Emerging themes

Yesterday on the tour bus I began looking through the notes I had made from my interviews and re-listening to them to start looking for similarities and differences of opinion. It quickly became apparent to me that there are some strong themes emerging for my inquiry and these have very much influenced the type of literature I have been looking at and analysing.

Themes:
- The importance of rest
- Balanced work life
- Lack of facilities on tour
- Artistic vs athletic

Skype with Adesola

Just had a quick Skype with Adesola about where I am heading with my inquiry and artefact at this point in time and it was really helpful to clear up a few questions I had.

The main queries I had were about my artefact to see whether I was working along the right lines with my ideas so far. I think I had been getting slightly carried away with these ideas and rather than looking at what I have discovered from my inquiry and how I had discovered this I was more focused on the presentation and the finished effect. Adesola pointed out that the artefact is meant to show the same things as the written product but just in a different format that will be easier to read and more inviting to look at that a 6000 word essay. So whilst thinking about who will be reading this I need to think about what forms of media they are used to and would be inclined to look at and read.

When I originally began looking at creating my artefact I was thinking more about creating a product and showing my answers. But I need to look at my emerging themes more and my journey and together with combining this with my discovered create a more informative artefact rather than a finished product.

Artefact research

Ballet workout literature: 

I have started looking at different types of books which could help me decide how I wish to present my artefact. 

Richard Blanshard

New York City Ballet Workout is a revolutionary fitness program that will help you begin to develop lean abs, firm buttocks, a contoured waist, sculpted legs, slim thighs, strong arms, perfect posture, flexbility you never thought possible--and grace and poice of a dancer. More than three hundred stunning step-by-step and other photographs throughout make this the most beautiful and easy-to-use exercise book ever created.This elegant book is unlike any exercise book ever published. Graced with more than 300 instructional exercise photographs and extraordinary duotone portraits of New York City Ballet dancers, The New York City Ballet Workout explores the company's philosophy of balancing art, life, and fitness.

By combining elements of New York City Ballet's balletic regimen with practical strength-building exercises, The New York City Ballet Workout can help people achieve a strong, graceful, and flexible body--one that displays the impeccable poise that is the trademark of New York City Ballet dancers. 

Many exercises of The New York City Ballet Workout were once confined to the world's elite rehearsal studios. Now, as refined by Peter Martins and his company, these exercises have been designed as a comprehensive, holistic approach to the body that can be used by anyone from the out-of-shape to the serious athlete, to attain a lean, hard, beautiful body. From flexibility to endurance, this is a complete exercise program for men and women.

This book is more aimed at non-professional dancers who are looking to achieve the physique of a professional.

Eric Franklin

This volume features 102 imagery exercises paired with dance-specific exercises to help maximize body-mind conditioning and develop more fluid mobility, balance, and tension release. The book culminates with a 20-minute, full-body barre workout routine designed to help dancers warm up, condition, and refine their dance technique. You'll learn how to execute lifelong dance skills that give power without the risk of injuries. By working the muscles through movements and ranges of motion that approximate the demands of your chosen dance form, you directly enrich your performance capabilities. And as you strengthen the body's core, stretch to gain just the right amount of flexibility, and incorporate the power of the mind, you unleash your full artistic and physical potential.

I found this book on amazon and it is exactly the kind of thing I was actually looking for. All of the aims seem like goals I wish to achieve and this book aims to be applicable for different 'chosen dance forms'.

I did some further research into Eric Franklin and the Franklin method which I actually remembered was mentioned when I did some research into somatic therapy the other day. I have linked his blog below which contains many interesting articles! I have read through a few of them and will choose one or two to include in my literature review.

What is the Franklin method?

The Franklin Method® uses Dynamic Neurocognitive Imagery™, anatomical embodiment and educational skills to create lasting positive change in your body and mind. The Franklin Method was founded by Eric Franklin in 1994 and is taught all over the world, including the Universities of Vienna, Cologne, Karlsruhe and the Juilliard School in New York.

The Franklin Method® is recognized by the health providers in Switzerland and is a regularly seen at Dance, Pilates, Yoga and Physiotherapy conferences. One of the greatest discoveries of the 21st century is the plasticity of the brain; that the lives we live shape the brain we develop. The Franklin Method® is at the forefront of practical neuro-plasticity; showing you how to use your brain to improve your body’s function. It teaches you how to harness the transforming power of the mind. It can be applied to improve all of your abilities. It all starts with the knowledge that we have the power to change.

The Franklin Method® teaches dynamic alignment and how to move your body with maximum efficiency to keep your body youthful and energized. Your whole body is part of a symphony of coordinated movement. In a sense, your posture is reinvented at every instant. In every moment, the ideal combination of limbs, joints, gravity, moving parts, connective tissue, and muscle must be found and directed by your brain and nervous system.

All of these new and interesting methods of training your mind and body are fascinating to me so I would like to try to incorporate this into my artefact because I think that it could be very beneficial for dancers to be more aware of these sorts of practices as well as just the regular Pilates exercises. I think I could find a way to introduce these to other dancers and incorporate them into my professional artefact. I will talk to my SIG and peers to see what they think about this topic.

Data collection & Artefact ideas

Data collection:

I am now well into my data collection process and have gathered a lot of information from different people in the form of interviews. I am still wanting to conduct two interviews with each person, so after re-listening to and writing notes about the interview I have come up with some more questions that are more specific to the individual. In retrospect I should perhaps have done this earlier but due to the strenuous rehearsal period I didn't have as much free time to conduct the interviews as I had hoped so I had to interview more people on tour than I had originally planned. I also also conducted my Skype interview this morning which was very informative and successful.

My next step in the data collection process is to record a focus group session in my dressing room. I will keep this fairly informal but at the same time letting people know that I am recording a conversation and it will be anonymous. I think that alongside conducting the last few interviews I need to commence the analysis process and start drawing links between my data collection, literature research and own findings.

I have been reading through people's blogs on the googleplus site and found some interesting information on Megan's blog. She said that she had a Skype with Paula about structuring her analysis:

What people said → My interpretation → Compare it to literature → Evaluate the information with SIG'S → Extend the meanings → Relate to my professional practice

(Megan Louch)

Artefact ideas:

I feel like the artefact has taken a backseat in my thought processes so far so I have done more thinking about what I would potentially like to do and how I would like to present it.

I want to show how I've:
- Developed professional skills using tools of inquiry possibly using new technologies and social media
- Show awareness of what is going on in your field of practice in terms of theories and discourses and can demonstrate your understanding of these bodies of knowledge when communicating your inquiry.
- 'Defend' my point of view
- you can demonstrate that you have better self-understanding of your what you learned during your inquiry and have the graduate ability identify new insights about practice that might benefit you or have implications for your professional community of practice.

(Module 3 handbook)

  

What is it and who is your audience – is it a product or a work in progress? 

At this stage after reviewing some literature and looking at some of Darcey Bussell's Pilates books I'm thinking i would quite like to create some kind of poster or small booklet containing information about exercises for targeting different areas of the body. 

My target audience would be other dancers, probably most specifically ballet dancers because this is the area that I have mainly focused on throughout my inquiry project. I think I would create it as a product rather than a work in progress. However, because I am not a qualified Pilates or fitness instructor I would make to make sure this was clear and I didn't give out any false information. 

I will look at some more similar works that can help me gather some more ideas about how I could present my artefact to make it clear and informative for my target audience. 

http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=etd_mas_theses

Constructive rest and somatic therapy

I have found some literature about active rest and think that this is a very interesting topic. I think it's strange how whilst researching supplementary training techniques I have actually discovered information about the opposite of training, rest. This has brought to my attention how vital it is to get a good balance between rest and activity and this is something that I will continue to research and talk about with my peers and colleagues. I will also experiment with these methods personally and write up my thoughts in my journal so I can see how it affects me personally.


http://alexandertechnique.com/constructiverest/constructiverest.pdf


When is a good time to take constructive rest? 2-3 times daily. In the morning when you wake up, before you go to sleep and at some point during the day when you're tired or stressed.
Release tension, relax whole body.

Topics from literature:
Importance of rest, mindfulness - taking time for yourself to ease stress. Self-reflection.
Questions arisen: As a dancer when is it best to take rest time throughout the day? Perhaps before a show of before ballet class. Probably not mid-show or mid-class and you don't want your muscles to completely relax when you need them to be fired up and working hard.



Somantic therapy is something that I looked at in module 2 and was originally an area I was very interested in pursuing further. However, since my initial thoughts my ideas changed and I decided to focus more on supplementary training in general rather than just a more specific topic. Howver, when reading some scholarly articles about rest I followed a link to an article titled 'Somantic studies and dance'.

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iadms.org/resource/resmgr/resource_papers/somatic_studies.pdf

The pieces of writing in bold are extracts from this article that I found particularly interesting and relevant to my studies.

Mind-body techniques loosely called somatic studies now a common word in dance and dance education. 

Somatic studies also have been referred to as body therapies, bodywork, body-mind integration, body-mind disciplines, movement awareness, and movement (re) education.6 

1. Eddy MH. Dance and somatic inquiry in studios and community dance programs. J Dance Ed. 2002; 2:119-127.
   

The study and envelopment of somatic therapy occurred at the same time as modern dance styles were evolving.

Two main avenues of physical practice evolved: one more ‘receptive’ (e.g., massage, craniosacral therapy, and somato-emotional release), and one more active, calling for the conscious cooperation of the person through movement awareness or imagination as catalysts for changing motor/movement behavior (e.g., Ideokinesis, Alexander Technique, and The Feldenkrais Method®). 

Somatic education differs first from traditional dance pedagogy in its philosophical basis – that of dismembering mind-body dualism in pursuit of personal autonomy

Self awareness and self-control are the key to somatic therapies.


Below are some extracts from three sections in this article about the three different key elements of somatic therapy. They explain more about the philosophical basis of difference between somatic practices and dance.

Novel Learning Context
Somatic learning contexts usually remove dancers from the typical space-time-effort constraints and psychological demands of a dance class. A somatic learning environment often begins by quieting the mind-body “chatter” in order to focus attention on the body’s sensory stimuli (from breath, muscle tension, contact of the body with the floor, etc.). The general tenor of the somatic learning environment is one of personal exploration, self-acceptance (i.e., absence of self- correcting strategies such as muscularly “fixing” what seems wrong), and non-competitiveness. Instead of striving to perform the "right” or “correct” movement, the dancer learns to move from an embodied source – fully receptive and responsive to the moment of movement. Such training is designed to free the dancer from rigid holding patterns or other constraints that bind thought, feeling, and action. 

Sensory Attunement
Somatic approaches emphasize sensory awareness (paying attention to sensing) over motor action (“doing”). In the somatic learning context, how one moves is more important than what the movement is. 

Augmented Rest
A third key concept in somatic studies that distinguishes it from traditional dance training is augmented rest.20 Practice (repetition for reinforcement) is a powerful training tool in dance, but is rarely counterbalanced with rest. Somatic studies commonly embed resting intervals between phases of physical activity. This high rest-to-activity ratio is designed to allow the nervous system time for processing and integration and physiological systems time to recover. The rest can be very brief (Alexander Technique’s pausing and inhibiting), brief (the typical 2 to 3 minute rest between repetition and variation in Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement), fairly long (20 minutes or more of Ideokinetic Constructive Rest), or longer (a full night’s sleep). Somatic resting phases not only are employed as a strategy for physical recovery, however, but also for motor programming.21 Rest periods help consolidate memory (you’ll remember what you learned) and improve motor recall (you’ll more readily call it forth when you need it), as well as actual performance (you’ll do better next time).21
Constructive rest is a well-known practice of motor learning first described by Lulu Sweigard (Ideokinesis).22 The basic hook-lying position reduces the effect of gravity on the body and minimizes extraneous muscular effort and joint loading involved in habitual postural support. In this environment, dancers can visualize “lines of movement”22 that enhance neuromuscular coordination without additional physical effort. A minimum of a 10-20 minute constructive rest period is recommended to recuperate from a day of dancing, replenish physiological processes and restore energy depleted by physical activity while programming appropriate neuromuscular patterns within the brain.22 While repetition is essential in motor skill learning, mentally practicing (visualizing) motor patterns at rest – when combined with physical practice – is a more powerful combination in enhancing motor skill learning and performance, than just physical practice alone.23 

The area I was most interested in was about augmented rest which is a the topic that lead me onto research somatic therapies in the first place.

Somatic Practices in Dance Technique
Somatic practices that have been integrated readily into dance curricula include Ideokinesis, The Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique, and Body-Mind Centering.* All these methods share common goals in their approaches to re-education: (1) Process over goal-oriented product, that is, enhancing kinaesthetic awareness in a non- judgmental and non-competitive non-doing environment; (2) Using sensory awareness to modulate (i.e., constrain) movement range and effort to uncover the potential for new mobility, and (3) Rest – resting phases in which the dancer is given time to listen to the body, to clarify what sensations have arrived and differentiate wanted from unwanted stimuli, and to consolidate motor learning. 

Interesting vocab:

Individual autonomy is an idea that is generally understood to refer to the capacity to be one's own person, to live one's life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one's own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces.

pedagogy

ˈpɛdəɡɒdʒi,ˈpɛdəɡɒɡi/

noun

1. 
   

   the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.

   "the relationship between applied linguistics and language pedagogy"

#dancersneedrest

In a recent interview I have carried out with a fellow dancer the topic of rest was brought up and how vital it is to get a good work/rest balance in order to achieve the best results from your body for performance and in order to avoid the risk or injury. When I was looking at the 'One Dance UK website' I came across an article all about rest and it's importance for dancers. It turns out that in summer 2014 there was a popular hashtag 'Dancersneedrest' that was circulating the internet.

During July and August 2014, dancers were encouraged to share photographs of themselves resting on Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag #dancersneedrest. The best photograph, as judged by Erin Sanchez, One Dance UK Healthier Dancer Programme Manager, and Zoe Anderson, Dancing Times News Editor, won a year’s Dance UK membership, a Dancing Times subscription and a selection of books about dancers’ health.

http://www.onedanceuk.org/programme/healthier-dancer-programme/industry-standards/dancers-need-rest-campaign/


Rest is anything that gives you a break, whether it's mental or physical. In order to reach our physical capacities dancers train for long hours in the studios and sometimes overwork themselves leading to burnout. 'Characterised by consistent or unexplained tiredness, emotional changes, frequent illness and injury and poor performance in spite of normal training, burnout is a major concern for dancers. Although there are a number of possible causes, dancers’ burnout can be due to emotional and physical stress, poor fitness, and of course, too little rest.' 

Plan training and performing in order to reach a physical and mental, physical and technical peak for performances. This process is called periodisation and involves a gradual build-up of training and learning. This process would work very differently depending on the company in which you are working for and the nature of the work you are doing. 

Reducing training just before performance (called tapering), gives time for dancers to switch from preparation to performance mode. In this method, it’s important to reduce technical training and classes as rehearsals increase and allow for greater rest time.

At the end of this article it is mentioned how dancers and students are often not in control of their timetables so it is important for their artistic and administrative team to have a good understanding of these methods of performance preparation and the importance of rest. As dancers we should also listen to our own bodies and because everyone's body is different it is important for you to do what is right for you. Not everyone will be performing the same roles so everyone's workload will differ therefore it's important to understand where and how you will take time to rest and recover. 

What are the benefits of rest?

• Rest allows the brain and body time to assimilate and store what has been learned each day, improving both your memory and how well you perform movement*

• Taking time to review movements and choreography mentally as well as practising physically is more effective than physical rehearsal alone*

• Dancers working in periodised environments (including rest) perform better and have fewer injuries

• Rest aids muscle regeneration after dancing and reduces fatigue and injury rates

* Somatic Studies and Dance – Glenna Batson ©2009 IADMS and Glenna Batson, D.Sc., P.T., M.A

How to integrate rest into your training

• Make sure to spend time eating healthy and nutritious food. Bring lunch and snacks with you so you can rest during breaks rather than spending time finding food. Click here for recipe ideas

• Prevent burnout by balancing high performance standards with realistic goals, including gradual return to dancing after breaks or injuries.

• Focus on quality of training, not quantity

• Try Active Rest – a lying down resting state where the mind is focused on a particular task. Click here for more information

• Spend time mentally reviewing the movements you have learned rather than physically practising

• Balance dance activities with other interests; rest isn’t just about sleep

• Don’t wait until your dancing starts to suffer. The longer you wait to address fatigue and overtraining, the longer it takes to recover. If you notice tiredness, illness, pain or niggles, don’t just train through it

Key vocad:
- Periodisation - gradual build-up of training and learning
- Tapering - reducing training before performance 
- Burnout 
- Active rest - a lying down resting state