DESCRIPTION:
I found that writing descriptively came quite naturally for me as this was how I used to write in my diary when I was younger. On the day where I wrote in this style a lot changed throughout the day as one of the dancers in the company sprained her ankle and had to leave the company. Quite a few ethical issues here were raised and some of the dancers had conflicting opinions about what should be done in this situation. I learnt more about my own views from writing this all down in my journal. It was a bit of an awkward situation in the company so I was reluctant to share my views so it was good to express my thoughts on paper and give time for reflection. This triggered my thinking about dancer's in my company have no insurance and how if we get injured we are left without a job. Is this right? Would this kind of thing be considered normal in another profession?
INITIAL REFLECTION:
I found this way of writing quite difficult as I was reluctant to write down my feeling and thoughts. I approached this method of journal writing by writing in bullet points and this helped me to write my thoughts without going into too much detail.
LISTS:
I love lists. I write lists all the time mainly about things I have to do so I don't forget. So although writing lists reflecting on events from the day and listing my thoughts was new to me I was familiar with writing lists. I really liked this way of writing and is a method of journal writing I will definitely continue to use. I like the way your thoughts don't have to be organised or logical but when they're written in a list it looks neat and structured.
WHAT IF:
Could've? Would've? Should've? I found that when writing in this style I was more inclined to think about the negatives rather than the positives which has taught me that I need to have more confidence and think positively. The day that I was writing in this style I received an email which was an invitation to an audition for An American in Paris musical in London, which I was very excited about. I wrote in my journal 'what if the audition goes really well and I get offered the job?' On the other hand I was panicking because there was a singing round in the audition and I am not a confident singer at all! I wrote 'what if I have to sing in front of a big group of people on my own?' I found when writing in this style there were often two contrasting sides to my thoughts. One being more optimistic than the other. Dancers are very used to being critised and corrected so I feel sometimes we should purposely try and channel more positive thoughts.
ANOTHER VIEW:
I enjoyed this way of writing but ended up writing in an almost fictional manor and I don't think I will use this on a regular basis in my journal. I wrote about my day from the view of my pointe shoes and this triggered some thoughts about how I work my technique in ballet class and shows.
EVALUATION:
I wrote this after a performance of Swan Lake so I wrote about what went well in the performance, what didn't go so well and what I felt I needed to work on. Some of my notes were about my technique and performance and some of them were about spacing for the different dances. Because we are a touring company we are always changing stages so some days we might have a really big stage and sometimes a really small one which means we always have to be alert about where we are standing on stage. Also where the wings are will change from day to day so we have to be conscious not to stand in the way of these as people will be entering and exiting through these. Reflecting on these things helps increase my awareness and I noticed the next day I was consciously thinking more about my personal corrections and observations from the previous day. I liked this way of writing and I definitely think that it is beneficial to me in my professional practice.
GRAPHS, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS:
I found this style of reflection required a bit more time and thought for me to get started. It has been a while since I have had to write any kind of graph, chart or diagram. But one kind of diagram I remembered liking from maths was a pie chart. It's easy to read and I thought this would be a good place for me to begin. I made three different pie charts representing my work/free time balance at this point in the year over the past three years of my life which have all been very different. The first was when I was still at Elmhurst School in my graduate year and was 18 years old at this point in the year I had been told I had a job offer in a ballet company so I was very happy. The second was from last year when I was living in Leeds on the Northern graduate programme and actually exactly a year today was when I had my hip operation! Then this year I am living in London working with Vienna Festival Ballet Company.
I also did a line graph where I plotted where I felt my stress levels were each day and it was interesting to see if there were any patterns throughout the week! I am quite a visual learning and I like to see things clearly on paper so I feel this works well for me.
I have found this task extremely beneficial to my journal writing experience and reflective practice. I will adopt some of these new ways of writing, for example the what if method, lists and graphs, charts and diagrams. I am going to continue to research into different methods of journal writing and develop my own style of writing.
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