term dates

A person wearing a black dress with long black hair lies on the floor on their side, they have black stones placed carefully around their body. In the background there is a plastic box filled with water and a white cabbage.
MA Expanded Dance Practice Sharing, 'The Girl with the Cabbage' by Sunhi Keller Credit: Rocio Chacon 2022

My artistic practice has changed because of the practitioners we have met during the course. They were all open with sharing their practice…giving us tools we could use to modify or change lenses on our own practice

Vittorio Pagani

Meet the team

MA Expanded Dance Practice is led by Dr Vânia Gala alongside Lauren Potter and Dr Tom Hastings.

Katye Coe and Frank Bock are an integral part of delivering the first unit 'Locating Practice', where you are encouraged to locate your practice within wider international, social, and political contexts.

This Master’s course is fruitful and diverse because of the range of guest artists and practitioners that we bring in to lead workshops. Artists we have enjoyed working with so far include Charlie Morrissey, Florence Peake, Carolyn Roy, Charlotte Spencer, Tom Goodwin, Joe Moran, Funmi Adewole, Simon Whitehead, Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Matthias Sperling, Amy Voris, Janine Harrington, Jamie McCarthy, Seke Chimutengwende, Alberto Ruiz Soler and Orrow Amy Bell. By bringing these artists in, the students experience varying ways of making work, helping them to contextualise and understand their own practice.

  • Four women stand in a line on the diagonal, they are looking into the far distance and there is lots of bright blue sky above them

    A postgraduate panel discussion with current and past MA students Watch Now

  • On top of a mottled surface is a strip of white paper torn at both ends, on which is an abstract pattern drawn from red ink resembling blood. To one side on the bottom of this is another scrap of paper with some small handwritten text.

    Three current EDP students talk about the course Watch Now

  • A mesh-like fencing created from different coloured string covers a section of white wall, upon which scraps of cream paper have been stuck. Words and sentences have been scrawled onto the paper in red and black ink, and the word 'siblings' is visible at the centre of the image.

    What is expanded dance practice? Course leaders discuss live Watch Now

A huge advantage of the course is having a small group so it focuses on nurturing us while respecting each person as an artist with their own unique practice.

Wency Lam

Find out more about health and wellbeing at LCDS, where you can live and funding available to you:

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Your health and wellbeing

Find out the physical and mental health support available at LCDS

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Fees and Funding

Discover opportunities to fund your studies and get advice on your fees and finances

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Accommodation

We are here to support you with your move to London

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Applying for a student visa

There is a lot to organise when you move to another country to study, we are here to help

Get in touch

If you have any questions about the course, how to apply, living in London or anything else, we are here to help

Contact London Contemporary Dance School