Rebecca Jones commented on my post and raised some really interesting points which led my line of thought down a different route. We seem to be interested in the same sort of topics so I would be interested in developing a SIG!
1) How do you think the lifestyle of a dancer can affect you socially?
2) What do you think is the optimum age to commence professional classical ballet training? Taking into account social and wellbeing factors.
3) Do you think dance and its lifestyle has played a part in moulding your personality?
This last question I began thinking about through discussion on Rebecca's blog:
4) Do you think that during your professional training you were given enough advice about life as a professional dancer?
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I have asked a few of my colleuges these questions and it has been interesting to hear their answers:
I have decided to keep their names anonymous and I recorded the short interview on our tour bus.
Person A) - When conducting this interview I was noting down the answers however, I found this difficult to capture all of the information.
1) Q: How do you think the lifestyle of a dancer can affect you socially?
A: Miss out on a 'normal' childhood. Social difficulties - not meeting new people. On tour it is difficult. Competitive environment. Makes you a perfectionist.
1B) Q: How do you think the lifestyle of a dancer can affect your wellbeing?
A: Difficult to maintain a healthy balanced diet.
2) Q: What do you think is the optimum age to commence professional classical ballet training? Taking into account social and wellbeing factors.
A): 14/15 years old. Difficult balance. You have to pick.
3) Q: 3) Do you think dance and its lifestyle has played a part in moulding your personality?
A: Yes. Made me more of a perfectionist. Affects self confidence and opinions about body image. Made me determined and hardworking. Through injury and recovering from operations I have developed perseverance.
Person B) During this interview I used a dictaphone to record the interview and this is easier because it means that I can concentrate on listening to the answers rather than be thinking about writing them down. This also means that I don't miss out anything when typing up the interview afterwards!
1) Q: How do you think the lifestyle of a dancer can affect you socially?
A: Make you a weirdo. The dance world is a bubble from normality. But there are both positive and negative sides to the affects. You are always with people who share the same passion as you which is good so you don't feel isolated.
2) Q: What do you think is the optimum age to commence professional classical ballet training? Taking into account social and wellbeing factors.
A): 14/15 years old. Depends on the person though.
3) Q: 3) Do you think dance and its lifestyle has played a part in moulding your personality?
A): I do think it has. It's made me very disciplined. It's made me be a perfectionist. It's made me sociable because you always meet lots of different people. It's made me love a physical lifestyle I hate not exercising.
I found the second interview much easier to type up afterwards so in future interviews I will continue to use the dictaphone. It was very interesting for me to see how they both reacted to the questions and their difference and similarities of opinion. I also noticed that I might have unintentionally asked the questions in a way that hinted about what my own opinions are and this may have had an influence on how they answered the questions. So in my future interviews I will think more about the way in which I will answer the questions to avoid having biased results!
Great, answering questions with more questions is the place to be in this Module and Module 3.
ReplyDeleteThe first four questions seem more about looking back. I wonder how they develop your professional practice. they might but I think you need to be able to explain how they develop your practice to better understand the questions yourself. In the past these kind of questions can come from a feeling of being let down or of having had a hard time yourself and wanting to recognize that. This is good healing and to develop your practice you need to sometimes heal your past. But is that what you want? or are the first four questions about something else about now and the future...?
You have to keep people anonymous always (good) but don't say where they were because only a few people wherein the bus so it sort of tells us who they are - we could guess. You can give people real names. It makes them more real. instead of Person 'A' they could be called Mark, Sola or Sally.
Good piloting interviews. This is good research for getting your inquiry plan together.
These questions might be about your practice if you said something like. "i want to be a Dance Captain. I have noticed that some dancers seem really shut down and when a Dance Captain gets to know who they are they start to open up and dance better. i want to know about the experiences people had training to better understand the imp[act they this has on their professional performances. I feel this would help me be a more understanding and effective Dance Captain."
Then knowing more about this area would make sense. If its to just better understand yourself that might be important. But if its to show you had a hard time or the dance world is not great or how hard things are I don't see how the inquiry will have a lasting positive impact on your professional growth. What do you think.
Great work you are getting there...
Adesola
Thanks for the feedback Adesola! Yes I see what you mean about the first few questions being about looking back and I will continue to develop these thoughts and see how these things are affecting the present and future in my practice! I didn't realise until you said that I have been looking for problems in the dance world and my practice, rather than topics that interest me or that I could use positively to help me and others involved in the industry.
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