Overview
This course was previously named BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice.
The BA Dance course is a vibrant and distinctive dance degree. It prepares you for a career in the arts whilst exploring many various types of dance.
Whether it is popping or locking, contemporary or Lindy Hop, our course is the first of its kind to offer a degree in dance without borders or limitations. You will have many chances to showcase your work in our yearly student-led festival. You'll get to participate in university dance courses and outside events, broadening your dance career opportunities.
Whether you aspire to pursue dance therapy courses or other dance careers, our programme supports you. The dance team will support and guide you to develop your skills in a number of different dance careers. This could be as a researcher, choreographer, performer or in arts management whilst giving you networking opportunities from our varied and exciting industry links.
Our dance degree course is designed to provide you with practical and theoretical knowledge. You will gain hands-on experience and develop a comprehensive understanding of the field. This could lead to a career in dance choreography or careers in dance therapy. The opportunities provided by our bachelor's degree in dance will help you explore various dance career opportunities and achieve your professional goals in the dance industry.
This course is in Clearing
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Course modules
As part of your dance degree, you'll study a wide range of dance forms, such as hip-hop, club and funk styles, capoeira, African contemporary, Afro-house, bharata natyam, kathak and kalarippayattu. This will provide a truly rounded introduction to your degree in dance.
Each year, you'll take modules in technique, choreography, professional development and research as part of our dance course. There'll be opportunities to focus on performance and choreography through film and video practice. You can work with music and theatre students to gain more experience and widen your dance career opportunities.
In your final year, you can take advantage of our excellent links with partner organisations such as East London Dance, Breakin' Convention and The Source, a new arts venue that has been created in a partnership between the University of East London and Newham’s Youth Empowerment Service You'll do a work placement and experience what it's like to build a career in the dance industry. Thanks to our reputation, you'll have lots of opportunities to work with acclaimed professional artists. Examples include famous choreographers Kenrick Sandy (Boy Blue) and Hofesh Shechter and top dancers such as house dance's Clara Bajado and popping and locking master Fred 'The Realness' Folkes. For those looking for a career in dance choreography, this is an especially useful experience.
NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.
Download course specification
Entry requirements
Degree:
96 UCAS pointsThis is the standard advertised entry requirement for most students applying to this course.
Degree with contextual offer:
64 UCAS pointsYou may be eligible for a reduced offer based on your personal, educational or socioeconomic background.
Pre-entry programmes
If you lack formal or current qualifications, there are routes available to help you achieve your goal.
Recognition of prior learning (RPL)
Your previous qualifications, uncompleted study or industry experience may mean you can start your studies at a later point in the course and influence your eligibility for entry
What makes this course different

1st in London
Our Dance courses ranked 1st in London in 6 categories, including “Teaching on my Course” & “Academic Support” in the 2025 National Student Survey (National Student Survey 2025, Results published 9 July 2025) .

3rd in the UK
Our Dance courses have been ranked 3rd in the UK in the Daily Mail University Rankings.

Hands-on experience
You'll be able to perform in and help organise COLL!DE - one of Britain's most vibrant and innovative annual student-led dance festivals.

Ranked 6th nationally
Our drama and dance courses are ranked 6th nationally in the Guardian University Guide 2025.
Guardian University Guide 2025COLLIDE student festival
Get a glimpse of COLLIDE - our annual student-led dance festival that brings the whole BA Dance community together to create, perform and grow.
Your future career
You will gain skills to prepare you for a career in the dance industry and the wider creative industries. This will happen through work placements, developing arts management skills and your involvement in creating and staging community dance projects. We're proud to have helped shape the careers of our students and support the growth of the dance industry.
Our dance course graduates run their own companies, work as dance producers and managers, deliver and teach workshops in communities and choreograph and direct works for stage and screen.
Industry links
Our dance degree is proud to collaborate with a wide range of industry professionals and organisations, many of whom guest lecture on the course.
Our partners and collaborators include:
- Boy Blue
- freeYOURstyle agency
- Far From The Norm
- Breakin' Convention
- The Capsule
- MOVE IT
- Choreographers such as Kloe Dean, Elliot Parmar, Kenrick Sandy, Luke Lentes, and Kieran Warner
- The Choreodrome dance development programme (some of our graduates have been selected)
Graduate employers
Graduates from our dance degree course have gone onto commercial work such as performing with Lizzo and Beyonce whilst others have secured roles in organisations such as:
- Breakin' Convention
- East London Dance
- MOVE IT
- Studio3Arts
- Boy Blue
- Far From The Norm
- AMCK
- Hub Studios
Job roles
Typical roles within the dance industry and the wider job market that our dance degree graduates now work in include choreographer, producer, senior manager, director, entrepreneur, performer, marketer, physiotherapist, talent agent, music production, academic, teacher, community practitioner, videographer and photographer.
Further study
You could undertake further postgraduate study in performing arts, or learn how to set up your own dance practice with our MA Creative Enterprise.

“Before university, I thought of myself as a dancer, but the course has helped me think like an artist - someone with something to say. It’s showing me the standard I need to reach - and that it’s possible.”Gary Clarke
BA (Hons) Dance student
How you'll learn
You'll learn as you dance. Our dance students have had exciting opportunities, such as the chance to perform for the Queen at the televised 60th anniversary Buckingham Palace concert.
There's the opportunity to help organise, choreograph and perform in our acclaimed student-run festival COLL!DE - a wonderful day-long, international celebration of dance.
You'll be taught by a team of professionals, featuring skilled academics, specialist dancers and choreographers as part of your dance degree.
They're multi-talented, like Course Leader Carla Trim-Vamben. She's a professional performer and researcher, trained in contemporary, African and club dances such as waacking. She has years of experience as a community dance practitioner. She has taught dance nationally and internationally.
We're located in University Square Stratford. It has advanced performance studios and more than £750,000 of new specialist equipment. It's close to UEL and Newham's arts venue - The Source, East London Dance and Theatre Royal Stratford East.
They're among our partners, who work closely with us to offer professional development, performance viewings and workshops.
You'll have the chance to take up dance work placements here in the UK as well as abroad.
Guided independent study
When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.
Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.
Academic support
Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas – including learning and disability support.
Dedicated personal tutor
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.
Workload
Each year you will spend around 280 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.
The approximate workload hours for this course per year are:
- Scheduled teaching - 284 hours
- Guided independent study - 916 hours
Your timetable
Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm.
For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.
Class sizes
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 10 - 30 students a year. In the classroom, you will be taught in groups of 10-20 students. However, this can vary by academic year.
How you'll be assessed
We'll assess you through practical performances, rehearsals and dance technical developments. We assess theoretical work through essays, workbooks and journals that reflect on progress and performance. Second and third-year modules contribute to the final degree award classification. In your final year, you'll undertake a compulsory written dissertation and a placement with a dance organisation or company.
Campus and facilities
Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD
Our waterfront campus in the historic Royal Docks provides a modern, well-equipped learning environment.
Join us and you'll be able to make the most of our facilities including contemporary lecture theatres and seminar rooms, art studios and exhibition spaces, audio and visual labs and a multimedia production centre.
Features include our 24/7 Docklands library, our £21m SportsDock centre, a campus shop and bookstore, the Children's Garden Nursery, cafés, eateries, a late bar, plus Student Union facilities, including a student lounge.
The University of East London is one of the few London universities to provide on-campus accommodation. Our Docklands Campus Student Village houses close to 1,200 students from around the world. We are well connected to central London and Canary Wharf, with London City Airport just across the water. We also run a free bus service that connects Docklands with Stratford campuses.
Who teaches this course
This course is delivered by School of Arts and Creative Industries
The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.
What our students and staff say

I chose UEL because its urban dance course is the only one of its kind in the UK. The most memorable thing has been seeing myself and others finding our style and also progressing academically."
Scott Dean
BA (Hons) Dance

I went from starting in September with a huge bout of imposter syndrome to finishing the year with tremendous confidence that I can actually go on and achieve a degree."
Nicholas Garbett
Graduate

















