Dance with Foundation Year - BA (Hons)

Bucks New University

This module offers you opportunities to develop core dance skills in a range of dance styles. This includes an understanding of core posture, alignment, co-ordination, flexibility, strength, balance, dynamics and quality of movement in a range of styles. You’ll self-reflect and assess your progress throughout the module.

It is essential for dancers to have practical technique classes across the whole academic year to ensure safe practice and guarantee continuous technical progression. This module will focus on application of technique into set and unset jazz exercises. You’ll have experiential dance science classes to progress your technical understanding in a range of dance styles. 

This module will introduce you to established and current pedagogical theory. You’ll apply these theories to your own learning and to support the learning of others through effective teaching practice. You’ll develop confidence in structuring and planning lessons, writing lesson plans, developing appropriate movement material.

This module aims to teach you about your psychological selves and how this impacts your dance practice. The module aims to cover aspects of psychology such as; self-awareness, motivation towards dance, well-being, self-confidence and aspects relating to overtraining and burnout.

This module engages you in an in-depth inquiry into movement for camera and screen. The practical assessment is a devised/choreographed performance for screen, where you’ll be expected to demonstrate creative confidence in physical expression and an appropriate level of embodied knowledge of the studied practices.

On this module you’ll be presented with key global debates which impact our lives and could influence your creative practice and positions as creatives in ever-changing professional industries. Through research and critical reflection, you’ll explore these issues which may be related to sustainability, politics and other ecological or socio- economic factors, and respond to them creatively using your chosen discipline-specific practice.

You will master foundational programming principles—variables, data types, conditionals, functions, data structures and object orientation—while honing your critical thinking, problem-solving, team-working and presentation skills through a project that simulates an authentic working environment.

You will investigate how businesses collect, store and use data within legal and ethical frameworks, learning data standards, regulatory requirements and best practices to safeguard individual rights, avoid breaches and design compliant, secure data processes.

You will explore data-warehousing concepts and business intelligence principles, practising how to model and structure data for pattern discovery, assess data quality, and perform analysis and querying to inform decision-making and support knowledge-based discovery.

You will learn the mathematical language of computing, sets, relations, functions, recursion, counting principles, finite probability, and logic, to develop rigorous problem-solving and proof skills essential for computer science.

You will examine descriptive, exploratory, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analysis techniques, learning how to collect, sort, model and transform data to answer the “why, what and how” questions that drive effective, data-informed business decisions.

The module aims to build upon the technical foundations established at level 4 and will continue to include classes in Jazz, ballet and another diverse dance style. In addition, the module will include classes focusing on dance science in practice where you’ll build on the fundamental anatomy knowledge gained.

You’ll continue to progress your dance technique through classes in a range of dance styles including jazz and ballet but will also focus on learning set professional repertoire. The onus will be on maintaining a high level of dance technique whilst performing repertoire in the required style.

On this module you’ll gain an in-depth inquiry into your own creative processes. You’ll engage in the fundamental processes involved in movement generation and its creative development within performance making. You’ll also be introduced to and encouraged to explore physical performance and dance making via the work of key practitioners in the field.

The taught material will include physiological, social and psychological influences of exercise on health as well as health and safety issues regarding exercise prescription, understanding the barriers to exercise and how to prepare and instruct a gym-based exercise session. The module is aligned to CIMSPA Gym Instructor qualification requirements.

The module will address challenges and opportunities in the dance and fitness industries using theory as a lens to consider contemporary issues. This module aims to give you a critical understanding of work and help to focus your thinking on future career decisions.

You will gain practical know-how in collecting, storing, and managing data, compare database design approaches (relational versus scalable solutions), and learn how to select and justify the right data architecture and interface for real-world applications.

You will extend beyond arrays and lists to study alternative data structures and core algorithms (sort, search, insert, delete), learn to evaluate performance using Big O notation, and select the most suitable storage structures and algorithms for given requirements.

You will explore supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning; learn data preprocessing, model selection, training, evaluation, and result interpretation using modern libraries; and build versatile skills in predictive modelling, classification, clustering, and dimensionality reduction.

You will apply programming to perform mathematical data analysis, mastering the mathematical and coding techniques that underpin data analytics, so that you can derive and communicate insights by combining mathematical theory with practical programming skills.

You will develop the ability to establish and maintain governance, policies, standards and cost-effective security solutions within organisations, understanding both technical and broader organisational contexts, and ensuring compliance and awareness to manage information security effectively.

You will learn to design and implement impactful visualisations that reveal patterns and support storytelling, critically evaluate a range of methods, and use practical tools to create presentations that enhance decision-making and communicate actionable insights.

You’ll apply a variety of techniques across a range of styles but also develop advanced performance skills appropriate to the technique. Precision of movement, adaptability to different dance styles and maturity in performance style are aspects that will be nurtured throughout this module.

This module builds developing the understanding of dance techniques and performance skills. You’ll focus on academic, creative, employability and professional skills through the process of planning an industry relevant Showcase. You’ll work collaboratively utilising the strengths of the group to ensure smooth organisation, marketing and planning of the Showcase performance.

The aim of this module will focus on the performance aspect in preparing you for your final Showcase where you’ll present your talents in relevance to your area of study. This will be performed to an invited audience, including agents and industry professionals.

The Independent Project module aims to facilitate, develop and support an area of independent study and inquiry within the specialisms of dance/ performance/ theatre/ fitness. The Independent Project is an extended project and should draw on a range of skills from core modules already pursued within your degree culminating in either a written outcome or part-practical outcome. 

You will investigate what defines big data and its lifecycle challenges, storage, processing, integrity and quality, then explore how big data underpins AI, studying the techniques and tools that automate data preparation, visualisation and analytics to generate actionable insights.

You will learn to apply descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, using tools such as R and Python, to summarise data, draw conclusions about wider populations, and provide an evidence base for decision-making across domains like business, health, policy and research.

This module gives you the opportunity to carry out an individual, in-depth investigation into a topic of your choice, helping you to develop skills in research, problem-solving, and critical analysis. Working with a supervisor, and possibly in collaboration with a local company, you will undertake the project throughout the year, producing a final report and presenting your work in an oral defence. Your project proposal must be approved and moderated by the course team before you begin.