Task 2d: Questions of Inquiry

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

My enthusiasm is motivated by training in new performance techniques and other aspects of performing such as Aerial Hoop. Also working with like minded individuals and seeing new and upcoming choreographers and styles. When I was at college I was lucky enough to work with amazing teachers with their own unique style which I absolutely loved learning and gave me the enthusiasm to learn and develop my own dance ability. It has opened my eyes to maybe developing my own style or finding a style inside someone else. Think I need to save some money for many theatre trips to come!

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?

I’m always seeking perfection in everything I do and I think that stems from being a dancer, so when I don’t feel I have got close to perfection (which I know is impossible) I get really angry and upset with myself. Someone who used to teach me dance when I was younger is an important admirer to me. She has been through an awful lot through her life from depression to maybe not being able to have kids but no matter what, dance and friends have got her through everything. I’m lucky enough to be working a long side of her currently and feel that I am going to learn a lot about how to work around difficult problems and situations. 

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love being in a position which gives me the opportunity to pass on experience and knowledge of performing. I love seeing the enjoyment of the students after the lesson and seeing them develop. The current head of dance that I am working with gets overjoyed when someone surpasses expectations and their own challenges along the course. Bob Fosse work has been a love of mine for many many years. I first was introduced to him when I was at my local dance school. The creativity of his work meant it was a pleasure to watch and gave me the urge to learn. A more recent admirer of mine who I found on YouTube is Matt Steffanina. The videos he posts is of the classes he teaches performing his routines and in many of them you can actually learn the dance to. The excitement you see from the class and his desire to dance is so motivating and gives me inspiration when I come to choreographing routines.

Matt Steffanina Youtube

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

One thing that I never understood and still don’t understand is how casting directors and producers decide who goes through to the next round of an audition. At the majority of auditions, I have been to, me and my friend asks - ‘How did she/he get through?’ I would love to get inside the audition panels head to know exactly what they are looking for cause you all have an idea especially if it is a well known show/production and have seen the types of people they have cast before and then you see a person get through who in your eyes and my friends eyes weren’t as good as other people in the room that didn’t get through.

How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

After completing a Safeguarding course for the workshops I teach at college it was a big shock to hear such terrible statistics about child abuse, depression and suicide. Some of the images of bruising and things weren’t nice to look at but felt that it was important that I did look to know all the signs and signals so that I knew what to do if I suspect someone was upset, hurt or scared. Any form of physical contact in certain situations can be deemed inappropriate and especially if it makes an individual uncomfortable. Obviously in our profession their may be times where a choreographer will place an arm or leg into the correct position but if it was frequent or prolonged physical contact I would find it unacceptable, so I feel that respect should be paramount and understood by other professionals.

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

I feel reflected thoughts are an essential tool in anyone’s life as by reflecting can ignite or defuse positivity and negativity however, I find it hard to reflect or at least tell people how I feel. The only time that I have used reflective practice was when I was at Italia Conti and we had to reflect on classes like I mentioned in my previous blog about journal writing.

Robert Kottcamp talks about reflection-in-action (on-line) and reflection-on-action (off-line). I agreed with what he had to say about ‘the type of profession you come from has an impact on the ways you reflect’ and therefore would say that I found that I reflect-in-action because as a dancer we have to correct movements and positions as we go. This practice then goes on to tacit knowledge which I completely understood. In many moments when I’m teaching I find times when someone asks me a question about a move that I simply can not explain with words but just my body and movement. Tharp and Reiter, 2006 said that ‘memory of movement doesn’t need to be accessed through conscious effort’ which I adopt all the time when performing a routine because I have the trust in knowing what I am doing without trying or thinking to hard.

Kolb’s learning cycle made me stop and really think about how I learn and although I do all of the cycle steps when it comes to starting something new I’m not sure where I fall into first? I think it depends on the job you are doing therefore if I was about to start a new dance job I reflectively observe, to know what I need to do and use concrete experience because dance is my career and obviously a practical ‘do’ experience. If, however looking back on when I started to teach I primarily used reflective observation to think back to when I was a student or watching a teacher teach a class.

In future I will try to verbalize my body movements as I feel this would benefit my teaching and open up to the idea that reflecting is a good thing and be confident in sharing my thoughts.

Task 2b: Journal Writing Experience

I am going to reflect on a recent workshop I taught at the Sixth Form College

Description - I am working with first year students in dance and musical theatre. This lesson consisted of a musical theatre routine which they would then use in an audition process scenario in the third lesson.

Initial Reflection -  I felt very nervous before going to teach my first class of the new term and was worried that they wouldn’t like my choreography or struggle to pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised about how hard they worked and how well they picked up the material I gave them. 

List - I make lists pretty much everyday so this was an easy way for me to list emotions and thoughts of the day;

·      Nervous

·      Excited

·      Passionate

·      Need to learn names!

·      Vary the warm up?

Evaluation - Thinking back on it, it went better than I originally thought it would. One thing I will do differently would be to swap the lines around more when teaching so that everyone has the chance to come to the front which will build confidence and make sure they see everything that I do. I have realised that this has given me a great opportunity to be able to push the boundaries of my choreography and imagination as I am now directing a class rather than being directed.

Graphs, Charts and Diagrams - I love making graphs and trying things out on my laptop but putting my reflections into one was quite tough. Don’t think I will be using this in the future unless I feel I have enough detail to make a good enough chart.

What If? -  I am a big ‘what if’ person and always annoy my family with my silly little worries and don’t think there is a day that I don’t get worried about something. On this day the ‘what if’s’ were there from the very moment I woke up but once the class got started the negative thoughts disappeared and I got on with what I was there for. The worse thing that could have happened would have been – What if they didn’t like me? What if they don’t enjoy the class?

Another View - I chose to ask the students to give me feedback about me and the class in writing and anonymously as another view and couldn’t believe all the lovely things they said!

‘Very very good teacher and choreographer’

‘Extremely professional and so so helpful’

‘Very engaging, easily approachable’

Hearing what everyone thought about me and my choreography gave me a boost in confidence and thoroughly enjoyed working with them. This also helps me to know what the students want to get out of the lesson so I can plan better. I feel that for me this is a good way for reflection and will ask the classes I teach for feedback now and then at the end of the lesson.