Task 2D - Inquiry

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

I love to choreograph, this is a real passion that i want to take on further when I have finished my performing career. I am really lucky to have to opportunity whist on board to, along with my fellow cast members, choreograph and put together a bumper show that will be performed on the theaters 'dark night' on the 8 day cruises. Although the style of the show will me more typical Jazz with elements of cabaret and burlesque which is not the style I would naturally choreograph in but will be a great experience to learn from other cast members about their style. I naturally use contemporary for the basis of my choreography as I like to create abstract pieces of work that make the audience think and means they have a lot to look at on stage. I would like to find more about how physiology like to how a dancer performed. We have had quite a few issues already in my current contract that have meant a lot of feelings have been flying around and situations arising. I would like to see how issues outside of work effect issues inside and compare this to other jobs inside and outside of the artistic industry. I would love to connect these two ideas and see how I can explore this idea though dance and how I can get an audience to think about these issues. A choreographer I really admire is Wayne McGregor he looked in to the idea of how the body created movement, how the nervous system and the brain sent messages to the muscles to create the shapes. He collaborated with Cambridge University to research this before starting to choreograph. My cousin also introduced me to a few interesting ideas from her course where she majored in Philosophy. I also think these would be interesting to look into through choreography.

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

It makes me angry that people think that those working in the arts profession are not as intellectually capable as those working in an office for example. The stereo type of dancers being thick is really frustrating especially when you think that they have to remember choreography, retain the details, perform, use reflection in action  as well as reflecting after. I don't think I can pinpoint just one person who feels this, I think that this is the general consensus across the whole of the performing arts industry. 

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 performing and choreographing just as much as each other. I love feeling that I am giving the audience a part of myself when I perform and the enjoyment they get from watching me. With choreography I love to experiment, be that with different themes, shapes, musicality I am really eager to explore how I can get the audience interested and thinking about what I am trying to put across. Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker seems to also love this, she experiments with the use of cannon, creating seemingly complex timings that come together in moments of connection. She also still loves to perform so occasionally will choreograph herself into her pieces.  

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

There are a lot of thingsI don't think i understand. On a business level I don't understand what is entailed with being self employed, I don't understand how tax's work or how they effect me, what am I meant to do with them, I don't understand the running of a business. However, I have never had to deal with these sorts of things, I know I will need to look at it and learn about it at some point in the future as it will be relevant to me but right now I don't feel it is relevant to me work to make an inquiry about it.  On a more academic level, I don't understand how the mind works and I am very interested in the psychology and even sociology of the dancers working environment, be that on a sip, in a company or as a free lance performer or teacher. As I have said previously Wayne McGregor has looked at this in depth and has created pieces of dance to explore further in to his study, I think he has made the research process very interesting by gathering his knowledge to create a beautiful piece of art. 

From looking at my answers to these questions I can see a few possible lines of inquiry emerging:

Psychology of dancers in the workplace and outside

Sociology within different working environments for dancers

Philosophy 

The way different choreographers research or look in to subject matters

At the moment I feel these lines of inquiry are very broad so I need to research a little in to each to find specific ideas I want to research in to depth.

Christmas Time

We started rehearsals for our on board christmas show yesterday and I was so pleased to find that I was chosen to do the Adage (a partner work duet). This really proves that hard work does pay off!

Task 2B - Reflective Writing

I started out on this task by writing the journal how I would usually go about writing reflectively. This seemed to take the form of a mixture of description and initial reflection. I have since gone on to experiment with the different ways of writing about events that have happened in the day.

Initially I found it hard to know what to write about. I was worried that there was not enough going on from a professional sense to write about. Working on a Ship that runs 7 day cruises and only performing and having scheduled rehearsals on 2 of them I was struggling to balance the profession verses personal events that I would normally evaluate. Reflecting on this I can see that for this job specifically a lot of what happens out of being clocked in really does affect what happens when we are. We are living and working so closely together that it is almost like we are working 24/7. I have also realized that I can reflect on duties that we have to perform in addition to the shows. Even though these are not ‘dance’ based they still come in to my life as a professional dancer and are part of my job.

I have found a lot of the techniques really useful and interesting to do even if I may not use them again.

Description

I did use this initially but combined with Initial Reflection. I find that using description on it’s own does not really help with reflection as I was just stating what was happening in the day with no emotion attached to it. However, I do feel that description is necessary when combined with other techniques so when I look back on the event I know what happened so can link it with the feeling.

Initial Reflection

Again I initially did this combined with Description. Similarly, I find that just using initial reflection meant that when I looked back on what I wrote I could not connect it with anything, I was just writing about how I could have improved the situation that I did not explain so it did not really make sense when making an overall reflection.

List

I found that this did not help me at all. I found I had too much to put in to just a list so I was making lists inside lists inside lists which was getting too confusing. I would however add lists in when writing in notes from rehearsals, as this is how I write them down when being told my corrections. Writing them out again in my journal I feel helps a lot with remembering them and putting them in to place.

Evaluation

I liked using this technique as I really felt in enabled me to reflect on what had happened. This gave me a focus rather than just trying to reflect I could clearly say what I think went well or didn’t, why I felt that and how I could improve my actions the next time a similar situation arose.

Graphs/Charts

I am not quite sure what to make of this one. I tried to use like a flow chart of what happened in the day with the times so I could see how much time I had spent doing what so I could see what I should have done instead. Using this method will help with my time management but I would like to try using spider diagrams or bar charts/line graphs to see how my feelings or mood changes though a day or a particular event. I really feel that keeping track of how I am feeling will help my professional practice as I will come across as a happier and more confident person to my colleague.

Another View

I loved writing this one, defiantly the most fun one to try. I did it from the point of view of my name tag which we have to wear everywhere we go on the ship so it was so interesting how something else would see exactly what you are doing but looking at it from a different perspective. I also had a prime opportunity to use writing from another persons perspective of a specific situation. There were some issues regarding the cast and we went to talk to the dance captain about it so it would have been interesting to look at her perspective of the meeting. However, unfortunately I missed the opportunity to write about it as I should have written the same day. I would like to experiment using this technique at some point, especially if a similar situation arises. I really like this technique but would not use it every day, just when I feel I need to look at something from a different perspective.

I have found this task really interesting overall, it has given me a lot to think about how I can evaluate myself and any given situation in a different way to put a different light on things. I am going to continue to experiment with all of the techniques when I feel they are suitable for the situation. However, I am going to use a mixture of description, initial reflection and evaluation on a daily basis. This will help me when looking over previous logs as I will know what was going on, how I felt about it and how I proposed to move forward then compare with the current situation to see if I put my own advice in to play.

Task 1D

Hi all,

I have now set up my Flickr account. I have just got headshots and a couple of group photos on at the moment but will be taking more dance photos soon :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emily-jay/

Task 1C

OK so I know I have been procrastinating with this task as I am not a fan of seeing myself on camera, but I finally did it!

I apologise for the poor lighting as I recorded it in my cabin which sometimes feels like a dungeon as it has no natural light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd3AG3EdtOk

Emily

Thoughts on Reader 2

Before reading reader 2 I wasn't sure how to go about writing the journal in a professional sense. I have kept journals sporadically through school but they just ended up being about the latest drama, so I wasn't sure how to keep it professional and use it as a reflective tool. The Reader has made me feel a lot more confident with how to go about starting my reflective journal.

I really liked the question it posed to us on pg10 'What ideas do you like? Think about why?' I thought I would share mine with you and see what you think?

The idea of tacit knowledge that is touched on briefly at the end of the previous section intrigued me. I think this idea applies to more artists over scholars as there are movements and deeper ideas that can be harder to put in to words but for a dancer/artist can be portrayed easier though movement, drawings etc. I like this idea because I often find that I struggle to explain ideas or thoughts and so use movement to help. I find not having the correct word to explain what I am trying to say very aggravating, however, I think that comes from being a perfectionist as I won't be happy until I find the right way of explaining myself. I think I have to learn that using the exact word or phrase is is not always important as long as the idea or concept is put across clearly so the other person understands. From reading in to the next section of the reader my view changed from being satisfied with using movement as an explanation as I came to understand and agree that it is important to be able to 'articulate tacit knowledge'  as well as being able to put it in to artistic form. This comes from knowing that different interpretations can be taken from the art form which is great as it can be the start form for new ideas or concepts but as the sole creator we need to be able to verbalise our starting point and how the idea grew for us. 

The one thing I didn't understand in the section under 'Articulation of Reflective Practice' was the concept that the idea was only 'real' when put into word from. It is an still an idea no matter what form it is in, yes, verbalising it helps others to understand the concept but the idea is still real. Please correct me if you think I am wrong or help me to understand why it is written this way?

I did find the chapter taken from 'Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education' (English and Gillen, 2001) very helpful as it seemed to condense and lay out clearly how journal writing is beneficial stating what we could put in our journal to help our personal critical reflection. I liked that it pinpointed that 'the conditions under which journal writing takes place can have a powerful influence on what is produced and the extent to which writers can engage in critical reflection.' Personally, I find it difficult to write my true thoughts if i know some one is going to read it, I tend to censor what I write and think about what they would want to see written rather than how i truly see a situation. This gave me the confidence just to write everything so i can get a true reflection of ho wi feel and then if i need to use extracts for other purposes I can censor it after if need be.

2nd Draft of Task 1A

I have looked at my professional profile again and made a few changes including those suggested by Aicha and Paul. 

Have a look and see why you think!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rSGG7QGpJL-xhYD6bThpE9DXW8qL7UgjbrMv-6lq8Gg/edit?hl=en_US

Google Reader

Google Reader is my saviour at the moment. I am able to quickly go online on the ship refresh the page then go off line but still be able to read avery ones blog posts. This means I won't be spending a fortune on internet cards, yey! and I will still be up to date with how every one is doing. The only qualm I have with google reader is that you can't comment on posts via goole reader you have to go on to the persons page to be able to comment. If some one has found a way of commenting directly please let me know as it would be a great help, other wise I am going to have to write to google reader suggesting this is something they should do!!

Task 1B - Thoughts on Reader 1 1st Read through.

What i thought I would do seeing as I have limited internet connection was to read the reader and write about my initial thoughts. Then, when I am able to get internet go and look at other peoples blogs and read it again to see if it brings up any other ideas.

My initial thought was, like a lot of others, has web 2.0 resulted in a lack of real face to face communication? This wasn't answered so much in the sense of looking at how people communicate physically but looked at how using web 2.0 benefits professional practice. 

Up until I read the reader I did not understand what a 'wiki' was never mind know how to utilise it to help me. My understanding now is that Wikis are widely available for people to collaborate information, add their knowledge thoughts and/or feelings on specific topic. In many ways this seems like a great idea, enabling ideas to grow but I am left wondering how reliable this source is to get the hard facts? Information can be taken from outside, unknown, sources and be used within a Wiki to back up a discussion or a new idea 'materials can be reused and rearranged for a new purpose'. When referenced correctly this would be very useful but is this being regulated, are there terms that a user adding to a wiki has to follow? If Wikis are not necessarily spot on from the factual sense I still believe that wikis are a great way of creating new ideas or concepts that can be used in the workplace.  

YouTube, another example of a web 2.0 platform, is a useful tool especially to me as a professional in the Arts field. There is such a diversity of dance styles and techniques available to watch via YouTube, it inspires new ideas feelings and styles. Personally, I love to watch works of choreography from range of people as it stimulates new movement ideas, makes me think about how I can structure works differently and use dynamics to create interest for an audience and how I can portray an idea clearly. I think it is really useful that a consumer can comment on videos too. This gives the opportunity to for feedback on what they thought of the video possibly give suggestions on improvement saying what they like or dislike. Additionally, it gives the producer the chance to explain their ideas behind the piece should the consumer ask.

From a media prospective Web 1.0 means the 'professional' can inform the consumer of what they know as the facts on a specific topic. However, when web 2.0 is introduced a consumer, possibly with no previous knowledge on the subject, may interact with the 'professional' raising a question or an idea that hadn't yet been thought of. This new idea together with the hard facts could create new and interesting material which may have never been raised without the aid of web 2.0. This constant chain means that all these new ideas, theories and concepts are constantly evolving, growing and changing bringing up more questions and ideas creating a cycle of evaluation. 

Another question that has cropped up is that, yes people are free to look up, modify and interact with what they want, but do they really know what is out there and available to them? How can we promote the use of web 2.0 for our benefit and connect to people that we may never have with out it? There is the opportunity available to us to connect with potential colleagues or partners swell as possible clientele but how do we search for and how do they find us with such a wide network?

Overall, an understanding has to be made within the usage of web 2.0 platforms: The more one puts in, the more they get out.

Task 1A

Hi every one,
So I have been super busy with rrhearsals recently but only 3 more days until our supervisor leaves and rehearsals are over. Hopefully I will be able to get off the ship and use free wifi so I can get some work done!
I wasn't sure if it meant we had to write our CV as you would hand it to an employer or write it almost like an essay. From looking at other peoples blogs I have found a mixture of ways to do this and people using both formats. I decided that I would do both:

CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B57z1aMifM_l532WXHijCbr2l_sIEQRYpCj2Q83n-y8/edit?hl=en_US

Slightly confused as on word this was only 1 page and had a photo but on here has 2 pages and no photo. Does any one know how  can fix this?

Personal Profile: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15JY8yGa6BLrYg711j9Z60kxj0K4Bgnyf6OVgGycUgsw/edit?hl=en_US

I would appreciate any feed back on both aspects and some help as to what we are meant to do and where we are meant to publish it as I am a bit confused?

Emily x

First Post

Hi, I’m Emily!

I’m just starting the BA in Professional Practice at Middlesex University. I gained my Trinity London National Diploma in Professional dance in July this year after 3 years intensive training at The Hammond School. I trained in Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz and Tap at an equal level and have gained my ISDT Advanced 2 in Modern and Tap plus my RAD Advanced 1 Ballet.

I am currently 3 weeks into my first contract with Carnival Cruise Lines, dancing on the Carnival Valor. This weekend we opened the first two smaller shows but are still currently in the cast change period. We are opening the first big production show on Friday which is really exciting but nerve racking at the same time. We have yet to finish piecing the second production show together but plan to open that on the 6^th October. I am really enjoying all of the shows, finding them challenging in a positive way and can’t wait until we are really in to performances and feel confident with all of the choreography.

Carnival, unlike a lot of other cruise lines, holds their rehearsals on the ships with the new cast rehearsing during the day and the old cast performing at night. It is mandatory to go and watch the old cast perform, I have found this extremely helpful as I could see how the shows fitted together and how we were getting along in rehearsals.

It is a bit of a pain to get on the internet as we have to pay $20 for 200 mins on the crew wifi. Once we are out of rehearsals however, it will be easiers as I can get off and use wifi for free which hopefully will make thigs alot easier for the course.