Performing Arts BA (Hons) year one modules

The Performing Arts BA (Hons) modules listed below are just to give you a flavour of what is available and are subject to change.

Year One (Level 4)

Dramatic Performance
You will establish core skills and knowledge in acting as well as developing a strong ensemble attitude to working. This project works towards the public performance of a 20th/21st century play. Alongside this, you will investigate marketing strategies and apply these to your performance

Post-Dramatic Performance
The project explores methods of de-constructing pre-written performance text, layering performance disciplines, such as creative writing, movement, voice, video-making skills and interactive new technologies, in the creation of your second public performance piece

Contemporary Music Theatre
This project includes a wide range of current and past contemporary performance work and practitioners who employ musicality within their interdisciplinary practice.  You will work with a visual and a music director to create your own original performance that unites music and theatre, developing skills in vocal techniques and movement along the way

Physical Theatre
You will further develop your physical skills, collaborating with peers to produce pieces of Physical Theatre for public performance, accompanied by your own digital soundscapes 

Each project is underpinned with theoretical work and the development of knowledge and skills to market and manage your own performances

 

Year two (Level 5)

Performing Mixed Realities
This project will further your skills in digital technologies; you will explore new media as well as developing innovative performance approaches that may include mixed reality, mobile media and gaming technology

Site Project
This project considers and experiments with the specific performance challenges of different sites, beyond the limits of usual theatre spaces, and culminates in the public performance of your own work

Score-Making
You will focus on improvisational approaches to performance-making through movement, voice and technical skills in solo, partner and ensemble work. You will develop skills in contact improvisation and experiment with a range of starting points including digital technologies and social media 

Deconstructing Performance
This presents a chance to tear apart and re-arrange the familiar happy-ever-afters of well-known Disney fairy tales through a considered practical analysis of re-current themes. There will be a political investigation into the gender roles, issues around class and race equality as you draw together methods and techniques from the year in order to create your own piece of contemporary performance for public show

Perspectives on Performance and Digital Arts
You will engage with current and historical performance works and theories, articulating your learning through discussion, verbal presentation and writing

Applied Performance
This module reflects upon the multitude of social contexts in which performance is utilised, outside of standard theatrical situations, ranging from drama and theatre in education to drama therapy, drama in healthcare and many other forms

Teaching and Leading Dance 1
An introduction to teaching and leading participatory dance activities, examining how dance artists work in community and educational settings

Devising Theatre and Performance
This is a creative, contemporary-focused module during which you make two performances – one solo and one collaborative – generated from your own material, by learning theoretical and practical research methods

Technical Stage Production
This module will introduce knowledge of technical stage production skills such as lighting design, sound design, stage design, events management, stage electrics, set build, technical operation and production management. You will be introduced to these skills through practical workshops, and apply them in the production of student performances and professional visiting companies. This module will deepen an understanding of the creative skills required to technically design performance work, and the production skills apply this creativity into practice. 

Performance Writing 
The aim of this module is to develop writing skills in the field of performance by exploring a variety of creative approaches and practices. The module will explore four introductory elements of performance-writing practice: Language, Voice/Character, Space/Place and Storytelling. 

Understanding the Theatre and Performance Industry 
This module provides students with an understanding of how the theatre and live performance industry works by exploring the structures in use across the UK in a range of theatres and theatre companies.

Promoting Dance
You will develop skills and knowledge in marketing and managing dance events and the key roles and responsibilities involved in curating, organizing and promoting dance.

Year Three (Level 6)

Performance Company
This module presents you with the opportunity to work, as a company, with a professional practitioner/ company to develop work forperformance. You will take on a production role, as well as a performance one, and contribute to the process of realizing a public performance event 

International Performance Project
You will spend a week as Performing Artists-in-residence in an international city, and create your own performance work inspired by the experience

Performance Research Project 1 and 2
This is an independent research project framed by an area of study selected by you, in relation to the course. The module is supported by introductory workshops and tutor supervision

Education and the Performing Arts
This module will equip you with a broad understanding of arts education and a specific understanding of performing arts education policy, pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment 

Teaching and Leading Dance 2
This module provides opportunities to gain practical experience in teaching and leading participatory dance activities.  You are introduced to a range of teaching and learning styles appropriate for a wide variety of clientele

Live Art and Experimental Performance
This studio-based module deals with new ways of thinking about, and making, performance.  It is concerned with Live Art as a creative space that breaks the rules and pushes the boundaries of performance, often producing work of a challenging and provocative nature

Creative Media and Performance 1 and 2
You will explore creative media technologies as part of the creative process in making performance.  Take part in planning, creating and evaluating the use of creative media through exploring real-world prototypes such as sound design and sound art; telematics and video-based performance; social media; Gamification; projection mapping and many more

Music, Media and Community Arts
This module provides the opportunity for you to explore music technology and new media in the wider context of the local community, designing and running an arts project with a chosen community group

Music Industry Management
This module will increase your general understanding of the sector and enable you to develop personal confidence in it as a possible source of employment

Arts Management Studio
The overall aim of this module is to increase a general understanding of working as an arts manager in current, thriving arts organisations by utilising the richness of the local arts community within Leicester. The main module component includes a consultancy-type project involving one of six arts pillars geared towards Dance, Media, Theatre, Festivals, Galleries and Young People. Its hands on approach is designed to provide students with ‘in-organisation’ and co-creative experience to develop their understanding of arts management issues; with the direct effect of increasing engagement and partnerships with local arts organisations and businesses.