The Danish National School of Performing Arts

As of 2023, The Danish National School of Performing Arts will open a new campus in Holstebro. The Dance and Choreography programmes in Holstebro and Copenhagen share the curriculum but differ in the application. 

Description

This bachelor’s programme offers a space where you can develop and deepen your skills in, and awareness of, the artistic, technical, and critical perspectives of dance and choreography.

The dual focus on both dance and choreography recognises their entangled relation. It encourages an approach to knowledge that casts aside presumed oppositions between body and mind, theory and practice, thinking and doing.

The programme gives you a strong foundation in physicality and qualifies you to engage in a wide array of artistic work both individually and as part of a group.

The main subject of Dance is taught throughout the entire programme. In Holstebro, the emphasis is on established techniques from the Western dance tradition, while in Copenhagen, the focus is on the contemporary development of the tradition, including contemporary techniques, somatic practices, improvisational tools, and more.

The subject of Choreography is also taught throughout the three years, with a different focus in Holstebro and Copenhagen. In Holstebro, the focus is on the interpretation and execution of choreographic works, while in Copenhagen, the focus is on creating one's own work and exploring the contextual aspects of choreography.

In addition to the main subjects, the programme also includes context studies, which introduce students to related art forms and fields of knowledge, such as pedagogy, aesthetics, and entrepreneurship. There are theory classes but the focus is on practice and the aim is to introduce the theory through practice.

Every study year includes a large performance project where the students work with an international choreographer on a publicly presented piece. This provides an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills in a practical setting.

Career opportunities

Graduates of the programme will have the skills and knowledge needed to work as professional dancers and choreographers, as well as the ability to develop their own creative projects. The programme provides students with tools that enable them to create a sustainable artistic work life within a performing arts field and open up work opportunities that go beyond performing arts.

Students graduating from Holstebro will be versatile technically equipped dancers that can enter a company structure from a collaborative point of departure and with a critical awareness of its modes of operation.

Students graduating from Copenhagen will be prepared to engage in the professional independent field, as a creative artist be it as a performer in someone else’s work or to produce their own work alone or collectively.

Meet Dance & Choreography graduate Agnes Grélinger from Hungary in this interview about moving to and staying in Denmark.

Admission

In 2023 the programme admits students to the campus in Holstebro. The future pattern for admission is yet to be decided.

All students are admitted based on an audition. There are no admission requirements as regards age, educational background or level of experience. For those who are admitted into the programme, studies begin mid-August.

Learn more in the application guide

Tuition

There is a tuition fee for all full-time degree students with citizenship from outside of EU/EAA/Switzerland. Students within an exchange programme are not required to pay tuition.

For Further Information

Information from the Danish Agency for Higher Education can be located at http://ufm.dk/en

You will find information about the Danish assessment of foreign qualifications in Guide to diploma recognition

About the Educational System in general visit the section The Danish Higher education system

As of 2023, The Danish National School of Performing Arts will open a new campus in Holstebro. The Dance and Choreography programmes in Holstebro and Copenhagen share the curriculum but differ in the application. 

Description

This bachelor’s programme offers a space where you can develop and deepen your skills in, and awareness of, the artistic, technical, and critical perspectives of dance and choreography.

The dual focus on both dance and choreography recognises their entangled relation. It encourages an approach to knowledge that casts aside presumed oppositions between body and mind, theory and practice, thinking and doing.

The programme gives you a strong foundation in physicality and qualifies you to engage in a wide array of artistic work both individually and as part of a group.

The main subject of Dance is taught throughout the entire programme. In Holstebro, the emphasis is on established techniques from the Western dance tradition, while in Copenhagen, the focus is on the contemporary development of the tradition, including contemporary techniques, somatic practices, improvisational tools, and more.

The subject of Choreography is also taught throughout the three years, with a different focus in Holstebro and Copenhagen. In Holstebro, the focus is on the interpretation and execution of choreographic works, while in Copenhagen, the focus is on creating one's own work and exploring the contextual aspects of choreography.

In addition to the main subjects, the programme also includes context studies, which introduce students to related art forms and fields of knowledge, such as pedagogy, aesthetics, and entrepreneurship. There are theory classes but the focus is on practice and the aim is to introduce the theory through practice.

Every study year includes a large performance project where the students work with an international choreographer on a publicly presented piece. This provides an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills in a practical setting.

Career opportunities

Graduates of the programme will have the skills and knowledge needed to work as professional dancers and choreographers, as well as the ability to develop their own creative projects. The programme provides students with tools that enable them to create a sustainable artistic work life within a performing arts field and open up work opportunities that go beyond performing arts.

Students graduating from Holstebro will be versatile technically equipped dancers that can enter a company structure from a collaborative point of departure and with a critical awareness of its modes of operation.

Students graduating from Copenhagen will be prepared to engage in the professional independent field, as a creative artist be it as a performer in someone else’s work or to produce their own work alone or collectively.

Meet Dance & Choreography graduate Agnes Grélinger from Hungary in this interview about moving to and staying in Denmark.

Admission

In 2023 the programme admits students to the campus in Holstebro. The future pattern for admission is yet to be decided.

All students are admitted based on an audition. There are no admission requirements as regards age, educational background or level of experience. For those who are admitted into the programme, studies begin mid-August.

Learn more in the application guide

Tuition

There is a tuition fee for all full-time degree students with citizenship from outside of EU/EAA/Switzerland. Students within an exchange programme are not required to pay tuition.

For Further Information

Information from the Danish Agency for Higher Education can be located at http://ufm.dk/en

You will find information about the Danish assessment of foreign qualifications in Guide to diploma recognition

About the Educational System in general visit the section The Danish Higher education system

About the programme

The MFA in Choreography focuses on two aspects and their relation: Physical practice and Choreographic production.

As a student, you will be encouraged to develop a complex and deepened understanding of different possible relations between the two and the potentials that those relations bring along. The programme also emphasizes the importance of context in choreographic production. For example, how the site of presentation, the choice of performers, the duration of the work and the construction of the working process all are choreographic elements within the work. In other words, in which way the “how” is the “what”.

Nordic Choreographic Platform(NCP)

The programme is a part of the Nordic Choreographic Platform (NCP) – a collaboration between DASPA and the master's programmes in Choreography in KHIO (Oslo), Uniarts (Stockholm) and Uniarts (Helsinki). Once per semester, the involved programmes gather for joint studies.

The periods of exchange will, when possible, be coordinated with important events in the different countries, such as festivals, conferences, and symposiums. In each city there is also a collaborating venue and the students will have a chance to meet and present their work to the directors and/or other staff of those venues. This is seen as a way to ensure a certain Nordic network is in place for the graduating student.

Career opportunities

The programme prepares you for a freelance career as choreographer. This concerns both your individual artistic expression and the know-how relating to production, including, for example, project management, communication and ethics. In order to create a sustainable career, next to the individual artistic production, functioning as a free-lance choreographer may also entail activities that support s one’s own practice, such as workshop facilitation, curating, research or assisting fellow artists in production. The role of such activities in one’s career path is also reflected upon in the programme.

Admission

The entry requirement for the programme is a passed admission test as well as a degree in Dance and Choreography equivalent to Bachelor’s level from The Danish National School of Performing Arts or another relevant higher education institution.

All applicants with a qualifying degree must go through the same application process. Learn more in the application guide

Tuition

There is a tuition fee for all fulltime degree students with a citizenship from outside of EU/EAA/Switzerland. Students within an exchange programme are not required to pay tuition.

For Further Information

Information from the Danish Agency for Higher Education can be located at http://ufm.dk/en

You will find information about the Danish assessment of foreign qualifications in Guide to diploma recognition

About the Educational System in general visit the section The Danish Higher education system

About the programme

• Are you curious about participant involving practice within dance and choreography?

• Do you want to challenge the role of the choreographer in the creative process?

The international MFA in Dance and Participation takes its starting point in the artistic and social potential of dance and choreography. The field of study is participant involving practice, understood here as a spectrum spanning artistic, social, collaborative and educational approaches to the art form.
The programme targets professional dancers and choreographers who want to extend their artistic practice to involve people outside the professional dance field in the creative process, to develop new approaches, methods and expressions.
As a student, you will work practice-oriented with projects and inquiries involving different (groups of) people. Backed by artistic and academic tools and concepts, you will be encouraged to develop your own artistic facilitation and research methods. You will work on finding new ways to bring each participant’s individual abilities, experiences and interests into play in the creative process. and learn to situate and critically engage with your own approach.
The course of study alternates between classes and workshops and periods in which the students carry out pedagogical and artistic inquiries in the field, including periods in which the students plan and implement projects with particular participant groups.
The programme is affiliated with various national partners and international networks, and as a student you may partake in workshops, conferences, exchanges and study trips where you encounter leading artists and scholars in the field. Collaborations with students from other fields of study and a focus on entrepreneurship further enable you to conduct independent projects after graduation.

Career opportunities

The international field of dance and participation is developing rapidly these years and encompasses a growing range of artistically founded approaches to participant involvement and co-creation of works. This calls for dance professionals who can organize, manage and complete complex and unpredictable participatory projects. The job prospects for Dance and Participation graduates are good and varied.
After completing the programme, you will be able to work independently and entrepreneurially with participant involving dance projects. The programme equips you to take responsibility for your own professional development and specialisation, including - but not limited to - working as an independent artist, working in education or culture institutions or pursuing a research career. As with most other artistic educations, graduates mostly work freelance and are hired on project basis or develop their own projects. 

Admission

The entry requirement for the programme is a degree in dance equivalent to Bachelor’s level and a passed admission test. The admission test consists of a written application (pre-qualification) and an audition. Up to seven students will be admitted every second year.

Learn more in the application guide

Tuition

There is a tuition fee for all fulltime degree students with a citizenship from outside of EU/EAA/Switzerland. Students within an exchange programme are not required to pay tuition.

For Further Information

Information from the Danish Agency for Higher Education can be located at http://ufm.dk/en

You will find information about the Danish assessment of foreign qualifications in Guide to diploma recognition

About the Educational System in general visit the section The Danish Higher education system