overview
- For practitioners working in the expanded field of performance including; walking and relational practices, sound, writing, and choreographic practices – who are actively engaged in experimental work with a particular sensitivity for context
- Continually test your work in our unique suite of studio facilities with a supportive community of practitioners engaging in collaborative and discursive ways
- You will be taught by a core team of experts and visiting artists all with broad knowledge and practical experience in the field of performance practice
- ​​You will have access to our wonderful and varied campus with 1,200 acres of land, fields, river, woodland and varied micro-communities, human and more than human
start date: September
2023-24 Term dates
Term One
Welcome Week: 11 – 15 Sep 2023 (onsite)
Module 1 (SCH5470): 18 Sep – 27 Oct
Onsite learning: 18 – 29 Sep
Module 2 (SCH5471): 6 Nov – 15 Dec
Onsite learning: 6–17 Nov
Term Two
Module 3 (SCH5472): 15 Jan 2024 – 23 Feb
Onsite learning: 5 – 16 Feb
Module 4 (SCH5473): 4 Mar – 12 Apr
Onsite learning: 18 – 29 Mar
Term Three
Module 5 (SCH5474): 13 May – 9 Aug (either onsite or online)
Module 6 (SCH5475, MFA students only): Sep–Dec (either onsite or online)
2022-23 Term dates
Term One
Welcome Week: 12–16 Sep 2022
Module 1 (SCH5470): 19 Sep – 28 Oct
Onsite learning: 19 – 30 Sep
Module 2 (SCH5471): 7 Nov – 16 Dec
Onsite learning: 7–18 Nov
Term Two
Module 3 (SCH5472): 16 Jan 2023 – 24 FebÂ
Onsite learning: 6 – 17 FebÂ
Module 4 (SCH5473): 6 Mar – 6 AprÂ
Onsite learning: 20 – 31 MarÂ
Term Three
Module 5 (SCH5474): 15 May – 11 Aug (either onsite or online)
Module 6 (SCH5475, MFA students only): Sep–Dec (either onsite or online)
next application deadline
All upcoming application and decision deadlines can be found here.
Learning pathways
Our degree programmes are designed to suit the complexities of modern life, allowing you to live where you live and work where you work, whilst studying the subject you are passionate about as a member of our wide-reaching learning community.
Some qualifications are offered part-time – these are indicated below. Please note that we do not offer online-only pathways for this course.
To get the most out of their course and of being part of our learning community, many students choose a fully immersive experience for the residential taught periods of their course, staying on our stunning 1,200 campus on the banks of the River Dart with full board accommodation.
MAster's (ft/pt; 180 credits)
A full-time (1 year) or part-time programme (2 years) with 4 x 30 credit modules and 1 x 60 credit dissertation or major project module. The taught (30 credit) modules are six weeks’ long. Teaching at Dartington is concentrated into two-week periods for each of the first four modules, with supported e-learning and independent learning in between.
MFA (ft/pt; Master's plus further study)
The MFA option involves a further 60 credits of study resulting in a significant, self initiated public outcome, performance, exhibition or publication. Participants will be drawn from our own MA programmes as well as those from other institutions.
Postgraduate Diploma (ft/pt; 120 credits)
A full-time (1 year) or part-time programme (2 years) with 4 x 30 credit modules. Students taking the full-time option will study all four modules during the first two terms. For full details on part-time pathways, please contact us.
Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits)
A full-time programme with 2 x 30 credit modules. Students will study both modules during term one.
First module only (30 credits)
To apply for the accredited single module option, apply in the usual way, selecting the ‘Module One’ option during the application process.
course content
Reimagining Performance Practice is an integrative, transdisciplinary programme for performers, and anyone working in the field of performance, who is ready to question and reimagine performance as a mode of public engagement and regeneration for the coming decades.
The continuing cross-pollination of disciplines within the broad field of performance, in theatre, scenography, digital performance, dance, live art or other modes of performance, demands a continuing repositioning of how, and with whom, performance can be made.
This course is designed to help you think creatively about transdisciplinary performance work as a means of rethinking and re-enacting the reach and impact of performance as it unfolds in specific new or established contexts that engage with the artistic, social, political, and environmental challenges that confront us.
The programme assumes students already have a performance practice, which they will bring to the course. You will continue to develop and hone your practice outside of taught time, alongside a teaching programme that equips you with critical research methodologies and the collaborative skills and networks needed to operate in new, community, environmental and place-based practice.
The programme aligns with Dartington’s organisational strategies in numerous ways, supporting the core values of the organisation in that it is inherently spirited, interconnected, creative, pioneering, progressive, expert, empowering and encouraging of artistic enterprise.
Reimagining Performance Practice seeks to inspire resilience, sustainability and effectiveness in nurturing and developing outstanding creative practice, and helps students find new professional pathways. The teaching and learning environment is collaborative, nurturing and empowering in a community shaped as a cohort of equals.
programme structure & modules
MA Reimagining Performance Practice is a full-time (1 year) or part-time programme (2 years) with 4 x 30 credit modules and 1 x 60 credit module (dissertation or final project). For the MFA, a further 60 credit Professional Project is added at the end of the programme.
Module One: Reimagining Performance Practice (30 credits)
19-30 Sept 2022 onsite and 3-28 Oct 2022 online*
We start with what each student brings to the programme and how an individual’s skills and experiences connect to their aspirations, and to their peers. Through self-evaluation and diagnosis, critiquing, individual processes of making work, and reimagining performance practice students identify / rethink the material, cultural and social conditions of contemporary performance in rapidly shifting contexts.
Module Two: Collaborations – Developing Performance Practices and Research Methods 1 (30 credits)
7-18 Nov 2022 onsite and 21 Nov-16 Dec 2022 online
An artist-led intensive studio workshop on collaborative processes and strategies provides practical grounding, to which students respond by making short performance or presentation. The module also introduces the contextualisation and dissemination of performance practices, their relation to site, environments and communities, to other artforms and their collaborative approaches.
Module Three: Sites, Collaborations and Communities (30 credits)
16 Jan- 3 Feb 2023 online, 6-17 Feb onsite, and 20-24 Feb online
This module explores the development of performance practice in sited, collaborative and community contexts through negotiated fieldwork – individually or with others – of one or more small-scale projects, allowing students to extend their understanding and creative engagement with the complexities of generating and developing communities through performance.
Module Four: Communities – Developing Performance Practices & Research Methods 2 (30 credits)
6-17 Mar 2023 online, 20-31 Mar onsite, and 3-6 Apr online
The module starts with a 5-day, artist-led, intensive studio workshop on strategies and processes for generating reimagined performance practice in relation to communities, it provides a practical grounding and exemplar in response to which students make short performances or presentations. Students complete a portfolio of processes, strategies and methodologies supporting their practical performance research.
Module 5: MA Dissertation / Final Project (60 credits)
15 May 2023–11 Aug deadline – Supported through tutorials onsite or online
This module supports the student’s creative, theoretical and reflective work. The module culminates in a public showing of work that is relevant and authentic to the practice and/or the submission of a formal piece of writing. Outputs from the module will evidence the depth of development and synthesis of knowledge from the programme.
Module 6: MFA Professional Project (60 credits)
Sept–Dec 2023 – Supported through tutorials onsite or online
This module is self-initiated from the outset and prioritises individual research, conducted under supervision with identified tutors and other mentors and external advisors considered essential to the study. MFA students learn from and contribute to the delivery of the module through their interaction with peers, tutors, place and the wider community. Emphasis is placed upon independence, originality, initiative and enterprise. Teaching and learning will be complemented by a wide range of visiting lecturers (e.g., artists, choreographers, directors, performers composers, critics, curators, etc), providing the opportunity to discuss work with renowned experts. Students will develop individual opportunities with local, national and/or international venues, opportunities, residencies, agencies, etc., which may also result in working independently or at distance. Culmination of the module is the production of a substantial and resolved creative outcome that will be exhibited /performed/ published and assessed in an appropriate public arena.
*Students can book studios for independent work during and outside the onsite taught periods. The Dartington Library is available throughout your studies. You also have access both remotely and physically to University of Plymouth Library.
This is a low-residency programme, which means that you can opt to live onsite or offsite throughout your studies. If living offsite, you can book accommodation onsite or in the surrounding area for the two-week onsite taught periods. You can opt for tutorials onsite or online for modules 5 and 6.
entry requirements
Qualification(s) required for entry to the MA
BA (Honours) Degree: A first degree in an arts, or humanities subject. All applicants will be required to present examples of relevant work. Where the first degree is not arts or humanities-related, a portfolio of work will be required in support of the application or experience that is equivalent and demonstrates interest or track record in related field.
Other non-standard awards or experience: A willingness to engage with the field of Performance Practice. Candidates will be considered with prior credited learning and prior experiences subject to interview.*
Interview requirements: All applicants are required to attend an interview, either at the School or online.
*For further information please contact our admissions team at admissions@dartington.org.
fees
For full details on our fees, plus information about scholarships, student loans and bursaries, click here.
This programme is eligible for Chevening Scholarships for international students.Find out more via this link.Â
staff

Emma Bush
ïƒ emma.bush@dartington.org
Emma Bush is senior lecturer, Poetics of Imagination and Associate Lecture for Reimagining Performance Practice. She works in the field of art and ecology, making performance, site-specific walks, writing and workshops.

Tracey Warr
Tracey is a fiction and non-fiction writer and also works with text in the vicinity of art. She is an Associate Lecturer on our Poetics of Imagination programme.

Dr Ric Allsopp
Dr Ric Allsopp is Associate Faculty for Reimagining Performance Practice.
guest lecturers

Neil Callaghan and Simone Kenyon
Neil and Simone have been a partnership since 2006, and make work that moves between dance, visual art and theatre.
Read More
Grace Surman
Grace has over 25 years of professional practice, making and touring solo and collaborative works in the field of contemporary performance.
Read More
Dr Augusto Corrieri

Karen Christopher

Dr Phil Smith and Dr Helen Billinghurst
As collaborative duo ‘Crab & Bee’, Phil and Helen’s main focus is to explore and reveal the secrets of everyday spaces through artworks, publications, readings, scryings and performances.
Read Morecareers
Information to follow.
live chats & open days
latest news & blogs
Finding a different way home
As part of a series of posts on performance artists, Tracey Warr is in conversation with Misha Myers – previously a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Dartington College of Arts.
Performance at Dartington
Emma Bush, Associate Lecturer for our Reimaginging Performance Practice course, on what it means to be an alumni of the original Dartington College of Arts, and how her experience shapes her teaching today.
Colleges’ Bursary Campaign gets a boost from funding partners
Schumacher College and Dartington School of Arts are increasing financial support for students from less well-off backgrounds who want to study at the colleges.