3A CURRENT Networks.

I currently have many tools that I use to engage with my professional network. My agent and other casting sites such as: dancers pro and spotlight are my main source of connecting with my profession. I read on Laura Ann Wright’s blog about LinkedIn and this looks like a great way of networking professionally and making great contacts, something I will be now joining myself.

I also use Facebook a great deal now for my profession, I’ve joined many groups where I receive castings and also get to meet fellow peers in my industry, I have found these such sites the most benefit to me. Like most people I have found the problem of mixing my social and professional lives on  facebook, I recently had a new employer add me on facebook and this gave me the problem of not wanting to refuse her but also not wanting her to see my social life. I will now finally be creating separate pages so I can network efficiently on both sides of my life.

I also use my friends and current colleagues a lot to network, word of mouth really is a great tool, I have learnt so much about the industry I am in from meeting other people.  I do think I could use this tool to a greater advantage I don’t like to pry and ask questions which I think I should more. It comes down to tit for tat I think which is pointed out in the reader, I feel people will only want to help you or give you advice if they feel they are getting something of benefit in return.  It is very difficult to trust in this industry everyone is out for themselves, so you have to be aware of people’s intensions sometimes.

Different networks I would like to explore are setting up my own web page, it was brought to my attention how effective this is you can showcase yourself in exactly the way you want, potential employers can see you in action, many of my colleagues have gained work in this way. A very similar tool like spotlight but at least you can manage your webpage yourself and not go through an agency.

I feel being more sociable and confident when given the chance is a tool needed in the industry we are in, I think events such as after show party’s are a great way of networking and creating contacts within the industry, something I have not taken advantage of yet.

I admire the people I see that can seem to network effectively , they have the guts and goal that they want in mind and go after it. I to have the same passion but am wary of coming across annoying or to persistant, its a very fine line I believe and I find it hard to know and judge how far to push situations, such as: sending in c.vs how many times is enough? Should you call? I just don’t think I have acquired the skills to sell myself effectively yet, this is something I need to learn and being on such networking sites and watching similar people in my industry is going to help me develop this tool.

2d inquiry

I have been a dancer for a few years now, so naturally my experience is taking me into other fields such as choreography and teaching.  Through growing as a dancer and being lucky enough to have the experience, I have started to become really enthusiastic about choreography. I have many people I admire some more famous than others who inspire me and I feel i have learnt a lot from.
 Mia Michael's is a huge inspiration to me a very passionate and emotional choreographer. Here is a couple of 'Mias' quotes
"If everyone could pull the blanket away from their eyes, they'd see that there's magic in everything," 
It's about being aware at every moment and keeping your eyes open,"  "There's inspiration in everything we see."  I think this is in keeping with the course at the moment in reflecting on our work and being aware of our experiences. It draws me to think of my journal where at first some days I would struggle to find something to say, now I am looking and reflecting on every moment however insignificant it may seem at the time.

From the training I received and the industry as it is to date. I get very angry about the expectations that are put on performers and what is classed as being 'successful'.  From my family being in the industry, from a young age I wanted to travel around the world with my job and was brought up to believe that as long as I was doing what I love and earning a good wage I would be very happy.  Cruise Ships, contracts abroad etc were very frowned upon at my college it was made clear we were all expected to go straight into the west end. Something which really annoyed me after training in London for such a long time the last thing I wanted was to work there for the rest of my career, it was something I would like to go back and do at a later date. I must admit this stereotype isn't as bad as when I was in training but is still strongly there. I remember being asked in a lesson 'If you go into teaching or choreography don't you think you are giving up'. Of course not I admire the performers that manage to make this transaction successfully as I think it can be a difficult one and just because you are a great performer that doesn't mean you can teach or choreograph. I think this is sad  so many of my friends who I trained with have given up and not performed at all because they did not get into the industry where they were expected to. 
I admire my teacher and choreographer Barbara Evans she did not fit into the stereotype from her era, she was told too small? too different? none of which led her to give up she is a very successful choreographer now who inspired me a lot whilst training and without her I may have ended up giving up and not having the success I have. She shares my views and does a lot to inspire young performers.

I love being able to wake up and spend the day doing something I love and feel passionate about that's something not a lot of people can say and something we should not take for granted.
 Lil' C (dancer and choreographer) says the only thing that defines inspiration is that it's constantly changing: "When you evolve and progress as a human being, your views shift." This is what excites me our views are always changing, our experiences and progressions in life hugely effect us. 5 years ago I would never have been interested in choreography but from being made to choreograph and inspired by others around me my views have changed.

Something I don't understand is the inspiration choreographers get from all different things, I get inspired by images, music, emotions.
Mia Michaels said:
"I use anything, from photographs to the way makeup looks on someone, a hairstyle or just flipping through fashion magazines."
this is a technique I would like to explore and open myself to. I want to be able to be inspired from my everyday life.
Lil' C says:
You have to be vulnerable enough to feel your core and feel what you're going through," he insists. "That's the problem with a lot of dancers -- they're not vulnerable enough to communicate what's going on inside. You have to dig deep."
This is a new level to my profession I want to reach, I do connect with my emotions of course I do as a dancer, but there is always a part of me not fully letting go a part that is still thinking and not feeling.

I love to use film when choreographing, for example big screens on the stage showing clips, text, images. I feel it gives another depth to pieces and more for the audience to see and explore. I would like to see where I could take this, what other imagery could be effective? Art? Film? how could I shape this in a piece differently. I want to explore more choreographers and the techniques and inspiration they use. How can I use my life experiences more in my work?

2c. looking outward

After going through the reader a few times and having discussions via blogs I have a lot more thoughts on reflective practice.

In my profession as a Dancer and dance teacher I already use many tools for reflection, some more obvious to me than others. I always take notes during and after rehearsals just to remind myself of what has happened and what needs working on, this gives me the space to work problems out in my own mind away from the initial experience. (Reflection in action and on action). When working as Dance Captain it is highly important I take notes so nothing is forgotten or missed. I also find when giving notes to the cast I like to see the corrections made there and then unlike other dance captains I have worked with who just verbally give the notes, this is so I know we have made the reflection and learnt from it. Recently I experienced a situation where I needed to be dancing and taking notes at the same time, I ended up having to rely on other cast members opinions and views, after reflecting on this rehearsal for some time I was not happy and wanted to improve on this situation, therefore making sure I video recorded every rehearsal so nothing was missed. I do feel other peoples views can help the reflective process it helps to see things from a different view and from someone who plays a different part in the experience.
When first starting out as a dance teacher I watched as many classes as I could  to observe what works and what doesn't, I still take from those initial experiences now and use them in my every day profession.

Dewey 1909 said 'What matters are the reasons we have for believing something and the implications of our beliefs' This made me think and look into my own professional practice. We all believe things are right or wrong whether it being as a dancer or a teacher for me, but what really matters is why we think that, what has brought us to that conclusion, and what implications are going to come from this. A lot of my experience comes from the practitioners I have learnt from, and after experiencing how successful or not their techniques are I have grown to use these techniques myself. This is why we should carefully consider and reflect upon experiences we have.

I decided to draw my own learning cycle in my journal one day of my days events, taken from David Kolb.

• Audition (concrete experience)
• Correction what others in the room (Reflective Observation)
• Train home analysing what to do differently. (abstract conceptualisation)
• Class/Workshops (active experimentation).

Thanks to Kolbs cycle it helped me identify and easily reflect on this experience I had. I always reflect back after I have had an audition and think over and over what could have happened or what I would change. By using Kolbs cycle I made me reflect deeper and be much more critical in my thinking.

When choreographing I feel Howard Gardner's view on multiple intelligences really comes into play for me. I get inspired by different factors that surround me. For example the majority of the time the music is my main stimulus and I get inspired by the rhythms and lyrics. Recently I choreographed a piece inspired by a poem my dad had written, after reading this I wanted to explore the words with my body and that was my initial stimulus. I feel when creating pieces I do look through multiple lenses and therefore learn this way and reflect on my experiences through these different lenses and intelligences.

I have yet to discover many critiques with the views talked about in the reader, so would be very interested in any different opinions you may have, or have discovered from others.

                                                              

Journal writing experience

I have never written a Journal before so I was unsure of how I would take to this or how it would benefit me. I am a big list person, I love writing lists but I have never taken these lists further into thoughts. I also do this on my phone when I'm out and about anything I think of I just make a quick note of it so I don't forget.

 I seem to just keep all my thoughts in my head and I find myself analysing situations over and over in my head, I like to picture myself in situations and really believe seeing myself there for example: when I'm planning a teaching lesson I will have just a list then the rest of the planning goes on in my head I picture myself in the class and act out the lesson plan in my head I find this imagery help full rather than just reading text.

Already from starting this course I have found myself writing so much more, when going through the readers I am constantly making notes and writing down my initial thoughts on everything.
So as I do like making lists I thought writing my journal by hand would be the best initial start, I can pick it up when and where I like and put down my thoughts. I have been writing my journal for over 2 weeks now and at first I found it difficult I didn't really know what to write about and some days I didn't think I had anything to say at all. As time went on I found myself analysing my thoughts and making sure I wrote them down however insignificant I thought they were. Its difficult to get over the habit of a lifetime at keeping everything in my head but the more I did it the more beneficial I found this process. By writing everything down I found it freed up my mind therefore enabling me to reflect easier with a clearer head.

As I seem to use imagery the most I decided to apply this to my journal, so instead of imagining my classes and picturing what happened in my head I made diagrams in my journal and created pictures. I found this a great way of reflecting and an easier way to look back on previous thoughts. I also found journal writing a great way to try to express tacit knowledge and really express those feelings.

I tried task 2b based on the Reid and Moon framework and this turned out to be a beneficial task for me. I took one day from my journal where I had taught dance at a new school initially I had wrote about half a page in my journal on this day. From using this framework I ended up writing a couple of pages it took me a couple of days to do. The different boxes really helped me to analyse the day in more detail than I would usually, making me explore my thoughts and feelings deeper. I was surprised by how much reflection I could achieve from that day, just from asking myself different questions. The box what if? was of particular interest as I have never thought about this in my journal writing before, it opened up a new thought process for me. I found myself always looking back on the experience rather than to what could have happened or what I would now like to happen. I found it difficult to write from another view and think how other people may have found the day, this is something I am going to try for another day in my journal as I didn't find it of great success this time around.

I am interested now to explore different methods of journal writing so let me know if any others have been successful to you.