Task 5A – Ethics Within my Place of Work and professional community

Within our society we are always surrounded by ethics, there are then more specific ethical rules we have to follow with in our profession and in our job role.

Within my job as a Dancer on a Cruise ship we have specifies ethical guidelines:

Punctuality

We have to make sure we are 15 mins early to and activity we are required to do. We should be warm and ready to do rehearsals and shows well in advanced.

Professionalism

We follow our dance captain/cruise directors instructions with out question, even if we do not agree with what we are being asked to do. We respect our fellow cast members and keep cast morale up.

Appearance

We must be in the correct uniform for any duties we have to do with neat hair and make up. We are also required to present ourselves well and sick to the guidelines of the ‘Carnival Look Book’. This means we have to wear trousers a collard shirt and closed toe shoes when in guest areas during the day and in the evening we must be in formal wear with dresses of and appropriate length. Name tag must be worn at all times.

Behavior

There is no swearing in guest areas or PDA (personal displays of affection). We need to use the guests names as much as possible and smile and interact with them when in guest areas, even when off duty.

Alcohol

When at work we our alcohol blood levels should be at 0.0 and in our free time they must not exceed 0.08 incase an emergency should arise.

Health and Safety

Know how to organise the guests and keep them calm and safe should an emergency situation arrive. Know where the firefighting equipment is placed in each room. Keep watch for any hazards around the entire ship. If there is an issue either sort it out if possible or call someone to come and sort it out.

A lot of these are specific to ship life, especially the health and safety aspect. However, a lot of them can be cross referenced with other dance jobs on land as well as regular jobs.

Task 4A Development

After thinking about the line of inquiry I posted earlier I realized that it was very vast and there were many lines i could look down. If I tried to tackle this how it is I feel that my inquiry would be very vague and i would not really find out anything. To narrow it down i just sat and thought about what is really my passion and how i can develop this in to a line of inquiry: Choreography.

I had originally thought about this but found that i could not come up with any question but mixing it with my ideas about creating my own company i can think of the half way step between performing and running my own company which would be choreographing.


Question about the transition between performer and choreographer:

How easy is to make the transition between performing and choreographing?


Are there any professionals that have already made this step?


How did they go about it?


What skills and experience do I need to gain to become and established choreographer?


How can I go about gaining experience as a choreographer?


What do professional performers think of choreographing, do they like the creativity or do they just think of it as a bunch of steps put together?


Is choreographing a natural step dancer think of after performing? What other professions do performer think of going in to?


Will I have to start by choreographing in the style of some one else to establish my self before being able to put in my own creativity?


Would I have to work as a freelance choreographer? What are the advantages/disadvantages of this?

Questions about choreographing itself:


What skills/techniques are there to help cart the choreographing process?


What styles of dance are easier to choreograph?


Which styles take the most creative input?


How can emotion, themes and ideas be effectively communicated to an audience?


What do audiences think of choreography? do they just see the art of the final piece for do they appreciate the work put in to creating movement?


How can I use aspects of established choreographers works to enhance my own and create my own style?




I would greatly appreciate any feed back on this development. Is this line of inquiry clearer or have a just limited myself again?

Emily

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.

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

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.