Broadening a dancers world.

Recently I have had to stop dancing due to an old injury re-occurring. I am receiving treatment but due to the nature of the injury and poor physio treatment previously I have to come to terms with the fact I may never be able to dance professionally again. I am faced with the harsh reality that for the time being I am no longer a 'dancer.'

For anyone who loves to dance and has set about making a career as a professional dancer can imagine injury is not something easily dealt with. I feel like I am no longer myself, I am a dancer and now I can't do that, I have no idea who I am. My research looks at dancers way of study and if they should study drama, because of my current situation I am able to look at this now from a different angle, one that Buckroyd, J. (2000) tries to home in on in her book 'The student dancer' - you have to understand that being a dancer is your job, it does not define you, a banker would not say that banking was all they are because it is not, so as a dancer you have to learn who you are besides dancing. Wider academic learning is required in order for a person in dance training to become more than a dancer. A dancer who studies drama is more than a dancer they are an actress as well so can pursue that area of work if chosen to.

My acting training has allowed me to find a great job. The interviews involved role playing which I believe I was good at due to my improvisation skills learnt in drama training. The day to day job requires lots of quick thinking (also improvisation based) and the ability to mould the way I am and the way I speak in order to make clients warm to me more and be able to sell. If I had not allowed myself to branch my study into other areas rather than dance I may still be unemployed.

The training provided at vocational colleges does not give pupils enough opportunity to realise who they are beside dancing and does not promote enough career options and give preparation about how to cope and what to do if you do not get a dance job, what other areas of performing arts are out there and what to do if/when you can no longer dance. I seriously hope career lessons are brought in to the professional training vocational colleges because many do not get jobs, many do not know the options available and many do get injured.

I have been lucky that I have found a job I enjoy, but it does not get rid of the pain I am feeling due to the fact that for the for-see-able future I cannot dance and the possible end of a professional dance career. Many people are/have been in the same position as me, it is a state of mourning – however we are not prepared for this, nor understand what it is exactly we are mourning.

Jean-Georges Noverre

My whole research idea came from reading a statement about Jean-Georges Noverre's views on dance. Letters on Dancing and Ballets was first published in 1760, and this composition is still considered to have no literary equal.

His views that dancing had to be linked to acting in order to be successful appears to have been taken on board by the dance industry in the, however the structure of dancers lessons seem very similar to the ones before he wrote his book. Vocational training still focuses on pure dance technique – surely if dancers are going to be successful they need to be able to act in order to portray the emotion behind what they are doing, therefore shouldn’t dancers have to learn to act?

It is crazy to think that ideas formed in the 18^th century are still extremely relevant and that despite be well respected people have not fully explored the potential of what Noverre claims to be true. When searching literature to help my study I found it extremely difficult to find research directly linking to mine. Does having drama lessons help you improve as a dancer did not seem like a unique subject matter at the time of creation but after a basic literature search I realized it was an area greatly overlooked and I felt a need to research it. It seemed a crime not to further Noverre’s findings and see how relevant they were in the today’s world.

I am pleased to say after months of research Noverre’s theory that acting is needed to make dance successful still holds true, and it crosses over in to the need for dancers to study acting, not just for a piece of choreography to have a story. More often than not the physical preparations for a dance role are promoted over the artistic content, when in fact it is the acting of a dancer that sets one apart from the other when they our of a high professional level. When watching Agony and Ecstasy: A Year with English National Ballet, it is clear to see that choreographer Derek Deane is striving to get the emotional content from his dancers, and he states that, phenomenal physical technique is very impressive but it’s not the whole package (Deane 2010) Yet at no point are the dancers given acting lessons/or even a minute to focus on and help draw out this content, as is the way in which ballet rehearsals are structured. The reasoning given for why one prima ballerina is preferable to the other is the fact that ‘(she)..is so much more expressive physically’. Yet in watching the rehearsals it is clear to see that it is not the dance physicality that is different it is the acting through dance that sets them apart. Who knows if Deane had used different language to describe the fact he wants more acting rather than saying ‘you need to give me more’ if the ballerina would have understood better and become a better performer, because it appears that she is confused what he means with physical execution such as lifting the leg higher and being stronger.

BBC4 – Agony and Ecstacy: A Year with English National Ballet, episode 1. Aired March 2010

Extension

After speaking with my tutor Paula last night I feel less stressed and more aware of what I need to do. I have opted to hand in my project in May for a number of reasons:

I am behind on my writing because:

a) my computer died (it had been having a hard time for a while!) losing some of my work and having to wait for my hard drive to be ripped out so I could recover some meant I lost over a week of writing time. I though

b) for some reason I thought I had to hand in the final draft on 6^th January 2011 and the project to be marked on 20^th Feb, where the 20^th Feb came from I am not sure but it was in my diary! Lesson learnt – recheck dates!

c) If I rush now to get it finished I will not feel I achieved my best and it is not fair to expect Paula to mark my late hand in of drafts when she is very busy herself.

d) Due to my travels throughout the project I was unable to conduct some research till November and therefore I was unable to hand drafts in when suggested.

e) Due to late research taking I have not had the chance to see fully the impact and implications of my research findings.

f) Due to spending most of the research time in Dubai and Rhodes I have not been able to access library resources easily or consistently which has slowed down my literature search and development process.

I spoke with Paula for approximately an hour about when I should complete, what I need to do, important aspects to include in the project and what I have learnt from my research. My thoughts were made clear and Paula helped me to clarify what to do with them. I appreciate the time Paula gave me, especially on a Sunday evening when I am sure there are a million other things she could/needs to be doing. My study expectations and needs are now understandable. Plus I know the name of the ‘waiting for godot’ author – Samuel Beckett!

Now I have an extension, despite the major downside that I have work to do till May, I feel it will benefit my course study and research project dramatically because I will be able to let thoughts marinade in my head and have more checking time for what I have written. I will also be able to enjoy Christmas and have the time to work more so I can earn more money to enjoy Christmas with, because I know my family and friends will appreciate being able to go out with me instead of watching me write!

Skype

If Skype did not exist my phone bill would be huge! I have used Skype to talk to my tutor (Paula Nottingham) at every stage through my work based learning, due to the fact that I have been in numerous different countries throughout the process. Not only is the free Skype to Skype calling beneficial but the fact you can use video really makes a difference in the understanding of what one is saying and it gives the call a more personal feel.

The ability to share screens on Skype is great to it means during a chat you can show people clearly what is going on, for example I have used it when designing advertising for my company and been able to edit the posters whilst gaining the feedback. This helps to save time and memory space!

Skype is the middleman between my family, friends, colleagues, university and me. If I could not use it I certainly would not have the relationships I do with these people. It saves money, time, memory and allows you to interact with someone in more ways than voice even if they are the other side of the world!

Google Docs

Google Docs is an online folder in which documents can be saved and shared. During my production of my research project I continuously updated and saved drafts of my work. This proved helpful when my computer decided to die and I lost everything on it, including my project work. However because of Google docs when I got access to another computer I was able to access the last copy of the work I had saved, unfortunately this did not include the work I had just written when my computer bid me farewell, so I was not entirely left to work from scratch again. Due to my computer dying I was able to realise the importance and helpfulness of using an application such as Google docs, without it I may not have been able to recover my work and would have been put seriously behind meaning I couldn’t not complete the project for the deadline.

When I first was told to use Google docs I was dubious. I did not like the idea of sharing my work for all to see, judge, comment or change. However I soon realized with each document posted you could chose your own privacy settings. I therefore would save some work to Google docs for only me to see, and other drafts for certain people to have editing ability, and others for everyone to see but no-one able to edit. Doing this allowed me to gain constructive criticism from my peers and tutor which I would otherwise not have gained, which in turn allowed me to improve upon my project writing and development.

Google docs could be easier to use, because the tool in which you select people to be able to view or edit your work does not accept the email address unless it is saved in your Google address book. This meant it was more time consuming for me to use as all my email addresses are saved in my main user account which is hotmail, and being technologically illiterate it took me a while to understand and get to grips with this and how to make it work.

In conclusion Google docs are helpful and I feel a vital tool for anyone writing anything, because you never know when your computer may die or where you might lose your USB memory stick. It allows you to receive easy to view annotations which may prove vital to your works development and it means you can easily share improvements with people that need to know them, e.g. your university tutor. I am pleased I was made aware of this application and will certainly be using it long after I have finished this current research project.

Survey Time

Hi everyone!

Please please please help me with my research and do my survey! It wont take you long and doesn't require too much brain power!

click on the link below and it should send you to it.....

free online surveys

Thank You xxxxx

Delicious

Delicious, the social bookmarking site has been extremely advantageous to my project progress. I was struggling with finding appropriate literature to support my theses, then I went on delicious and typed in ‘tags’ for the categories I wanted to search, and suddenly I was presented with a basis to start searching for more literature. The ability to create a network also makes it easier to find websites/literature. Adding people to my network with similar interests to me meant that I could easily search through their bookmarks and find interesting links to work that relate to mine. For example through Rosina Andrews delicious bookmarks I found a number of articles that helped me with research for my project and literature review. In appreciation for finding useful bookmarks through Rosina’s delicious I used the ‘inbox’ tool and sent Rosina links to articles I have found and tagged which I thought may help her.

I did a literature search by reading books and photocopying pages, to find the literature I want at anytime requires a lot more searching and organisation in order to make the search for it easier than using delicious. In fact I bookmarked the books I have hard copies of on delicious so that I can search through them more easily.

When presented with the fact I had to use internet sites to fulfil my project criteria I was not happy, part in due to my techno-phobe nature and lack of knowledge, and also because I already had a set way in which to organise my work/findings. However I am extremely grateful that I have been forced to get to grips with delicious because it has been helpful to the nth degree!

If you want to go to the site just click on the title of this post, my username is simply; Alys Spencer.