Tuesday 1 April 2014

Oral Feedback

Feeling a million miles away, I decided it was time to touch base with Paula.

I emailed her with a very rough draft of my work and we decided I would attempt to call her from the ship. Although we were presented with a few difficulties, the phone cutting out, delay, and on occasions not being able to hear her, we ended up having a very productive chat. Which left me with some pointers and some research to be done.

Research...

I had managed to look upon alot of outside sources when looking into acquiring expertise but hadn't looked closely to dance related experts. This brought me to exploring dance practitioners. When it comes to acting and you speak about practitioners Stanislavsky comes to mind, with in dance its a little bit harder. Today I have focussed my research into dance practitioners and finding out their point of view on acquiring expertise. Also looking into what they have done for the world of dance and how they have all given something to our industry.

Many whom I'm sure you have all heard of came to mind and arose within my research the main three included ;

Martha Graham
Twyla Tharp
Matthew Bourne

Also some of them more personal, including where I trained and have either been taught by or worked with ;

Betty Laine and Laine Theatre Arts
Penny Withers and the Scottish Ballet

Choreographers include ;

Peter Darling, (Whom I worked with in Billy Elliot the musical and has choreographed such works as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate factory)

All of these sources have either come from my personal training and experience or have effected the wider world of dance and how we work and train. Martha Graham even has a technique named after her and went on to influence the likes of Twyla Tharp who has produced many well rounded pieces of work as well as supporting a dance company, just like Martha Graham.

This quote by Martha Graham stood out for me ;

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”

I would be interested to hear who you feel is a dance practitioner and what they have done to influence dance.

About the writing!..

Paula and I also discussed that with in the report of the Inquiry its important to 'STATE THE OBVIOUS' and not to be afraid in doing so. The people who will ultimately be reading this don't know anything regarding context, who we are, how we came up with the ideas etc, how we went form a to d ? All of these things need explained. Something simple you may feel is irrelevant may help the reader understand where you are coming from. Also they don't know how you know things and how you have gained your inside knowledge, for all they know you could be making it all up so its important to show them how you know ? Just a brief explanation in the intro perhaps or if its too long add in an appendix! Thats what they are there for !

Bibliography..

Im not sure about anyone else but the bibliography of all my sources completely slipped my mind. Its vital the reader knows how we came to our conclusions and what information we used to get there. Paula reminded me and now I am collecting all my sources in order to create my bibliography. She suggested about 10-20 which I think is the range of what I have so on the right tracks there.

Would be grateful to hear any thoughts and opinions of follow bloggers on any of the subjects above!


3 comments:

  1. Hi Hannah, it must be quite difficult to be doing this so remotely, however you seem to be doing OK! What is your inquiry about? You mention famous dance practitioners but I am not clear what you are actually looking to research? You see,if I think of a dance practitioner then I would think of Bob Fosse and possibly Gillian Lynn or Stephen Mears, people who have influenced modern day Musical Productions! It all depends what you are researching! Best of luck !! Kym

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Kym thanks for your comment.

    My main research revolves around skill acquisition for dancers and how we acquire it through a long and rigours process. TRaining and practicing is a key part how ever I am exploring all the other factors that effect our route to professionalism, for example your environment, if your parents hadn't have been supportive and had the financial and material resources to take you do dance class would you be where you are now?

    I waned to look outside of the academic experts to dance practitioners to see if they had opinions on this subject as its a very under researched area with in the domain of dance. Medicine and musicians have endless journals and information regarding this subject however when it comes to dance there is not alot, so I am trying to start filling this hole in hope it can lead to further research for dancers in the future?

    Does that make it slightly clearer to you?
    I have afew hours ashore today so will check out your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Hannah, reading your blog certainly made me think about my own route into dance, and I agree that our parents have a major influence in our career choice, I always loved to dance, but as you say had my parents not had the finances or not supportive would I be a dancer? I am looking a boys in dance and the stigma that they face when walking into a dance class full of girls, it is far more socially acceptable for little girls to dance than boys. Have you looked at gender in your study of skills acquisitions? I do Hope it's going o.k. Betty x

    ReplyDelete