2d: Inquiry

I found this task much harder than I thought it would be as it required some real in depth reflection of my past blog entries, the journal I wrote in briefly, and events that have occurred over the last couple of weeks. I am involved with dance but my whole life does not completely revolve around my passion. When I am not rehearsing and dancing with Chrysalis London I have a part time job working at Primark in Oxford Street on Saturdays, I participate in open dance classes during the week and am also doing the BAPP Arts degree.

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

When I first think about it, I find there are many things that make me more enthusiastic about my daily practise. But the first thought that comes to my head is being a part of Chrysalis London. There are no two people that are exactly the same dance-wise in the company, and seeing the sheer amount of talent every week makes me so enthusiastic to find out more. How do they do that? How can I do that? How can I do it with the same movement quality? There is a shared passion to learn more and become a better dancer that is felt by everybody, and seeing this is one of the most encouraging things. I couldn’t imagine being part of something I love, whether it is dance related or not, where every single person is just a clone of each other, with the same strengths, talents and focuses. Waking up and getting ready for dance, I always wonder what we will be doing that day or week, and the, sometimes, unpredictable nature of the day makes me eager to get engaged into class and rehearsals.

Having class with Jodie, (the artistic director and choreographer of the company), I feel that there is an environment that is created where we are all continuously learning something new every single week, whether this is from him in class and rehearsals or learning from watching each other/ourselves. There is such a positive energy that I admire which makes me feel passionate about my professional practise.  Thinking back to college, there were very few teachers I admired. Teachers are supposed to support you, give you confidence, advice and inspire you and that is exactly what my main ballet teacher did in my graduating year. She would sometimes give us these motivational talks that had the power to make a builder think that he could be a professional ballet dancer if he believed in himself! And that was something that made me want to keep learning and improving myself more every day, and not just in her classes too. I did not just admire this teacher, but felt she hugely inspired me to work hard and pursue what I love.

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?

The attitudes towards black and coloured ballet dancers is something that makes me feel a mixture of anger and sadness. Personally, I feel it is a subject that is ignored in the dance world, something people would rather just avoid talking about. But especially now that we are in the 21^st century, I, like many other people, believe it is time for these attitudes and ‘rules’ to be addressed, something long awaited by many people no matter their background. From a young age, with people making assumptions and telling me I would be great doing hip hop or jazz, I would feel so angry being told I could not be a professional ballet dancer, simply because I am black and don’t look like ‘your typical ballerina’. Although nowadays we are seeing more coloured ballet dancers emerging from a variety of different companies, the prejudiced ideas and discrimination are still present more than ever. Some articles and comments I have read online are absolutely outrageous and seriously make you question how people can think, say and even believe such ridiculous and outdated mind sets.

Two incredibly inspirational ballerinas I admire are Michaela DePrince and Misty Copeland. DePrince went from being in an orphanage in Sierra Leone, to a professional ballet dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, achieving many milestones on her way. She has had to work from literally having nothing, and to see how far she has got today is something that brings many people hope. Following Michaela on Instagram, I saw a recent post where she announced she would be playing the principal role of Clara/Sugar Plum Fairy, saying; ‘This calls to mind how much I longed to dance the role of Clara when I was a child, but it was believed by the artistic director in that US company that the world wasn’t ready for a black Clara’. Having perfected her technique and simply being the beautiful dancer she is, Michaela DePrince has overcome race and the beauty-based stereotyped that is often associated with ballet.

Another dancer I admire who has worked around her sadness and anger towards these outdated stereotypes is Misty Copeland. When you have been told at the age of 13 that you ‘lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length, bust and also have the wrong body for ballet’, the last thing you want to do is keep doing something you ‘clearly have no chance in succeeding in’. But it’s her perseverance, talent and pure determination that has led her to recently being offered a Principal job dancing with American Ballet Theatre, being the first African-American female in 75 years to achieve this role. No one should be denied the opportunity to do what they are so passionate about, purely because of their background or because they don’t ‘fit the part’.

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

In terms of dance, the positive support from people inside and outside the industry is something that makes me love what I do. I remember in Upper 6^th back in college and being in the most supportive dance set. We were always encouraging towards each other which was something that is needed in a profession so critical.

I also love being surrounded by people who have the similar interests and goals as I do. Before I moved to Tring, there were few people who danced at my school, but even fewer that wanted to pursue a career in it. I never felt many people took my dancing seriously, and I never really spoke about my training and the mental and physical hardship it involved. One of the good things I found when I started at Tring, was that everyone on my course could all relate with each other, the common thing being dance. Most of us wanted to graduate and stay involved somehow in dance, theatre or something along the lines and we all understood the good days and the bad. Of course at times you would feel suffocated and quite honestly irritated by some people.

But what I really love now is how that never changes with the friends you make and keep in contact with once you graduate. You cannot wait to graduate and get out of the hell-hole you previously referred to as ‘school’ but at the same time it’s a sad realization when you realise your best friends won’t be there every day and you enter the ‘real world’ of auditioning, performing and touring. To hear friends talking about their aspirations, supporting you and you supporting them, to see them on their way to fulfilling them years later in all different parts of the world is definitely something I love about what I do.

After answering these questions, I have many concluding thoughts about developing lines of inquiry;

What is the ‘perfect’ learning environment for Professional Dance?

How important is it as a young dancer in training to have people you admire and inspire you?

Are outdated attitudes and beliefs towards black and coloured dancers still an issue in the Dance Industry?

Is ballet racist? 

2b: Journal Writing Experience

Last week I wrote about my day each evening in a journal based on the variety of frameworks defined in the Reader, for example, Moon and Reid. I wrote about what I did throughout the day and found I sometimes elaborated on specific events that happened, whether they were related to my professional practise or personally. I wrote in 7 different frameworks for each day.

List;

I started off the week writing in a list structure, a method I found quick and easy to complete. Although most of what I wrote was very random and at first appeared to have no connection with each other, I found there was one common theme of emotion. I found my emotions affected how I wrote my list. Towards the end of the day where I was clearly in a good mood, my list structure became less of random words and blunt sentences, and more of detailed sentences describing how certain events that occurred had made me feel, still making sure to stick to a list form. Looking back at my old diaries, I noticed I would make lists of my day from time to time. When I wouldn't have time to write a full descriptive entry like I normally would have done, a quick jot down of what I did each day was perfect as I would always plan to return to the same page and fill in the blanks, my memory being jogged by random word after word. Although I never ‘filled in the blanks’ with my Boomtown Diary towards the end of the festival week, (something I really regret not doing!), I still am able to remember most of the things that happened just by reading through a list of the day.

Graphs, Charts and Diagrams;

When I first read this as a suggestion I was more than confused as to how I could portray my day in a graph, for example. But after researching the book ‘My Life in Graphs – A Guided Journal’ Knock Knock, I began to like the idea of using these graphs, charts and different diagrams to portray my day and what I have done, deciding to use a pie chart as my guide. Below is a photo of my roughly drawn chart.

Once I had created this chart, I spent a while looking over what I had done that day and I could quickly and clearly observe what I had achieved and what I really needed to do more of. I was surprised to find how little productivity was achieved. Although I wasn't keen on the actual drawing process, I found it interesting to reflect on what appears to be the main parts of my day; Stress, Procrastination and Daydreaming, and think why I felt stressed or didn't do any work, and how I can avoid making these things re-occurring actions.

Description;

Next I wrote in a descriptive style which I enjoyed and didn't find too hard to do. Normally when writing I tend to use this style as when reading a book, it is the detailed description giving me a clear imagery in my head, that makes me hesitate to put down my book. ‘Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s’ – Stephen King. I had 3 main bullet points to my day that I used as a guide; What happened? What were the main events? Where and When? When I read over my entry, although it is short, I can clearly picture exactly what happened because of the extent of my descriptions.

Initial Reflection;

I enjoyed writing in this style as, for me, it was the similar to writing in the descriptive style had used previously, (and in my old journals), except this time including my feelings, emotions and thoughts. This is my natural and most preferred style of writing. I included short ‘quotations’ of thoughts that had been going through my head throughout the day, and I found once I had begun to write, the words just kept flowing. Emotion is something that mainly controls what most people write, especially in the case of a 
journal. 

Evaluation;

I found writing using an evaluation style was one of the best ways to reflect with as reading over what I wrote now, I find it blunter than the previous two entries. Using three main bullet points again; What happened? Did I learn anything? And Verdict? As a basic structure, I found my entry was to the point, with hardly any waffle. I can clearly see how I reflected on that day, and what I learnt worked well and what did not.

What If;

Writing my journal entry for the day in this style did not work very well for me. Writing what I could have done or what I would have loved to have happened was not easy to reflect on as without realising I began to delve into negativity, realising what I would have loved to have happened etc reading all the unrealistic expectations of my ‘perfect productive day’. I struggled to write the sentences with this style.

Another View;

I love creative writing, so to use my imagination and write as another person or object, in this case being my bed, and making sure to include the thoughts and views of this person or thing was something I enjoyed doing although I did struggle a little with this style. I found it weird at first trying to think of how my bed would possibly view my day. I personally would not use this as a reflective tool as I found I didn't really reflect, just created a short, vague story of my day in another’s eyes.

Overall I found it hard adapting to each different method of writing, but with certain styles I wrote with a steady flow and felt I had things to write about. I love the method of trial and error in general; discovering new ways of doing things that are helpful to you, gaining knowledge and also confidence to try something new and out of your comfort zone. If I had to choose three styles to continue writing in they would be; List, Graphs/Charts and Initial Reflection as I feel I can personally reflect in these styles to a certain point, gain confidence and knowledge but I choose these styles mainly as a learning curve; where I learn what I need to avoid as well as the techniques to aid my reflective practise. 

Multiple Intelligences

'Gardner says that these differences "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes as well."' (Gardner 1991) 

Following on from my most recent blog about Howard Gardner and his idea of multiple intelligences, I was reminded of the picture above that I saw online last year. It emphasises Gardner's theory, as shown in the picture is a man stateing 'for a fair selection everybody has to take the same exam: please climb that tree'. The only animal who can pass the 'fair selection' is the monkey who is built and adapted to climb trees, therefore eliminating chances for any other animal to prove themselves worthy. 

"The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means". (Gardner 1991) 

2a: Reflective Practise

When I read that Module 1, Part 2 of the BAPP course, ‘The Reflective Practitioner’ involved keeping a journal, I was more than delighted! I used to always keep a diary or a journal from a very young age but stopped before I left high school. I clearly remember writing almost anything and everything in my diary; what I had done on particular days, things that happened in and out of school but mostly I wrote about how I felt. For me, being able to freely express my feelings and thoughts privately was the best part of having a diary. Unfortunately, I have done very little of it over the last couple of years, but I have always enjoyed writing and still thoroughly enjoy it to this day, whenever I get a chance to. This part of the course involves the use of reflective practice, writing and learning so I am more than excited to getting stuck into this task and to see the end product.

Looking at my old diaries now, I feel this huge wave of nostalgia hit me as I refresh my memory of key moments in my life that have occurred, some things I had even forgotten about! I never realised how much and how often I used to write in my diaries until reading them back to myself now. Remembering how much I loved it is making me consider starting a personal journal again, especially as I embark on a new career, university degree and have graduated from college. Reading over previous entries from many years ago, I can’t believe how much I have changed, although one thing is for sure; I still write today in a same or similar style which I find quite interesting to see. I clearly developed an interest in a particular style that I loved to write in. I feel that being able to write absolutely anything you like in a journal as an exercise for reflective practise is a good routine to have.

Although I say I have not written a diary for a few years, I suddenly remembered the Summer of 2014. I volunteered at Boomtown Festival, in Winchester, with 2 of my friends. Before going we decided we would each get a notepad and make a 'Boomtown diary', which we wrote in whenever we had a spare chance to then compare and read altogether at the end of the week. We were there for at least 4 days so would have had plenty to write about, especially as we were working so would have the professional experience of volunteering to write about, as well as the party experience when we were not on our shifts! I haven't looked back at this diary for over half a year so I think it will be amazing, (and hilariously funny), to re-read it, purely for the good memories but also to see how I wrote the entries while lounging in a messy tent on a field pretty much in the middle of nowhere! 

After going through Reader 2, although I am still feeling a bit swamped and a little overwhelmed by it all, I have a much better understanding. I decided to research the different theories that were mentioned in the Reader, and found that I fall into Howard Gardner’s theory; the idea that people are intelligent in a number of different ways. From my research I found I fell into a couple of his theories, but more in depth, two of them.

1. Bodily-kinesthetic and

2. Interpersonal

Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand, interact and communicate well with other people. People with this intelligence have sensitivity to others’ moods, are able to have multiple perspectives and understand others’ feelings or motives.

Having been dancing for most of my life, I was not surprised to fall into the bodily-kinesthetic category. This intelligence involves a keen sense of body awareness and a sense of timing. They communicate and learn through body language, whether this be taught through physical activity, role-play, acting out, or using tools or equipment for hands-on learning. As I started dance from a young age, I obviously found using bodily-kinesthetic intelligence helped me to build strength and knowledge as a dancer. As this was the most natural way of learning for me, I began to adapt it and try to use it in other situations, mostly when I was learning in school. Creating acrostic-like poems/formulas, made-up phrases and new words as well as acting them out became my quickest and easiest method of learning and still is today.

So with all of this in mind, including the online session, I came up with some ideas to help me write my reflective journal. They are as follows;

·         What happened? / What did I do that day?

·         How did it go? / What could I have done differently? / Why did things go well/wrong?

·         How did I deal with the situation.

I will use these as a starting point that allows me to structure and expand on them when applying them to my dance rehearsals, weekend job and my personal life. 

Reflection Mindmap

I found this diagram of someone’s mindmap on reflection which I thought was very interesting as well as helpful. I can see many branches that I could apply to my own reflection too.

26.10.15 Online Skype Call

We began the Skype session with a general talk on reflection, using the slides as a guide. (You can find these on my learning site!). Paula spoke about reflecting on how we talk and work with people. To reflect you have to play around and be an activist; it is a participation based on experience. By reflecting on this experience we are able to think about practise and how it can change the way we do things. Paula also mentioned how informal learning can be done in your personal and professional life. I had never heard of this form of learning until then, so decided to do a little research on it. Informal learning is the unscheduled way that most of us learn to do our jobs. It is not structured and is spontaneous. Informal learners are motivated to learn in order to achieve their goal due to a desire to know how to do or learn something. After reading on this topic, I realised how much I use this form of learning and how useful it is to me personally.

While reading the slides, there were two different parts to reflective practice that stood out to me, as I use these processes in my own practices. Cold Process is reflection where the things that go wrong can be turned around and learned from. I find this to be one of the most common learning processes to use as you learn from trial and error. You see the one or many wrong outcomes so in the future you  are able to avoid these things from occurring as you have reflected and learnt. Honey and Munford is the use of observation in reflection which is a difficult skill. You have the experience, review it, conclude from it, then plan the next steps.

We then discussed our journals, and the processes of how we could write in them. For some people writing comes naturally to them, and for others it is hard to write a fully flowing sentence or paragraph. There are many ways you can write in your journal whether this be in bullet points, in a mindmap, in a picture, doodle or pattern, or in a stream of consciousness, otherwise known as automatic journalling.

So what exactly is reflection?

Reflection is what we do in order to do it better as to participate in a process of continuous learning.

Towards the end of our discussion, Paula asked us if we could think of anything recently where we have used reflective practise. I briefly mentioned a task I was set a few days ago in rehearsal. Our artistic director began rehearsals by calling us up one by one and carefully sticking blue plasters on to different parts of our bodies. I had 5 plasters; one on the back of my neck, my back and on my right wrist, hip and knee. We all had the plasters in different places, some having more than others and some with less. He began to explain his task; he wanted us to choreograph a short phrase only using the body parts with the plasters on, linking these body isolations together with movement. I had done this task before, but with great difficultly so decided to learn from that experience.

So what happened previously? I stood still in the studio for about 15 minutes watching my peers before moving around awkwardly in desperation for a lightbulb moment where I would suddenly have a movement phrase choreographed. I wasn’t the only one doing this either! Unfortunately, this approach did me no good. I was so negatively sure I wouldn’t be able to create anything. Soon enough I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of the task that was set so slowly began to choreograph. I created my movement sequence through trial and error, seeing what movement flowed into the next, what looked good and what didn’t. Once I had stopped watching other people dancing while I quietly cried inside at the very thought of not being able to create anything, (I’m sure you dancers have felt like this at some point!), I slowly began choreographing my sequence, adding and changing parts as I went along. Soon enough I had completed the task and was left wondering why I had been so apprehensive to start in the first place. I found once I focused and began to choreograph a few starting movements, I was able to link them together. ‘You can’t start a fire without a spark’ – Bruce Springsteen.

So with all of that in mind, my first plan of action for this current task was to approach it with some PMA. Positive Mental Attitude. I still found it hard to begin with, but rather than have a defeatist attitude, I reflected over what had happened last time and thought how I would complete the task with a different insight. My second plan of action was to listen to advice being given to us by our director; use movement, not choreography. I reflected on how when I previously did the task I was struggling to create, thinking of hundreds and hundreds of positions and moves I had been taught in class. This time I decided to use the music as an aid. All dancers who have graduated from performing art colleges know the famous choreographer George Balanchine. I thought of a well-known quote of his; ‘Dancing is music made visible’. Some people are inclined to sound and as a dancer I believe this is a vital skill to have. Once I started listening to the music I stopped analysing every move as if I was in a student contemporary class, but just moved my body in a way that was appropriate to the music, initiating the movement from the body parts highlighted with the blue plaster. After considering and reflecting on all of this, I finally choreographed my movement phrase and was very happy with the result!

I found this online session incredibly helpful as personally I gained the confidence throughout the conversation to share my ideas with the group and we were able to discuss them, creating a huge mind map of ideas to blog about. I look forward to the next session! 

1c: Audio Visual

I found this task particularly hard at the beginning as it involved two of the things I'm not very good at; video editing and recording myself speaking, whether this involves audio or visual (even worse!). I wanted to do something I would be comfortable doing, rather than cringing at the sound of my own voice every time I watch my video back. (I'm sure I'm not the only person who hates the sound of my own voice!) I wasn't really sure how to approach this task. Some people find recording and uploading videos very easy to do, and I wish I was one of these people! After much thought, I decided to create a Flipagram account, an easy and simple way to upload videos including photos, text and music. For those who aren't so familiar with Flipagram, it is a sharing app with one purpose; making short movies out of your chosen photographs. You then have the choice to share your video with the rest of the 'Flipagram community'/people you follow, or share straight to your email, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatsapp etc. I was able to link up my account with my photos on my phone as well as my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter account to find and select the photos I needed to use. I don’t use Flipagram often- in fact I have only used it once or twice before, but have never directly shared one of these videos onto Youtube so I was nervous at first, but enjoyed doing it. 

The point of this task was to express your intentions on how you might be using the BAPP course, whether this is for your own knowledge or for your future. There are many ways to express and communicate your own intentions, and personally I don’t think it matters how you do it, as long as your motives are clear to whoever is viewing them. I mentioned in my previous post the quote: ‘A picture speaks a thousand words’. Sometimes an image can communicate it’s meaning more effectively that a description would.

A few of the photos are blurry but you can still see them! It’s nothing great, but here it is, enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rt5uRxskus