With Higher Education moving toward a student as consumer model, the future of dance in this context requires a more collaborative and innovative approach. One way to achieve this is to find new teaching methods that use class time in a more meaningful way. This qualitative research project used a guided and cognitive-specific imagery intervention to impact on undergraduate ballet students' skill acquisition in release-based contemporary dance to do just that. Drawing upon Jennifer Cumming and Sarah Williams' Revised Applied Model of Deliberate Imagery a new intervention was designed and tested. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, observations, and field notes this autoethnographic paper explores the impact of such an intervention both on the participants of the study and me as a teacher of release-based contemporary dance technique. The research findings have movement centred impacts such as faster embodiment of movement material as well as mind centred impacts including improved self-confidence and focus. The designed imagery intervention and its use in this context have training implications for release-based contemporary dance technique teachers that could allow for a more collaborative and innovative approach in the future of dance in Higher Education.