Flow - Really interesting to see the ideas and collaboration between Artist and Scientist

What we believe

Hello Everyone, Following a great day of Skype, ideas and themes resonate with me that are rich in collective experience and integrate into the questioning within the modules we are part of. Sharing our ideas is a great tool for my personal learning and I imagine each of us also. We talked about how we subjectively perceive within our awareness the artefacts and how they can take shape and form. Also our understanding of the AOL’s how to annotate on them and how to link to the literature. This was all really helpful and helped me to step out of my present insight and to move beyond it. The artefact…not only to grasp it as an object wholly reflecting a time framed research project. But to distinguish the artifact as something that could go on and be a resource to other practitioners. That idea has created the drive and excitement I need to move forward and I believe it was really constructive and important for us to critique and advise each other. To help us move outside our perception, outside our own personal ontology. It was beneficial I felt to be part of both Skype calls by taking a different form of participation in both. It was so intriguing and helpful to hear Aggy talk of her present stance within her own research project, realising that what she thought she believed and would find, has turned out, or could be different. I can’t wait to hear. It is true that this feels strange when you sense you are on one path and then you find yourself down another or on the other side of the road! For me, this has happened too I had no idea that my research project would change my whole outlook of what dance pedagogy for children can be or what it could lead me to in the future. The past year has changed my relationships, my teaching and myself. I wanted to talk about what we believe as for me this notion of “believing” changes and evolves. It links to the ideas that were talked about with the blogs about just putting it out there and also a blog I was going to write last week and then changed my mind. I always see the blogs as the next step beyond our journals, its ok with our journals as no one sees’ them so we can plough through our thoughts, struggles, experimentations and feelings. In Module 1 and 2, I blogged…Some I am proud of, some I cringe at! But when I look at them I realize why I thought those thoughts at that moment and why I wrote them down. It was my process! And occurrences in life happen (moves, baby’s, jobs, health) go on as we journey through those processes.. All around us affects us in our humanness. I think this part is where I wave a lighter above my head and sing “we are the world!” I don’t mean to jest but it is a great thing when you didn’t get something and then it clicks that “bling moment”. Some dance practitioner’s work and literature I have looked during my study has scared me and I formed opinions on them at the time before I fully understood how I could take something from them and find value. I think I pushed it away… found it threatening or frustrating. One of them was my view on “Parades and changes” (1965-67); revivals 1995-2006. Now I look back on that blog I feel like doh! I see it differently now or I say yes I get that bit I can relate to it or no that isn’t relevant to me but I can see how powerful and groundbreaking it was at the time and still is with its retrospective. I now see the relevance and would love to get my kit off with Anna Halprin and roll around on her dance deck” I probably will! Just have to save up to get to San Fran. I am forming grounded opinions and the more I delve the deeper it all becomes as part of me and I have formed a real connection to Anna Halprins work. She is bold, brave, wanted to break the mold of Modern dance, clever and always exploring to form understanding and acceptance across all boundaries (fences) I love it. So I raise my cup of tea to all our blogs and my moments of change, beliefs and my personal cringe moments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-josephson/fit-and-funky_b_5571593.html

October 21st

There is a new shop opening in town it is called "October 21st". It will sell clothes. Strange name I thought at first, but then I was intrigued with it.. and after standing back and thinking for a moment I thought it was really good as it captured my imagination and made me think and react... I guess that when it opens it will be on October the 21st? I will see. I think I will have to go in and ask. That is the thing at the moment, I can't stop asking, looking, absorbing and collating! I am spinning... I work in the contexts of my research every week day either: >State Primary School >My Dance School >Special Needs School and although sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Whatever does occur however leads me to something else. I am reading a great deal too on non verbal communication,which is something that has come up through the research, Ideas on creativity, dancing for health and Anna Halprin and her life work. Again sometimes I pick up the texts up and new ideas of the experience leap out at me and lead me to go back into the research setting and see for myself. Or a new idea or question arises. At other times I can feel I am being lead up a path leading to something too big for me to handle within the timeframe or even that isn't intrinsically relevant. To be disciplined on this is a challenge. I know there is a time to stop collecting data and I am feeling it is soon as each theme could be explored on its own, let alone as part of my "dance class". It is as if I want to rebel against my Gant chart! and just keep collecting data! like a sort of consuming...I do think it is because my term started earlier than our term. I am now taking stock and then will explore more or start to structure the critical analysis..Either if it is just to pause and really go over it all or just to triangulate. The thing that I have found this week is that the interview process with the parents is quite emotive. I have also had to stop talking! and listen and make a real emphasis not to influence but to collect data rich in personal comment. Some parents don't really want to talk some you can't stop and have definite ideas...its really insightful. How is everyone else doing?? How is it going?

An Interview in the NY Times- Anna Halprin

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/garden/in-california-a-marriage-of-dance-and-design.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar

Answers or Insight?

Hi Everyone…It’s been great to read the latest blogs and they are flowing at a real pace now…Skype calls are rich in sharing and I sense a real support network forming. 

Rose’s blog was so great it is one I will revisit to remind myself, the essence of questions, and our expectations held in the idea of gaining the answers. To reiterate Rose’s blog; 

 “We don’t have to provide an answer…. learn how to ask better questions in order to gain greater insight and understanding” Payne, R. (2014) 

 These phrases resonate with my ‘present’ and truly I imagine absorbing them. I will make them my daily mantra over the coming weeks so they become my future! 

So I will come at the essence of ‘questions’ with a look at what we were expecting from ‘answers’. Questions can hold such an expectation that the answer would take us out of a place of uncertainty. An uncomfortable, in some instances painful state of limbo, not an ideal place to be? However being in that place of uncertainty doesn’t have to have negative connotations. It is impulse that drives us forward forming new questions and finer insight. 

 A question is my son a boy? Yes. Answered by fact …‘fact’ he is a boy. So a fact can give me the answer in some contexts. However with dance and our experiences of it intrinsically and contextually, it is ever moving, changing, evolving literally in continuum. 

 “The dancer oriented in time/space, somatically alive to her experience of moving.” Fraileigh and Hanstein (1999 p.11) 

 So fixed certainty just don’t seem to crack it! Would we be interested in it if it wasn’t exploratory … We are not looking for facts, more of a better understanding. How can we prove facts when our subject involves a human experience? And that is so diverse. In the act of research it is a continuous circle, 

 “New knowledge is always generative-questions lead to answers and answers always beget more questions” Fraileigh and Hanstein (1999 p.25)

Thanks for the blogs

Bye for now hear you in Skype

Global Networks...

It was so great to meet and connect with our MAPP community at our Skype on Sunday, and what a big one it was! I think Skype served us well. Particularly on the level of supporting each other, sharing thoughts and questions as we embark on our individual modules. It always amazes me how easy it is to connect and also how addictive it is at times. There are new forms appearing at a fast pace. Technologies changing rapidly and connections growing. Ken Robinson who writes on the subject of creativity, touches on how we are in the process of great change and our communication methods have gained rapid momentum; “Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil points out that evolution of biological life and of technology have followed the same pattern. They both take a long time to get going but advances build on one another and progress erupts at an increasingly furious pace” Robinson (2001p.27) So I guess we may be at the point in time of the Dinosaurs now that analogue technologies are dying and we have reached a sort of amphibian stage. Who knows we might have Skype set in our reading glasses soon as we go about our business. I don’t think it’s far off. With Spotify (with which I have only just begun to understand) I can connect with 111,625 followers who also firstly want to ‘chill’ then acutely want to ‘chill with ‘tranquility with a beat’ what a crazy idea if you were to tell the fourteen year old me alone with my Sony Walkman! I find it exciting how our experiences have led us all to this one place. This mostly virtual place, and how our learning community of the ‘now’ is so fruitful to us. Our global network includes students that have connected with us from Dubai, The States and all over the UK. Giving us all the opportunity to develop ourselves our thinking and our pedagogies. We have discussed our commonalities; our dance, our module handbooks, our anxiety’s and our excitement as we move forward in time with the development of our research journeys or mapping out of whom we are and where our past learning occurred. I expect our passages to this point are diverse. I would like to see our journeys painted on a map of the world visually and colourfully drawn with zig zaggy lines all meeting at a final point, demonstrating our journeys from our first dance ever (where it took place) to the dance… our last dance or representation of our dance at the University theatre for our final viva’s. It may have been a slow drip urging you or a seed planted; a conversation with a colleague, an article in a journal or a search on the web that led us here to MAPP DTP at Middlesex University. Who knows, but somehow we have all arrived at this virtual place within and belonging to our ‘global network’ Decades ago we would have all had to physically have met in a classroom, Possibly moved city or town. I feel lucky… and wish us all a great term.

Today makes me...Thank you Summer

Looking back over the summer period I feel fortunate to have had the time to be a little more grounded in my thoughts with moments of stillness too having the chance to getaway and experience a change of scenery, climate and culture. Organically time has been on my side to ground my plan and to read my key texts and absorbing some of the literature has proved a valuable experience. I knew for me I would not be able to switch off completely but also knew I needed rest from full time work, family and juggling as we all do. Certain texts the reading flows and others are a struggle however returning to my research question usually sorts me out as I have had to be strict in not reading literature that leads me to get off the point i.e what I really want to find out/my research enquiry. We only have 3 months! The work of Anna Halprin has gelled together everything I understand ‘dance’ to be for my consciousness, my practice and pedagogy. Evaluating the therapeutic and creative aspects of dance in the lives of children within the dance class. As a communication and expression through embodied movement. My hope is that I can understand through my research settings and experiences and what this flags up within a children’s dance class. I decided to get my head out of the books and practically experience it for myself. I was quite scared of this, considering I spend my days dancing, teaching and facilitating dance to my pupils. This was a new experience for me and as with the MA and every module I have approached will changed me also. I finished work last Friday at 9pm got in the car and started my adventure to Folkestone (with a brief stay over at my sisters.) So I arrive at 9am and go straight to the beach! Just me myself and I and then head to the studio where I meet Lian Wilson who has been trained by Anna Halprin herself and danced on “The Deck” at Tamalpa, Marin County, California. Anna is now 94! The class was small, mostly non dancers, eight students in total. During the course of the weekend stories of our bodies unraveled and I witnessed some of the most moving and embodied dances I have seen in a long time. The commitment to each’s dance was very special and it has changed me or found me again? I’m not quite sure yet. One of the things that stays with me is something that was said by Lian the Tamalpa teacher that; “Our minds can trick us, but our bodies don’t lie.” This really helped me with the notion of embodiment, speaking through movement, listening and knowledge held in our bodies. I am also two weeks into my research. Three different contexts: • State Primary School • Special School • Private Dance School Already some notable things are being flagged up and sometimes when a child says something or moves the data hits you like a bolt of lightning. One boy in a group discussion was explaining that the reason he enjoyed dance was that he could be free. He went on to give an example of when asked to draw at school they always had to copy a painting or style and what he wanted to do was draw his own feelings. Another girl said (who has an abundance of natural resources when it comes to movement and dance) “Dance is as important as science!” On the other hand there was a boy who in week one explained he didn’t like dance. So I am interested to see what unravels there. Week 2 and with the setting and situation being a little less unfamiliar he did join in. There has been a great deal of excitement, giggling, shyness, happiness and even angry swearing so emotions are become apparent. I welcome them, which I think the children find bizarre too. I am really looking forward to connecting with the MAPP community again and wish us all a great term. Really happy we have the opportunity to connect via Skype twice a month also even if it be just to listen sometimes. There I’ve challenged myself!! Speak soon everyone. If you have a chance take a look…this is beautiful… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWxpn8wOj70

Dance Pedagogy

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zUh3ISo7Ykw

Beyond Somatophobia- Karen Barbour 2005

http://www.junctures.org/index.php/junctures/article/viewFile/140/144

Dance with benefits

http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm

Twyla says...."You gotta have faith" Interesting Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atGJkkzVe54

Keep on Moving...

In the recent weeks I have not had a choice but to work through things in an primal organic way. Like a survival for my mental wellbeing to stay comfortable in this state of ‘unknown’ feelings of anxiety, tiredness, prioritising, thinking and feeling my way as if on my hands and knees blind searching for my glasses. Well I think I have found them. Hence me blogging! finding my voice again to say something. Weirdly this actually juxtaposes with real life as I am getting new glasses! I have moved house and I realise looking back that I did not absorb the stress of the build up with enormity of moving my family etc …instead I immersed myself into Module 1 in my MA. I thought seeing as I had had a long period of numbness in my mind that the emphasis had to be on and in my mind. In module 1 the focused on reflection and getting my mind to dissect my practice, my life, my motivations and philosophies seemed to sit comfortably with me. However observing and discussing ideas on embodiment and the whole course embedded with mind and body connectivity I realise I have to face the next phase of ‘me’ and not forget my body it cannot be left behind. Sometimes when teaching one spends so much time looking and thinking about the bodies displayed in front of us we forget our own. Well I do. So the physicality of Bikram yoga in half term really has addressed the wakeup call my body and mind needed. Lying in Savasana staring at the ceiling I began to piece my thinking of the last few weeks together. I realised I was connecting with my body again. It then got me to think about times when I have felt a loss of that connection and or shock at the enormity of experiences of life like ‘writer’s block’ to dance. A similar pattern emerged at times of grief, loss, change all have all taken a toll on my body and mind connection and dance has always brought me back. I have always been interested in people and the journey of life and also considering death too, mortality and our time on earth. How we as humans we seek connection with other humans, why we choose the paths we take, who we share our lives with and how time can change us. Over the last day; my questions and ideas have led me closer I hope to…linking together my thoughts and reading over the last few weeks and ultimately my research! Recent events seem to be calming and I am absorbing them as life experiences as part of the journey. As we are all finding out juggling work with study. Art mirrors life or art is life? Many dancers use their own deepest life experiences to fuel their most prominent work. When watching Martha Graham’s piece “Lamentation” it struck me how it depicts grief so clearly and uncomfortably. It speaks a language directly to anyone who has suffered the loss of your own flesh and blood. It is a powerful, visual expression of sorrow. Martha in interview speaks of an audience member that approached her afterwards and thanked her as she had lost a son and had up until that performance not been able to cry. It has done its job very well if it creates any emotion in a human. As that is what art is partly there for? It stirred an emotion to promote healing amidst grieving. Why does a person buy a painting? Why do we listen to a certain song at a certain time? For some it is purely an aesthetic thing or even materialistic thing, for others there has to be a story; there has to be meaning or a memory recalled. To understand this connection between dance as art and its power to heal and communicate link people together on an equal plane even as therapy or learning experience is where my interests lie. I am by no means a therapist but I have seen in my classes young and old gain some sort of therapeutic, creative experience that has nurtured their lives and filled them with something of their own, or made them see things in a different way through ‘the dance’. Looking at dance as a form of creative expression for recovery that has psychological, social and communal benefits such as of a Morris dancing group or a ladies tap group for instance. One thing I have seen in the deterioration of my father and his mobility in his final years and that as soon as your mind gives up on the will to move your body to the best of its ability it is a spiral downwards both mentally and physically. So movement and dance has a place for everyone’s mental and physical health. Anna Halprin’s ideas of an awareness of the body and movement (Thank you Adesola) as a healing medium interested me. Firstly I liked her as a person (from what I could see and read) and I seem to be able to connect with her philosophy not so much “parades and changes” where it mainly comprises of disrobing as to me nakedness (the dancers perform naked) is something I am not impressed by or shocked at. True nakedness to me is something I don’t think I am capable of with anyone… or even myself at times. Nakedness in the exposing of fears, lies and secrets. That would be more shocking. The work I really loved was from when Anna worked with Senior citizens for a year, found an Island and used rocking chairs for them to sit in whilst they moved and danced rocking in the sunshine as she said ‘she had never seen such soulful dancing in her life’. Anna Halprin 2005 Anna went through cancer and remission all that have been expressed through her work to me an inspiring and likeable lady. Whilst recently exploring various choreographers work I have seen in myself a definite like of some things and with others on some occasion’s anger and frustration at my lack of connection with it. I stepped back and thought about this. It’s ok to not like something it doesn’t mean it is not valuable to me or anyone else. It also helped me to decipher where my interests lie.

Motivations...

Today is Saturday and I awoke to a peaceful house and a sunny day. This beginning filled me with positive thoughts. My state of slight panic this week seems to be waning and is replaced by a sense of just get on with it and think, read, watch, listen and all will become clear. It has too! Getting my head deeply into the handbook living and breathing it is a must. I have been thinking about the relationship between the classroom and the teacher. What the teacher’s motives are? And what are the pupil needs and wants? I have also been questioning as I read this week a sentence that has really helped on the thinking as I approach my practice and research. “Discovering the balance between conviction and open-mindeness can be difficult and involves personal honesty” McNiff, Lomax, Whitehead (2003) p21 With this in mind it has been really valuable to me that I commit to a balance between the two. As with lots of reflective, reflexive practice recently my open- mindeness seems to need a bit of conviction and bravery at times. I reflect on this as I approach the opening of my fifth branch of my school and the new relationships that will be built and the new learning I will deliver. I was in conversation with some grandparents yesterday about dance. They were referring to a past school their granddaughter attended and explaining why they stopped going. The reason to me in words seemed slight, but I do understand that what a parent thinks of the teacher and his or her practice is a key influence to what the child participates in. So basically keep them out! Joking aside, back to my questions. They chose to take the child (4 years old) out of the class because when they were observing the teacher. The teacher demonstrated one thing and then when she went to dance it with the children she added some arms that the children were unaware of. It seems ridiculous. I myself have also watched a class at this school when I was thinking of changing schools for my daughter. The things that I observed were; they were very big classes, the less confident children were lost at the back and the emphasis was not on correction posture, alignment which I think is crucial. I did however then look at it from practitioner’s point of view and thought. She is working towards a performance the teacher is under pressure, the children are having fun and that the actual artistry and choreography were lovely. After that observation I didn’t move my daughter. I left her at the ballet school she is in now. The teacher at my daughters school is much older the classes are very small, she is a older, she has a very soft kind voice and she uses a little tape recorder to play her music, her ballet choreography is fine but as for modern, jazz and street it is very simple and dated. However there is something about her and her teaching that I believe is the key. My daughter is shy and I don’t think could be part of a highly competitive environment at this time and for her those precious Saturday mornings they really inspire her to dance. She is now doing character dance and the whole magic of it has caught her attention the shoes the movements. She even says she likes the little rusty tape recorder it all adds to the atmosphere that something different can happen in this space. Something Theatrical, something expressive, yet disciplined? I also feel happy when I see children trying these styles as myself as a Street dance teacher knows how media and popularity influences the dance styles children choose to participate in and that others might seem dated or old fashion, yet they still have much to give young people. Personally to me dance is dance. No boundaries. As adults we can be very quick to make judgements and to change things when what you see is not necessarily how what should be perceived. I see many parents that make judgements on their child’s progress when they may not understand the journey. I realise it is like my MA, it is the journey that is the most important thing and the journey will lead me to my answers. Lead me to my research project. Also this week I watched some footage of Martha Graham teaching, she must have been in her eighties. She talks about taking a life into your hands and what a responsibility it is as a teacher this hits us in our practice daily. She hardly moves as she is sitting teaching. I can interpret her fountain of knowledge and conviction in what she knows and passing on to her students. I also can see how her techniques have layered the ISTD Modern syllabus… well especially the old one. Also the mother figure she is to the girls as I can say I experienced with my ballet teacher and I try to emulate with my pupils. I am there for them, for support and the journey. It is incredible to watch and makes me want to be in training again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aYwjZxBDg0

Metaphorically speaking

The coming together of ideas, questions and learning that is shared in our Skype meetings is so powerful and nourishing.  It also has been great to read through the blogs about our Skype. Mostly throughout our journeys we all experience and feel the same emotions; fear, excitement, confusion.  Another thing shared, are peoples light bulb moments, which are always lovely to hear about and encouraging. However when you haven't had one yet and are waiting in earnest  for it to come when it does arrive you have to write immediately as it is so precious.  I am hoping one will come again!

For me at the start of Module 2 I seem to be following my same learning style and structure as I move forward. To try to gather as much information to understand the next steps I must take. I keep telling myself it will all become a little clearer in the next few weeks just as it did before.  I remember Jamie’s  spider graphs/mind maps and Amber’s pile of books and we all had our own way of approaching the task in hand in Module 1. 

Books that I really connected with were:

Bolton, G (2010), Reflective practice, writing and professional development, London: Sage Publications Ltd

Moon, J, A, (2004). A handbook of reflective and experiential learning theory and practice, London: RoutlageFalmer

Rogers C, R, (1969) Freedom to Learn, Ohio: Charles E. Merill Publishing Company

And of course ANYTHING Dewey!

 

One thing I have found also is that key phrases helped me like a mantra.

“Get to the point”

“Are that many words necessary to make my point?”

“Show where the leaning happened”

“Bring it back to myself”

 

My latest helpful tool does seem to be the metaphors that we spoke about on Sunday.  The one that seems to stick are Adesola’s Salad (with spaghetti) that has helped me understand a how to put together the next piece of work.   I also think of circles so I have attached an Image from The Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966-1979 (2014) (Exhibition) Mead Gallery Warwick. 18 January- 8 March 2014 .

As soon as I saw it I thought of Helen and her circles. It’s a good image to keep in mind although I would have them crossing over more and parts of the circles crossing paths.

 

Connections and flow

I have been really surprised lately how one thing leads me to another.  How things are connected and flow.  I truly believe this for me is an evolution in my thinking.   This has proved positive in ideas, events, people and performances I have experienced lately, so many good things are coming to fruition.  I can see something does come out of everything.  My daughter and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the day I handed in my Module 1 we took a trip to London.  In the show the magical thing about Charlie is that he makes 'something out of nothing' Willy Wonker 2013
What a great idea and in the end things really take a turn for him and his family.

Also going to observe Janet's and Alison's presentation was another thing that was a connection to my ideas this week and how watching and listening to them has penetrated my week and my practice especially with imagery. I didn't realise how much I use it with my teaching and as I became aware of this I used it even more and elaborated on the ideas with my students.

Also the actual movement's and artistry of Alison's work the drawings and the way the Cecchetti movements were recorded by flows of coloured light.  It was wonderful to see the artistry of dance recorded in a different medium, very mesmerising.

Well done your presentations were so clear and interesting.  I could see that you had a real commitment and passion to your subject. Which brought me to myself.  I hope I find my subject feel as passionate about it as you showed.