MA Dance Pedagogy

I did a bit of research today looking at body image, meditation and self-compassion interventions. It was eye-opening to see the number of different scales looking at different elements of self compassion and body image, which I think will be really useful in my project. The conclusion of the paper I read "Brief self-compassion meditation training for body image distress in young adult women" by Aubrey M. Toole and Linda W. Craighead stated that whilst some people noted significant positive changes in their self-compassion, some were resistant to the idea of self-compassion - one participant even stating ... "I know I must work to achieve the level of fitness I want. . .I must not ease my perception of my body, and must continue to be hard on myself to actually achieve good results."  This statement really shocked me whilst reading it, but mulling over the statement I realised that this is how a lot of myself and my friends think about their bodies. For exam...

Hi all, hope you had good Christmases and New Years and some well deserved time off thinking. I've had a rather bizarre start of not really feeling I want to continue with the MA. I'm not entirely sure where it came from, I had a difficult time at a college I taught at up until Christmas and I think its really made me question what I want in my future. After lots of talking it through with various people I decided I wasn't going to do it. At the moment my work is mainly related to health, exercise and well being so it just wasn't sitting right with me to talk entirely about teaching. I spoke to Helen about it and she recommended I move across to the Dance specialism MA, where I could focus in on those things and interlink them with dance. I've made the move and I'm much more excited about the research prospects than I was previously. However I still don't think I'm entirely out the water here. Reading through the module 2 handbook has made me rea...

Whilst analysing my data I found it very enlightening to look at the context of my professional samples' work and then look at their corresponding answers. There were key links I interpreted as to how someone answered a question and the relation of that answer to their work. Katie was also a really important part of the inquiry as she is currently building her confidence and developing her teaching skills and is attending lots of classes during the week before she takes on her own classes. I felt this gave her answers a lot of weight as she could look at the situation from an almost 'insider-researcher' position. For example she mentions that "being praised and hearing you have progressed is always a nice thing to hear" (Katie, 2017) and I believe this is such an important statement as she is looking at that from how she feels in class, so has noted the importance of her feeling good after being praised and being told she has progressed. Roger also made...

I've just finished reading Reader 4 finally and one of the big things that caught my eye was the idea of the many benefits and disadvantages of having a team at work. As a self employed person who runs a business single handed, I wondered how this might affect research and learning; if it would give me a bigger advantage, looking at the idea of how a team at work is employed to get different jobs done in a practical and efficient manner, and may not allow much time for process, research and developing ideas. On the other hand, the disadvantages would be something I looked into during module 1, although SIG's and Communities of Practice can be created and/or are already there, having someone in person with you on a day to day basis perhaps gives more scope to constantly give and receive ideas and knowledge from the other people you work with. Anyway I think ultimately, whether it is a bigger disadvantage or not, that's my situation at the moment so I will just do the best ...

Just a little one whilst I'm trying to work on my Portfolio.... Professional Networks. I've interpreted them to anyone who can help me continue my development as a professional dance and fitness teacher. Who have you all considered to be in your professional networks and communities of practice? I did a quick mind map of who came to mind straight away when I first thought of them. So on this list I've got the usual friends and teachers from college but I've also added a friend who runs her own business as she helps me indefinitely with the real business side of things and helps me choose a target market to aim for. I also added my Yoga instructor. Might seem an odd choice but not only does she promote my classes during her class, she has helped me work out all sorts of aches and pains that all dancers get some time or another. I think me taking the time to care for my body will mean I'll be able to dance for longer hopefully. So in this sense would you agree...

A professional network is not an idea I've really thought about in depth before, but it's amazing to realise that you actually already have several you didn't even know about! I acquired my first professional network many years ago when I first started training at my dance school and local college. Even though I've moved away from home and don't see many of those in the network anymore, I still contact my tutors about decisions I make in my professional life (even about completing this course!) and they are still there for me. As are the people who were on my course - on social media they are the people most likely to post something about a dance related  inquiry , and just as I can help them they can then help me.  I also think its useful to have people in your professional network who do live in a different part of the country, or indeed another country, because it helps me as a dance teacher explore different markets for classes and what appeals in different ...

I've just been having a look at David Kolb's learning style. It's taken me a while to really get to grips with it but think I've got it now. I'm trying to liken it to experiencing using a new muscle in class and afterwards having a good think about how you can keep using that muscle in future classes. Then thinking about how much better your leaps and turns will be when you develop that muscle! Then the following class thinking and experimenting during exercises and routines to try and use the muscle again! I also like the idea of looking at this learning cycle from the point of view of my students. It would be great to really get to grips with the system and then apply it to see how my students learn best and use different teaching approaches for this.

Just a thought I was having, and then I stumbled across this really interesting article.... https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-2/media I don't know how other professional dancers feel about this but.... I LOVE Strictly Come Dancing. I prefer to stay in and watch it than go out because I can't bear to have to wait until the next day to watch it. I know a lot of people have very strong opinions either way on it but I find it really inspiring. The music, the live band, the costumes, the choreography - it all gets me thinking how I could put that move into my class or use that song. I like commenting on a dance then seeing if the judges agree with me. But also what I really enjoy is the idea that the show is making dancing more accessible to people. I really believe you have to stay active and keep fit to be healthy and happy. Obviously there are many different ways to do that to suit different people's needs, but I just think dancing releases so much te...

I wanted to take a look at some of the dance origins of Zumba dancing. Being an instructor I get a wealth of music sent to me each month in many different styles to create dances too. The amazing thing is that although when you first go to a Zumba class you may only remember dancing/jumping around and whooping for an hour, the instructor has (hopefully) put in a good amount of work to create that class for you. A Zumba class is specified by having a mix of lots of different world rhythms to dance to; so you can't just do 12 salsa tracks - because you'd be teaching a salsa class unfortunately. And in your training you learn the basic steps to these world rhythms which you then add into your choreography. So although some of these dances originated from the late 17th century - we are still using the same dance moves today! In your Zumba Basic Training you are taught 4 rhythms; Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia and Reggaeton. Of course there are plenty more to talk about (Calypso, Samba, ...