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Emily x

Award Title rational

I have decided that I would like my award title to be:

BA (hons) Professional Practice in Dance Performance and Choreography

I feel that this adequately explains all I want to gain from my career, reflecting my knowledge and expertise. This title will support me through both aspects; Dance performance is particularly relevant to what I am doing at the moment and in the immediate future; Dance choreography is what I am striving for further down the line. Choreography is the topic of my Inquiry so I felt that this needed to be included in my award title. I am looking in to how choreographers made the transition from performer to choreographer which is what I really want to do. During my training at The Hammond we had many choreography assessment, my final one gaining me an extremely high mark. I was also specifically picked out of my year group to choreograph a piece for our end of year show, this received a very good review. My final project, Independent Research Project, for my Diploma was also based on choreography. I looked at a number of choreographers, their background, their works and their styles. From this I choreographed a few short sequences and a full-length piece taking inspiration from each of the choreographers. Therefore I think it is relevant to have choreography in my award title.

Further more, this course only makes up the final third of the degree, there fore it is appropriate to have an award title relevant to your previous training, which I feel this does due to my extensive performance and choreography experience at The Hammond School. I was contemplating including Technique in to the title however I feel that it is not necessary. In the dance industry, with the training I have received, it would be expected that I have good technique. I feel that I would not benefit greatly in adding it to my award title, it would just make it unnecessarily long.

A Critical Reflection on Module 2 – Principles in professional Inquiry

Upon embarking on this module, it initially took me a while to figure which line I wanted my inquiry to take. I started to think about what goals I wanted to achieve in my career; becoming a choreographer and setting up my own contemporary dance company. I then put a set of questions together (appendix A) thinking about choreography plus the business side of starting my own company. I decided to narrow down my ideas as this line was so vast and focus on the choreography element. I developed another set of questions (appendix B) focusing on choreography. I was able to discuss my ideas with Alan via Skype and refined my idea, deciding on my most promising inquiry line (appendix C).

I joined a SIG on LinkedIn created by Emily Brenchley (see appendix C). I engaged well with the SIG at the start of the module, however, more recently I have not been engaging as much as I could. I need to discuss my ideas for my inquiry in more depth, this would help to develop my interview questions and define those that will initiate the interviewee to give the most relevant and helpful information. I am going to ask my SIG to proof read and give feedback on my interview questions before sending them out to interviewees, this will give me a clear indication of how they are going to come across via email and if they will help my inquiry.

The award title I have decided upon is: BA (hons) Professional Practice in Dance Performance and Choreography. After writing my award title rationale and sending it to Alan he said he would support this, although, I would have to be prepared that the board may reject the choreography element as it is not relevant to my practice at the moment. I then reevaluated my rationale including more about why I think that choreography is a relevant element to my title (appendix D). I added in more specifics about my inquiry and made it clear that it was looking along the line of choreography, as well as adding in more about the choreography work I did whilst at The Hammond School. I now feel that my award title is stronger due to my rationale and I have been able to justify this award title.

I have not had much experience with dealing or even thinking about ethics so I found this section of the module very insightful. I was made to think about what assumptions I make about the ethics within a company (appendix E). Looking at the bigger picture rather than those that just affect me (appendix F) will make me more aware of those ethics I need to think about for my own inquiry.

After experimenting with tools of inquiry (appendix G) I have been able to identify the best tool to help gather data for my line of inquiry. Although piloting the focus group and the questionnaire were useful in finding out about how my inquiry would help others, interviews will be the best tool of investigation to lead me to answer my inquiry question. Along with researching literature I will be able to gain the most helpful information directly from choreographers.

Appendix A: http://emilyjayoshea.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/task-4a.html

Appendix B: http://emilyjayoshea.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/task-4a-development.html

Appendix C: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/SIG-those-inquiring-along-lines-4318583?home=&gid=4318583&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Egmp_4318583

Appendix D: “An exploration of how established choreographers have made the transition from performing to choreographing.”

Appendix E: http://emilyjayoshea.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/task-5a-ethics-within-my-place-of-work.html

Appendix F: http://emilyjayoshea.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/task-5b.html

Appendix G: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zjPDfgGvTyPhBBEbPUbVlUQXu5XLoFKaz7ylyfxOywM/edit

6B – Critical reflection on the tools that can be used to help an Inquiry.

This is my reflection on the tools of professional inquiry I piloted:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zjPDfgGvTyPhBBEbPUbVlUQXu5XLoFKaz7ylyfxOywM/edit

See what you think x

Literature Review 3

this a review of a section in Fifty Contemporary Choreographers ... I wanted to scan the pages so you would know the piece i was reviewing, however, i can't seem to work my scanner which is annoying!


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yB-aoNB4gLMMuLoeuVdwFHkVYeMw-mIcikhQXU2SHZE/edit

Literature Review 2

Now I am back in the country I have decided to use Google doc's again!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10cTJcMMa9mlBgTATqAYhxGKfVoi76Ayt-4P2KvPzRqI/edit

See what you think x

Literature Review 1

*** I was going to put this on to google docs but as I am in France at the moment google docs will only come up in french so i can't understand it!! slightly frustrating! so here it is in a post***

Review of http://blog.sokanu.com/so-youre-thinking-of-becoming-a-choreographer. This is an article written about becoming a choreographer, what it entails and how to get there.

I both like and dislike this article. I found that there is a lot of information in here but not all of it is accurate. It is also very vague skipping over a lot of facts that could have been explained in a lot more detail, making it ore useful. I decided to review this piece of literature as it is along the same line as the article I am thinking of writing, however, this does not include any quotes backing up what the author is saying.

The article starts of looking really promising. It starts by explaining what exactly a choreographer is: “The word choreography literally means “dance writing”.” I found this opening sentence really intriguing, I had never thought about describing choreographing like this. It makes you think that in essence a choreographer is an author in the most visual sense. The rest of the opening paragraph is informative and concise, stating exactly what a choreographer does.

Further in to this section of the article the author starts to describe the personality traits that would help in becoming a successful choreographer:

“Choreographers must have an excellent understanding of the specific type of dance they choose to teach. Creativity, physical strength, flexibility, coordination, patience, and perseverance are must-have characteristics. Choreographers must have excellent communication skills and have an ability to be a leader and motivate a variety of dancers. They must be able to work as part of a team and must also be able to work under stress and pressure in a chaotic environment.”

Although I do agree with a lot of what the author is saying, I don’t think that using ‘must’ for especially the middle sentence is accurate. Yes choreographers need to have a lot of knowledge on the type of dance they choose to choreograph in and they need to be able to work as a team to get along with the dancer they are choreographing on. On the other hand, the characteristics described in the second sentence, although very valuable, are not a necessity. I feel that as long as the choreographer has chosen dancers that they feel will portray the image they have in their head it is not necessary for them to have the physical capabilities to do the exact movement, as long as they are able to describe it. Look at the majority of ballet masters and mistresses in the big ballet companies, they no longer are able to get their legs around their ears but they are still able to get the right action out of their dancers.

I also disagree with the statement ‘Choreographers typically are older dancers’ There are so many young talented choreographers in the world, yes she uses ‘typically’ however I feel that there is a huge mix of ages of choreographers. For example some of the bigger choreographers such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Michael Clark and William Forsythe started choreographing and set up their own companies in their early twenties.

I do really like the fact that the author has listed all the possible tasks required by a choreographer. They cover every aspect of choreography, from choreographing amateur productions to choreographing for big companies to choreographing for kids in local competitions and shows. This would be very informative for a reader thinking about going in choreography. It would make them think about all of tasks involved, not just putting a few steps together but the paper work side of choreographing and the organisation.

The section titled “What it takes to be a choreographer” is just a hash of information. I don’t feel any of it is backed up with evidence or explanation. The author just seems to be putting in random unexplained and frankly incorrect sentences like; “Choreographers are former dancers with years of experience working in the theater and with dance companies.”  This is very infuriating and the reader isn’t gaining any real knowledge from this section of the article. He is writing information as a given instead of exploring the possibility that there are other possibilities, however unimportant or unlikely they view them.

In spite of this, the author does then redeem himself by stating possible ways of gaining experience as a choreographer. This information would be useful to a reader as it would give them ideas as to who to get in to contact with. They explore the ideas rather than saying just one way is the only way; getting specific qualifications such as a Bachelor in Fine Arts or a Masters Degree; gaining experience through following a choreographer in a company you are already established in; choreographing for local amateur productions; choreographing for dance schools and children. These all add up to possibilities for a reader to look in to, the readers current circumstances may push them to one over the other but at least the author is suggesting options.

The rest of the article is adequate. The author is still not explaining or backing up his points, however he does give options. He explains that there are many different environments a choreographer can work in, presenting lots of opportunities for people looking to go in to the profession.

I think this article was a good learning tool for me. I am able to see that even with in a journalistic article you need to back up your points and explore ideas presenting ideas not telling the reader there is only one way when there isn’t.