All courses at Stella Mann College are designed to create versatile professional performers of the highest quality, who will have a wide knowledge of the business they will be entering and a strong base of transferable skills, vital for managing a career in the performing arts.
All the different pathways that the College offers are underpinned by the Stella Mann College Performer’s Diploma, which will be gained by anyone who completes three years of study at the College. Throughout this course students will receive training in all the disciplines you see listed below.
What we do
Performance is a diverse field.
We offer training in a range of subjects, see below and keep reading for further information
Throughout the course students will receive training in all these areas of study, with some subjects being streamed by ability and experience in order to maximise individual development. Students who undertake external qualifications such as the Trinity College Diplomas and BA (Hons Degree) will elect some of these subjects to be assessed for these qualifications, allowing them to follow certain specialisms and career ambitions. This scheme of work has been designed with the input of industry professionals, such as agents, who believe that students should receive as wide a training as possible, to produce the versatile ‘triple threats’ with whom they want to work.
CONTEXTUAL STUDIES
- Musical theatre and dance history
- Changing nature of the market place for the performing arts
HEALTH AND SAFETY
- Diet and nutrition
- Exercise
- Anatomy
- Injury prevention and management
- Risk assessment
- Safeguarding
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
- Personal publicity – CV writing, headshots and Spotlight
- Dealing with agents and casting directors
- Tax and management of finances
- Insurance for performers and teachers
- Equity and other unions
- Audition Technique
Fitness
The College has a strong emphasis on fitness throughout the training, with all students receiving fitness classes from a qualified fitness instructor every week and there being a strength and stamina component in many classes. This connects well with the instruction given in diet and exercise in IPS classes. Dancers must think of themselves as athletes and the College strives to provide an environment in which all students can reach peak fitness.
Practical Assessments
Practical assessments are carried out twice-yearly, usually in November and May, or in the Christmas and Easter Shows, and are a vital part of the course to direct learning and give students quantifiable results and development throughout their course. Assessments are tied into the College’s Feedback and Individual Learning Plan systems, which give the students one-on-one support, guidance and advice throughout their course. We offer One-year or Two-year Certificates, which can be tailor-made to suit different requirements, whether this be as foundation or gap-year training or intensive training designed to focus on performance skills and entry to the profession after significant training in another establishment.
BA (HONS) IN PERFORMING ARTS
Validated by The University of Northampton (3 Years)
DIPLOMA IN PROFESSIONAL DANCE
Validated by Trinity College London (3 Years)
DIPLOMA IN PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL THEATRE
Validated by Trinity College London (3 Years)
These external qualifications are not compulsory and entry onto them is at the discretion of the college. The course of study for each qualification is in line with the college’s own one-year, two-year and three-year courses, with the additional written work linked to the IPS strand. The Stella Mann College Certificates and Diplomas are assessed internally purely on practical demonstration of ability but these external qualifications are externally moderated and contain an academic and theoretical component in addition to the practical assessments. The Trinity College Diplomas can be topped up to a full BA(hons) degree through the BA Professional Practice (Arts) programme at Middlesex University, a 15-month distance learning course.
Funding
We offer Dance and Drama Awards (DaDAs) and funding through the Higher Education Funding Council. We are in partnership with The University of Northampton. This enables our students who are taking the BA (Hons) Degree in Performing Arts to access tuition fee and maintenance grants and loans through Student Finance England.
Students can only access one of these forms of funding, meaning that students in receipt of DaDA awards cannot also access HE tuition fees and maintenance loans, and students on the HE course cannot also access DaDA funding.
