I enjoyed answering these questions as it was a moment to
actually stop and think about all the different aspects of my passion and
career and where I can go with it, your thoughts and comments would be much
appreciated.
Something that I find I am very enthusiastic about learning
more about at the moment. Is the business world of teaching, as that is the
path I feel im on at the moment so I want to learn as much about it as I can. It’s
a different side of the arts world to me as iv never thought about it in the business
sense before just the performing side. Im interested in learning the planning
of what goes into running a dance school and the different aspects of it,
classes, prices, shows, comps ect I feel like there’s so much to learn, but
something that I am willing to spend time learning. Have you always looked at
yourself as a business and your profession or does it depend of the job you are
doing within your profession? Again I feel this relates to MEPLC (see previous
blog) where no matter what we are doing we should be looking at ourselves as a business.
A person
who made the transition from performer to school owner who I admire is my old
dance teacher, Rachel Catherall.http://www.elsberdance.co.uk/
She performed for a number of years on cruise ships and uk tours and then came back to take over her mums dance school and turn it around, tripling its number of students and also introduction new styles of dance such as street and Irish.
Something that gets me angry is the generalized statement ‘that
all dancers are thick’ people in other professions don’t get grouped like that
but it seems a common thing within the dance profession. I am bringing this up
as it actually happened to me last week, I was out with my boyfriend and we met
with some friends, one of them started to have a conversation with us about
history and politics. He then stopped mid sentenced and apologized to me as he
felt I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the conversation because im a dancer! I
soon shut him up when it actually turned out I new more about the history of
politics than most of the people there (As I did it for A level) just goes to
show don’t judge a book by its cover! I just find it condescending that people
can just assume because of your job description you are limited to only know
about that one thing.With this one I did not find a specific person that agrees
with me though I am sure there are a lot of you out there that have had similar
experiences or views?
However I did find a good statement on a poll on yahoo;Howard Gardners Multiple Intelligences Theory ("MI Theory") like me then yes. according to this, their are seven types of intelligence(1. Linguistic, 2. Logical-Mathematical, 3. Bodily-Kinesthetic, 4. Spatial, 5.Musical, 6. Interpersonal, 7. Intrapersonal).
Bodily-Kinesthetic include people who process knowledge through bodily sensations or body movements. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080726103849AAH13t8
What do you love about what you do?
Within my practice I love the large amount of different jobs
and styles you can have under one umbrella, ‘dance’ I love that with that one
word it can mean so many different things. I find it really interesting that my
focus is on one specific topic but that it can open up so many different paths
to me and that I can learn so many different things within it. Within this
profession I feel like a sponge and want to soak up as many different, styles,
performances and teaching methods possible!
An example
of a person doing this is Natalie Constanti she teaches a number of classes at sunshine
studios https://www.zumba.com/en-US/profiles/79754/natalie-constanti/
I am interested in looking at dance in a variety of ways to see what new things I can do with it, where has the theme of ‘dance’ taken you?
What do you feel
you don’t understand?
At the moment I feel chorography on a large scale is something that I don’t understand fully at the moment as its not something I have ever had to do. I enjoy putting together dances for classes or small school shows but looking on chorography of a full production show is not something I have ever come across doing before. I feel like it’s a lot more than just putting afew dance steps together that look nice. You need to think about positioning, lighting, diversity, entrances and exits, aswell as not just thinking about the dancers but all the other performers aswell. A person I admire who I met recently is Tracey Iliffe a chorographer I have just worked with on the u.k tour that I am doing. She completely revamped the show that we are doing and the thought process that went into it just seemed so much more than chorographing. How have you found chorographing?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tracey-Iliffe-Choreographer/116762805074571
Hi Steph,
ReplyDeleteIf it is any consolation, as a non-dancer (seriously, I’m really not a dancer by any stretch of the imagination!) I have found dancers to be very reflective people. I think it something to do with the act of reflecting ‘in action’ as each move or phrase is considered for it effect, whether it meets the choreographic intent of the piece, or a more self-regulated questioning about what worked and what needs to be improved.
I do think dance encourages particular perspectives on dance practice. There are common perspectives that come up a lot from dancers on BAPP, particularly around notions of ‘perfection’ and ‘the right way to do things’. This I believe makes perfect sense in terms of dance practice, but I also think it is a hopeless way of thinking about our wider professional practice, where we need to accept much more complexity and provisional explanations that can’t be necessarily ‘proved’ as ‘right’ or ‘perfect’.
As you move to ask deeper questions about your practice, try and avoid questions that seek to get at a perfect answer. Try and get at insights that might suggest possible solutions, ideas that ‘might have’ some utility for you. Be humble, tentative and circumspect. Avoid ‘what makes the perfect dancer’ or ‘what is better, ISTD or RAD’ type questions, they can’t really be answered easily or with certainty.
Also to add to your comment on dancers bring "thick" I think the training we undertake compliments many other things than dance in our lives. My sister got injured half way through her training and isn't able to dance full time, she is now very high up with in Aviva. She always says if she had not gone through the training she did she would not have the confidence she has. She knows the right ways to approach people, enter a room, etc. Little things like this can make a very big difference.
ReplyDeleteKimberly