Girl - an interesting watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKrI0xJXIR4

Thoughts for the Day

In the syllabus' I have trained in and now teach, we have set exercises for boy's and set exercises for girl's. In today's society does this reach the needs of our current population? In an article I recently posted, it was discussed that some professional Ballet dancers may not stick to their assigned gender class. Female Ballet dancers join the Male classes and the Male dancers will join the Female classes. The dancers feel there abilities are pushed further and they have a lot more potential than they originally thought however, when going back to the performance, they dance their female or male roles.

Looking into the history of dance and why male and females were trained differently, it shows there is a reason for this. It could be due to physic and physical development, emotional development and emotional maturity. But in today's society, people don't just identify with male or female so how can and should dance meet modern day society?

The syllabus' I currently teach haven't been changed in many years so does this need to be reviewed to meet the needs of the current generation? Even the uniform the students wear is designed for either male or female dancers. When I took my teacher training, my ballet teacher explained to me how I should dance differently when teaching a girl and how I should dance differently when teaching a boy. I should dance more fluid and with softer arms when teaching girls but be more strong, broad with the shoulders and precise with movements when teaching boys. During my training I trusted my teacher that this was and is the correct way but looking further into my inquiry I am seeing that this may not be the case.

Interviews

Before we had October Half Term I thought it be a good idea to have my Skype tutorial ahead of interviews. There were quite a few points that had risen and will certainly be thinking about this before my interviews this week. In the north we have half term this week and as most of the people I will be interviewing teach, I thought it be a good idea to have them all this week.

With the current situation of Covid-19, arranging interviews has proven to be fairly difficult. The country is split up in to Tiers and now my town being in Tier 3 and myself having to isolate for 2 weeks I have decided to conduct all interviews over Skype. It isn't ideal but we are lucky that we have the resources to still be able to carry out the research.

Some things for me to think about prior to interviews:

* People may feel nervous about interviewing and not necessarily get their point across so look for clues and hints, let them feel relaxed and take time.

*Something may feel off topic but let the interviewee talk and when looking back, it may relate more than you realised.

 * Be careful of own assumptions. The norm may be different to others.

* Don't ask questions to gain an answer you expect or want.

* Don't ask questions that may fuel a gender divide debate or narrowing down to two genders.

Male and Female Roles in the Dance Industry

Today I have been looking through different articles on Male and Female roles in the industry. An article that I particularly took interest to was....

https://medium.com/gbc-college-english-lemonade/the-problem-with-gender-in-dance-122d4d68fb75

Better late than never...

I have never been good at blogging and writing on social media so throughout my BAPP journey, I have struggled to keep up with my Blog. Once I have done my study for the day I feel motivated and pack my things away and later realise....I didn't blog.

So.... as I am now in my final Module and taking a break after Module 2, I am trying my best to check in when I study. It was nice to meet everyone in our welcome skypes a few weeks ago and was also nice to meet my new fellow Module 3 students. I found the welcome skype extremity helpful as I wasn't aware of a private Facebook group for all BAPP students. Reading that everyone is in the same boat, asking similar questions as what I am thinking and having notifications pop up from other BAPP students is really helping me through my final Module. Joining my fellow BAPP students on Skype yesterday evening and listening to different opinions has also helped clarify at lot of things in Module 3 for me.

Unfortunately I missed the last Module 3 Skype session but I have managed to read through others blogs to see what everyone talked about. It seemed there was a lot of discussion regarding interviews. Before I start my interviews I will take note of the following points I have noticed were raised:

- If conducting a focus group interview, people my just agree with everyone else even if they actually think the opposite

- You may not always get the answer you expect

- Your interviewee may be nervous or on edge so this my reflect in their answers

- Not to be persuasive to receive an answer you want

Now to start the interviews....