Campus Session - 29/10/18

A week has flown by since my first campus session, but I can still remember my feeling of excitement and apprehension trying to find the session room in the maze that is Middlesex University. I had ensured I wrote a few questions that I had been meaning to ask but other than that I had no idea what the session may entail. I was just excited to meet my fellow learners and make the whole experience seem REAL!

It was great to meet Adesola and Maria in person, and I was joined by Liza, Lee and Beverley. We starting by introducing ourselves and our practice. I went first and reeled off my life story, throwing out acronyms of ISTD and DDI assuming that what I was saying made sense. After my 4 minute epilogue Adesola commented "It was a nice story, but was it a description of my practice?" The group took notes on what I had said and fed it back to me. Lee who is a graphic designer ascertained from my speech that I ' taught some street dance and enjoyed turning non dancers into performers'  This feedback clicked with me instantly and has given me much more focus for the introduction of my Essay. I need to imagine I'm explaining what I physically do to someone that knows nothing about the arts and performance world. Here are a few notes I made for myself to consider when introducing myself.

Think more as an artist what you bring to things. 

How I use the mind of a dancer to do things. 

How I use my approach ; what is my approach?

Tagline vs the way that we do it.

The way I teach, what ethics I use, what theoretic paradigms I use. 

Teaching approaches ;considerations. 

Be specific, what my practice means to me.

How you see your self connected to the things around you. Ethical considerations.

What I do - Inspire dancers age 3 - 17, at weekly dance classes in genres of Ballet, Tap, Modern and Street Dance through displaying my passion and love for dance and seeking opportunities to expand knowledge, educate and improve current dance skills of students through set graded work established by a well recognised Dance Society. Promote enjoyment of dance. Choreograph for all dance styles ensuring students can relate to the material and can explore their range of techniques used in my teaching. Seek popular music and trends. Work with fellow practitioners to synchronise and enhance teaching methods and skills.  

Opposed to - I am a dance teacher with the ISTD, I started dancing at age 5 and danced professionally abroad. On returning to the UK I took my DDI and now teach syllabus work to children age 3-17.

The main thing to consider was not being defined by a label or tagline, explain what goes into that label.

We then transferred these thoughts to the subject of research.

Here are my notes from the discussion -

What is research?

The thing it's about and the way that it’s been done. 

A way we do something colour’s what it is. - What angle we begin our Research will have an impact on what we find.

Qualitative – understanding every level vs Quantity – looking at many items  

Research can be approached from different angles and achieve different results each time.

You will always find what you’re looking for. In research and life, find ways to find what you don’t know what you’re looking for. Don’t stop if you think you’ve found an answer. 

We then wrote a statement on our thoughts - 

 Personally, I have subjects in mind when researching, things I want to explore, however I often go into these topics with an idea of where my views stand. When researching ethics, I started with a question I already had a view on, but this then lead to further writings. It lead me to PhD papers I really enjoyed reading or could relate to that I wouldn't have found in my initial google search. 

This then lead us to discuss algorithms and while you may think you are finding new unrelated literature you very well may be boxed in by technology.  

Below are some ideas on how to look outside the box - 

Use bibliographies to source information - are the same authors reoccurring?

Different search engines - not just Google

Look into what people are saying from different fields, outside of your practice.

We also spent time trying to define the meaning of Ethical Considerations, not just seeing them as a subject of Good Vs Bad, but how we need to consider the impact reading someone else's work can have on us or us sharing our work can have on others.

There are certain ALERT WORDS that should be considered.

REAL - what is real to me might not be real for someone else, it;s a case of beliefs and feelings. 

MEANINGFUL - We all have a different idea of what is meaningful for us. When writing you had a meaningful experience, can you use a different term or define why it was meaningful to you?

My campus session ended with us making videos in pairs with the information we had collected in discussing research. Mine and Liza's video is on Adesola's blog and I have to give full creative credit to Liza, she is a whizz with a movie maker. The 2 hour trip was definitely worth it and I learnt a lot discussing ideas with Lee, Beverley and Liza. I also feel like I have expanded my professional network and also discovered that there is a Costa Coffee on Campus, but they don't serve Flat Whites???