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.