Dance and Psychology

Dance and psychology is an unusual and genuinely enriching combination, bringing together the embodied practice of an ancient human art with the scientific study of mind and behaviour. Dance is a performing art that engages the body, the emotions, the imagination, and the social world simultaneously, offering forms of expression, communication, and shared experience that language alone cannot provide. Psychology, combined with dance, offers powerful tools for understanding the mental and emotional dimensions of performance, the psychological processes involved in learning and developing movement skills, the relationship between physical activity and mental health, and the ways in which dance functions in therapeutic and community contexts.

At Liverpool Hope University, this four-year full-time degree with a foundation year develops excellence in both dance and psychology. The dance strand is designed to produce adaptable, reflexive, and independent dance artists, focusing on performance and choreographic practices and drawing on a diverse range of techniques and theories to build comprehensive knowledge and skill. You will develop your own distinctive practice and creative voice while engaging with the academic and critical dimensions of the discipline.

The psychology component provides rigorous scientific training across the core domains of the discipline, including cognitive, social, developmental, and biological psychology, alongside the research methods skills needed to evaluate psychological evidence critically. A sandwich year with work placement gives you professional experience in either a dance or psychology-related context, while the option of a year abroad broadens your cultural and intellectual horizons.

Graduates enter careers in dance performance, choreography, community arts, dance in education, dance movement psychotherapy, health promotion, and the broader creative and cultural industries. The psychological knowledge developed alongside dance training is particularly valuable in applied contexts, including dance therapy, arts for health programmes, youth arts work, and educational settings. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in dance, psychology, counselling, dance movement psychotherapy, or arts in health, building specialist expertise for professional or academic careers at the intersection of the arts and sciences.