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Dance, Drama and Performance

View the employability skills

In addition to many capabilities specific to the subject studied, a graduate typically will have developed the transferable skills and abilities to:

  • apply performance and production skills to communicate with an audience
  • apply group processes in the creation of original work
  • communicate in writing, orally and through performance
  • exercise critical, analytical and physical skills and conduct research
  • apply creative and imaginative skills through the realisation of practical research projects
  • think reflectively and independently, and concentrate and focus for extended periods
  • develop ideas and construct arguments and present them in appropriate ways
  • handle creative, personal and interpersonal issues and negotiate and pursue goals with others
  • manage personal workloads and meet deadlines under pressure with flexibility, imagination, self-motivation and organisation
  • produce written work with appropriate scholarly conventions
  • apply information retrieval skills involving gathering, sifting and organising material
  • use IT skills such as word processing, electronic mail, and accessing electronic data.

Dance, drama and performance comprises the study of dance, drama, theatre, performance and their production, within which each has its own intellectual and practical performance traditions, bodies of knowledge, skills and concepts. These activities may be combined with video, film, TV, radio and multi-disciplinary performance and also with work which integrates a variety of modes of performance and creation, including other media and new technology, and interdisciplinary and inter-media performance. Study is further informed by concepts and methods drawn from disciplines such as anthropology, art and design, cultural studies, ethnography, history, literature, media studies, music, philosophy, politics, social policy and sociology.

It is the particular interaction between the investigative, critical, analytical and expressive skills which especially characterise graduates. They should be able to demonstrate understanding and/or ability in a range of the following: histories, forms and traditions of performance; historical and contemporary contexts of production, circulation and reception of performance; key practitioners and practices, and/or theorists, which may include writers, actors, composers, critics, dancers, directors, choreographers, designers, and producers; processes by which performance is created, realised, and managed; text, movement, aural and visual environment, the performer; and significant sources and critical awareness of the research methods used.

Work in the creative industries can be unpredictable and insecure, and there is unlikely to be a linear career structure. After graduation, it is very common to be self employed with multiple primary and secondary occupations involving project work and short term contracts, and success is often dependent on actively maintaining networks and favouring opportunities for learning and reputation building.

Determination, wide ranging experience, proven skills and good contacts may open up careers for dance and drama graduates that include: acting; arts administration and management; choreography; community arts; dance performance; dance and drama therapy; lecturing, teaching and training; media, film and television production; technical, production and stage management. Employers include arts and cultural organisations, local government, education, film and television companies, leisure, industry and the National Health Service.

A graduate's transferable skills, notably in performance, presentation, and interpersonal communication, can have high value in other activities, and numbers of graduates have careers in retail, finance, social work, travel and tourism, marketing and the voluntary sector.

To check the growing range of resources produced by the Subject Centre to support employability and the use of this profile (including the Skills and Attributes map) go to www.palatine.ac.uk.

This profile, produced in 2006, is based on the QAA benchmark to be found at www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/default.asp


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