4a- A mass of questions

After reading Reader 4 and having a think about potential professional inquiry topics I feel rather overwhelmed. I went from a complete mind blank to now having too many questions to know what to do with! So here is my attempt to put my thoughts into a somewhat organised mess...

I began by thinking about what determines what sort of dancer you become? Not so much in terms of genre and style particularly but more so your character and personality. Throughout my training I was always told about the importance of being an "intelligent dancer" which would make you more employable. What are the characteristics that make up an "intelligent dancer"? How do we become "intelligent dancers" and how this impacts our lifestyle and career both inside and outside the studio and theatre.


This further sparked my thoughts on what characteristics and life skills dance teaches us. This touching article came up on my Facebook earlier this year and really highlights the benefits of children being introduced to dance

https://www.facebook.com/118334351513277/photos/a.245714668775244.77845.118334351513277/1238641732815861/?type=3

What are the benefits of children doing dance from an early age?
Should dance be made more accessible for children through schools?

One thing being a dancer has certainly taught me is independence. In such a competitive work field you have to learn to support yourself. A lot of things I have tackled in my career so far I have learnt as I went along which made me wonder if dancers in training are prepared adequately enough for the professional world. Should there be more career guidance and education in dance schools? A lot of obstacles I have encountered as a dancer I feel I could have been more prepared for had I received more support and direction in the transition from student to professional.

I am very keen to examine what social skills dance teaches us and how these skills can be translated into other fields. However, also what social struggles dance can cause? Leaving home at a young age for dance school, missing out on 'normal' social activities for rehearsals and training, moving across the globe for a job, touring lifestyle... these are all things we happily do for our profession but what are the social and personal effects of our dancer lifestyle? More specifically (I can see from fellow students blog posts it is a popular one)  how can dance effect a persons mental health. What are the psychological effects of a dancer's life?

At Atlantic City Ballet I have been involved in outreach and promotional events for the company. This is an area that really interests me and an aspect of work I would love to be more involved in and potentially work  in after a performing career. For ACB, community events and publicity are helping us to generate a bigger audience for performances and create more awareness of the company in the area. How can a company successfully generate a bigger audience and public profile?

How a dance company can inspire and involve others and reach out to the community?
When promoting a company you must look at who you are targeting, who you are performing for. This got me thinking about how dance affects an audience in different ways. I touched earlier on how dance can affect children. But there has been a lot of speculation over the use of dance therapy and how dance can benefit the elderly and the disabled.

Would love to hear other peoples opinions and thoughts on these topics, look forward to discussing them!

Rebecca x

Embarking on Module 2

The other week I joined a group skype call about starting the next module. It was good to be back in touch with Adesola, Paula and some of the other students to discuss our thoughts and feedback from Module 1 and how we felt about beginning Module 2.

We had a useful discussion sharing what we each felt worked well in the previous module which we can take forward and continue into the next module. We also highlighted what didn't work so well previously and how we can alter these aspects and take on our module feedback from our tutors to improve and prevent issues recurring in future tasks.

For me personally I am going to establish now from the start what my final hand in is meant to be so I can work backwards and have a clearer mind-set of the end product when working through the modules tasks. As opposed to last module where I was a little lost and some of my tasks lacked clarity and relevance because I was not completely clear on what I was meant to be doing. I am also going to try and be more active on the online student groups and communities by communicating more with others on the course so we can exchange and discuss ideas and gather a variety of viewpoints on topics.

I think an important thing to remember is that we are not redoing the last module but we should use what we learnt from it to move forward into Module 2.

Looking forward to connecting with you others on the course again!