Northern School of Contemporary Dance announced online auditions for the September commencement of its brand new CertHE in Contemporary Urban Dance course. The course will be led by Antonio Ssebuuma. Due to the impact of coronavirus/COVID-19 students are asked to audition via remote audition and will be required to provide footage of a range of dance skills detailed through the school’s admissions page https://www.nscd.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CertHE-Contemporary-Urban-Remote-Audition-Information-UPDATED-19-March-2020.pdf Admissions are open now and the submission deadline for remote audition footage is Sunday 31 May 2020.
The new 1-year course has been developed in collaboration with Sharon Watson and other leading NSCD alumni. Speaking on her involvement Sharon Watson said:
“I am thrilled to have been able to contribute… I hope that by broadening the range of genres the school can offer, we see a diverse uptake of fresh new talent.”
CertHE Contemporary Urban Dance is designed for students wishing to expand and explore their skills in a variety of diverse styles before joining a 3-year degree programme. Students will usually have a Level 3 College qualification or A-Levels, but NSCD also awards places to very talented 16-17 year-olds. The course will explore a breadth of dance styles with close connections to popular and youth cultures, encompassing African/Caribbean Carnival dance, House, Vogue and Street/Hip-hop. Working across social and cultural contexts, students will examine the increasingly important role the Urban Dance genre plays in the communication of narratives spanning diverse and sometimes challenging subject matter. Students will be encouraged to develop their own improvisation, freestyle and choreographic skills and technique classes in Contemporary and Ballet will contextualise and enrich their Urban focus. Multiple performance opportunities both at NSCD’s Riley Theatre and at off-site locations will enable students to build confidence and generate their own unique movement language. NSCD’s CertHE programmes have a strong track record of preparing students for further professional training in Higher Education. 2018 saw 98% of our CertHE students progress to further dance training either at NSCD or at other conservatoires and universities.