Dance degree personal statement example (1a) International Baccalaureate

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

What continually inspires me to study dance is the concept of it being an art form which doesn’t necessitate anything but a body. It does not rely on tools such as paintbrushes or scripts, only the movement and the mover themselves; even to have an audience is not essential, when creating art for the sake of oneself can be as meaningful as that performed to thousands. This is an idea that I find completely awe-inspiring and am desperate to take advantage of through university studies, to really explore the full movement ability of our bodies.

I find myself thinking about Dance every minute, whether by choreographing when listening to my IPod, or finding stimulus's on the high-street, and it is this that forces me to take Dance at university. I am particularly interested in Contemporary Dance because it fascinates me to watch the boundaries of the dance world being pushed, and the vast array of reactions it can provoke. My favourite choreographers Christopher Bruce, Akram Khan, and Wayne McGregor, especially in his piece "Infra" as I loved the contact work of the duets and how their sharp movements were also seamlessly fluid in showing relationships formed in our fast paced society.

I look forward to grasping every aspect of my degree, be it choreography, technique, history, or management, with both hands and striving to improve myself both as an academic and a practitioner. I am very excited to start learning from and contributing to the dance community with the knowledge I will gain in my study of Dance at university.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Although I do not take Dance at sixth form, I pursue my practice with extra-curricular dance clubs and through my Extended Essay. My Extended Essay discusses the significance of gender relationships in Pina Bausch's work, questioning her motives and the issues raised by her choreography. I have investigated her shocking use of violence and intimacy, the victimisation of women, her use of cross dress, and social gender stereotypes presented in her work. I feel that starting this sort of analysis now will prepare me for larger essays in the future.

Dance has always been a major part of my life, and I have taken ballet, tap and modern from a young age at stage school. I also participate in classes of contemporary and choreography at sixth form and travel to Pineapple Dance Studios to take classes in half terms to experience their dedicated, ruthless atmosphere and get a feel for a professional dance career.

In addition to the language opportunities gained by the IB, the programme has taught me to be punctual and well organised, with the Theory of Knowledge part of the course teaching me to be open minded, and to consider the importance of different areas of knowledge in relation to a topic. This in particular I think will aid my future studies when I consider the impact of Dance in different subject areas.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Outside of a dance environment, I enjoy playing sport and played for secondary school teams in netball, trampolining and athletics. At my local athletics club I have thrown hammer at county level where I competed for 6 years, and thrive on working hard to improve my physical fitness and skill.

Another commitment of mine is languages, I take French and Spanish on the International Baccalaureate, and I find it extremely gratifying to communicate with people of different cultures. I won my Secondary school award for French in years 10 and 11, and I hope to continue my language studies through university to travel and use them in application.

I work at Tesco supermarket part time as a checkout assistant, and there I enjoy communicating with an array of people, taking the initiative in difficult situations which I think will prepare me for graduate level jobs on leaving university. I also spent 6 months this year volunteering at my local radio station by co-presenting and preparing material, and promoting the station. This gave me a foundational understanding of media and marketing, which I can add to and apply in dance and theatre communities.

Universities applied to:

• Surrey (BA Dance and Culture)
• Middlesex (BA Dance Performance)
• Chichester (BA Dance)

Grades achieved:

• 39 points IB
• IB Maths Studies - 6
• IB English SL - 6
• IB French HL - 6
• IB Spanish AB - 7
• IB Chemistry HL - 5
• IB Philosophy HL - 6
• IB Inner Hexagon - 3

How personal statements have changed?

The current personal statement format, with three 'scaffolding' questions, was introduced by Ucas in September 2025. This personal statement was submitted before then, using the old essay-style format. It has been carefully edited into the three-question format, with all of the original wording kept.

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