MA Dance Pedagogy

Slightly off track from AOL essays... I picked up a book yesterday called 'The Art of Thinking Clearly' in a little bookshop on the high road. I hoped it would help me with my terrible lack of decision making I usually have; 'which coat shall I wear?', 'do I need a coat?', 'should I accept this invitation to meet a friend or stay in and work?', 'is my work going to suffer or be better if I have a social life?'...... my poor little mind gets very confused with decision making. I read the first few chapters and felt like Dobelli was being clear cut and blunt with the readers, he took control of the situations and told the reader everything was nonsense. All the links we create with our brains about events, reasons why we meet people or have experiences, its all unlinked, its just our brains trying to create patterns and it makes us feel more comfortable. I started to feel a little uneasy reading, but I carried on because its good for my beliefs...

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...

If I am to reflect on who I am now in relevance to my professional practice and who I was when I started the course, I feel I have made massive leaps and bounds towards understanding more about my professional practice. When I first started the course and wrote my first blog, one student picked it apart so much I had to delete it. I felt vulnerable, on display and under qualified to be taking on this work. I was hesitant to write any blogs after this and kept my learning to myself. Even in my critical reflection in Module 1 I tried to point out all the advantages of learning alone to justify my actions. I then took a break from studying for personal reasons and I truly believed I didn't want to complete the degree anymore. I put off talking to my tutor and again tried to work everything out by myself. I eventually did talk to my tutor, and I explained I no longer wanted to study. She asked me if this was really the case and if perhaps I just needed a bit more time out before cont...

My Ballet Fitness class on Monday had 6 people in attendance. On reflection my advertising scheme has been to offer a trial class for free and over the past few months I have probably lost over £100 due to people who just come for one class. I think although I enjoy people being able to trial the class I do need to try and make a profit. This does come into my ethical considerations as I believe people should be able to try classes for free to encourage them to exercise. But I have to be professional and remember if I don't make any money I won't be able to provide any classes at all. And my classes are always to a professional standard and I believe they are worth the money every time. This week I did a track list based loosely on Halloween. I always try and change the class music and exercises each week to keep things interesting. Before the class a girl did mention she didn't buy into Halloween and I was slightly worried she wouldn't enjoy the class but she did lat...

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 was just reading reader 2 and the section on Kottcamp's idea of on-line and off-line engagement. I like the idea of reflection in action. I use it during my workout classes; if my class are over exerting themselves I will perform a speech test (usually means I get them to whoop) and if they can't, I immediately know I have to make the next song a lot slower to give them a chance to get their breath back. Also it's the same for if I noticed they were finding the class too easy and weren't sweating I would make the next few songs killer! But essentially it's about recognising the needs of my class and acting on that and adapting immediately, rather than going home and thinking 'maybe that class was too easy/hard? ' because ultimately by then I may have lost a client due to them not enjoying my class. After this section the reader asks for a few ideas I like and to do a bit of critical thinking on them. I may not be at my most critical at this time but I...