MA Dance Pedagogy

I was speaking to Paula about how I feel I engage so much more when talking face to face with someone rather than online - I felt this had really been a barrier to me in module 1 and stopped me enjoying the module to its full extent - I appreciated that a massive part of the module was social media and connecting to people, but I didn't feel I had the same experience as when I spoke to someone with at least a voice attached (phone call) or talking in person. I wanted to have a look at this idea in further detail, especially when Paula mentioned she had that day spoken to two people who were at the other side of the world, something that would not be possible without social media or online communications. Why is it for me I feel like I need to see or hear someone's reactions to feel I'm fully engaging in the topic? Is this more to do with me as a person? I have a lot of empathy and enjoy conversations with people - so maybe its a personal thing to me. Or it could be some...

4a   Review Reader 4 on Professional Inquiry and develop a set of questions that are relevant to your practice. These questions should be blogged and using the Blog ‘comments’ function, develop these questions further collaboratively with other students and if possible, practitioners beyond the programme. Taking these questions to another practitioner (student, friend, co-worker) record (field notes, audio or audio-visual) their response to the questions. Post your reflection of the process on your Blog. Set of questions that are relevant to my practice 1.        Can a community dance class leave a person with positive feelings/wellbeing throughout their week or does the positivity end when a person leaves dance class? 2.        Does the teaching style and therefore teacher of the class become the most important influence on whether class will be enjoyed, or is this still to do with other factors such as en...

For someone who works in community dance, it is very interesting to me to watch and learn how people react to being in a community dance environment. Dance in the community can help to raise self esteem, build friendships with others and create a network of people where a person can feel safe to explore moving their bodies freely without judgement. I think dance in the community is very important to society but also that how a person can be affected by it differs greatly depending on a teaching style. Creating a safe and relaxed environment is essential to my personal role as a dance and exercise teacher and this seems to work for my students. Perhaps others find this environment unhelpful and prefer to not have any connection with other class members - this may allow them not not worry so much about what they are doing because they don't have any friends watching them, it may make it easier to concentrate or it may just be they want to work on their own. It would be interestin...