Beginners call for Module 3, beginner's call......PLACES PLEASE!!!!

So, here we are at the start of the third module, and I am very excited to make a start this term.

I must admit now I return to the MAPP programme and my Blog that I am ashamed to say it is almost a year since my last blog post, once the pandemic hit the UK and we entered lockdown one it was best for me to defer and focus on the changing landscape within the arts sector and education. Unfortunately, I then looked at the MA as an extra ball that I was probably best not to juggle at the time.

Now I am here beginning module 3 and I read back over my past blog posts in an almost comical appreciation... My previous posts regarding resilience in young dancers and wellbeing in teachers and educators seem almost more appropriate than ever before, now we have lived through the past year.

It has been both encouraging and empowering to see just how much resilience people/artists can draw upon when truly needed and how much more our wellbeing and mindfulness considerations have played a leading role in our everyday lives.

Communication has been a key theme for all of us over recent months and I am looking forward to fully embracing our online learning community with much more consistency and value that I may have displayed in the earlier modules. 

Preparing for the new term ahead and reconnecting to my learning has made me re consider what is valuable to me as a learner, here are a few thoughts and realisation from module 1 & 2...

•  Read and re-read the material...then read it again, print it, highlight it, make notes on it, whatever is helpful to keep a note of your thoughts and plans.

•  Make REAL time available to study, so many times I felt I had a productive session then I came back to my notes days/weeks later and found it almost impossible to understand!!!!!

• Use our online community to integrate new perspective's into your work.

• Don’t use multiple devices to access UniHub!!! Not seeing information in the same space and lay outs etc lead to more feelings of confusion for me.

Oh and 

…..get stocked up on coffee and snacks BEFORE you sit down to study or write!!!

Wishing everyone a great term. 

 

Learning in and as professional practice

Last week a module one discussion took place on the topic of learning in and as professional practice, frustratingly I was unable to attend the group due to a late rehearsal but I had read Adesola’s blog as well and many fellow students posts to try and get up date.

I watched the Ken Robinson-changing paradigms presentation with great interest and realised that for decades dance has tried to shed the preconceptions of what dance is in both an academic and performance context.

Dance is often mislabelled as simply entertainment or a display of physical aesthetics, but if we remove dance from any form of intellectual context we limit how dance can become an enriching learning experience.

Recently it has been easy to see that dance is not regarded as an intellectual subject area of merit with so many companies, arts departments, theatres and community projects budgets being reduced or cut completely. Possibly this is because dance can only leave behind threads of what was created and the volume of work and resources required to create a performance go largely unseen and possibly therefore unvalued. 

Often recorded material lacks the unique atmosphere of a live performance and much of the choreographers intentions and the dancers intimate connections and characterisations can be lost outside of  the live experience.

It’s almost impossible to inform non-dancers how a sequence of movements can incorporate ideas, research and complex thinking. It is vital that artists record their processes, experiences and knowledge in order for us to increase the depth of discussion required for productive learning and education in the sector. 

As I watched the videos I took some notes and when I came to review these I found several of my observations really connected with my daily practice. 

‘Collaboration is the stuff of growth’ says Ken Robinson and I have found this to be true in two ways, firstly in my weekly faculty meeting where student development, course progression and planning evolves from our open discussions and secondly the observations that we bring to these meetings have been informed by the studio/class collaborations with dancers and students as they reflect on their own learning, objectives and successes.

An area I can relate to a lot is that of the Aesthetic Experience, or more directly, how I ensure that my classes/rehearsals offer an aesthetic experience. I have come to realise that this is very dependent on my own mental state. When I fly into a rehearsal after a meeting has over ran, a theatre is on the phone regarding ticket sales or the physio as just emailed to say a dancer needs to be out of the tour for a few weeks (these are only a few examples but my point is that some things have a huge knock on effect that all need careful consideration and a long chain of decisions must be made) I didn’t eat lunch due to time and I also have time pressures of needing to create XX minutes of choreography by the end of the day etc. I can see that the process is going to be very stressful for all involved, I don’t produce my best work and also the dancers are not in an empowered place to collaborate effectively with me. I sense there resistance and my stress levels increase. 

If I take more care in my time management and preparation then the whole experience becomes more calm and productive.

After further reflection I also recognised that helping people become more divergent in their thinking is a large part of my job, however surprisingly it’s not the dancers or students that require this from me so much, it’s the teaching faculty.

That’s in no way to suggest that they are not divergent or even poor teachers (quite the opposite) but often because they have come from a their own professional dance careers and the training they received as dance students, although detailed and successful, has limited connection to today’s education requirements and course structure (maybe this topic is worth another post later!).

Before I finish I think it is worth drawing your attention to the thoughts of Georgia Canning, an Australian dance teacher who discussed her observations on dance teaching in a TED Talks presentation in 2017.

What I find interesting here is her thoughts on what additional benefits dance training can bestow on dancers, both professional and recreational, maybe there can be further discussion on the ‘life’ benefits that dance offers that can add extra weight to the academic verses vocational values argument.

....Sorry for the long ramble, I can see that shorter and more direct posting is something I need to work on!!

Teachers Well Being

Not sure if anyone has seen this online, I have been adding to my reflective journal this week and have observed many links to how my own mentle state and well being effects how I learn and also how I pass on my learning through teaching.

Would be great to your thoughts,

Duchess of Cambridge calls for more support for teacher wellbeing

By Caroline Henshaw

13 February 2019

tes.com

Royal uses school mental health conference to praises 'vital' work of teachers

The Duchess of Cambridge has praised teachers for the “vital” role they play in shaping pupils’ lives and called for more support for their wellbeing.

Speaking at the Mental Health in Education conference, she said teachers played a key role in helping children to develop at the most important point in their lives.

Earlier she held discussions with headteachers, Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman and other leading education experts.

Resources: Toolkit for mentally healthy schools

Also from the conference: Growing mental health problems among trainees

Mental health: Targets and workload hurting teachers 

“What you’ve all been discussing here today really brings to life the vital role that teachers are playing in supporting our youngest children’s mental health,” the Duchess told the conference in London’s Mercer’s Hall.

“Over the last eight years working with charities, I’ve met some of our leading experts in mental health, addiction, family breakdown, homelessness and education.

"They have taught me over and over again that the root cause of so many of today’s social problems can be traced right back to the very earliest years of a person’s life - and often over generations.

“The scientific and other evidence is clear: the first few years of a child’s life are more pivotal for development and for future health and happiness than any other single moment in our lifetime.

"It is also clear that the positive development of our children is directly linked to those who care for them: teachers, carers and parents.

“And as we’ve heard today, it is therefore vital that we support teachers with their own wellbeing so that they can provide the best level of care for all children in their schools and communities in which they work.”

Today’s conference brought together experts from education and mental health to discuss what can be done to tackle wellbeing issues in schools.

The Duchess has long been a longtime advocate for both mental health and young people’s issues, and The Royal Foundation was one of the supporters of today’s event.

Perhaps the greatest beginning, part 1

On Monday I traveled to Barcelona to audition dancers for 2019/2020  company contracts, I don’t usually audition dancers outside of the UK but I had been invited to attend an event called the Grand Audition. 

For those of you not familiar with the Grand Audition it is an annual audition platform for young classical dancers, they have the opportunity to take park in classes, workshops and interviews that are observed by 10/12 artistic directors from companies all over the world. Personally I feel this is a great opportunity for dancers to meet their peers and also  be seen by potential employers in a very cost effective way (hopefully eliminating multiple flights and travel costs etc).

As I sit and observe the group of artists preparing for the first class to begin, I can not help but see the eagerness to be noticed written across their fresh faces. It is here that I realise the delicate situation young dancers face at this stage in their career.

They are perhaps at the most important ‘fork in the road’ that they could face. Not only are they keen to obtain an employment contract to validate their years of preparation and establish the official beginning of their professional career, but they are also facing a ‘double ending’. What ever the outcome of the audition season graduate dancers must say good bye to the comforts of their school or training environment. Many students have developed deep and nurturing relationships with their tutors and now face leaving this support and regularity to find their way in the profession, often a very different place to their rose tinted expectations.

The second part to this ending process is the cold realisation that, for some, this may be the end of their dancing ambitions as they are often overwhelmed by feeling of anxiety and competition. If they do not achieve a contact after graduation it will take a lot of personal resilience to keep themselves in peak condition.

It is often said that the physical/mental pressures, responsibility to family expectations, a heightened sense of perfectionism and burn out often force dancers away from the industry after training rather than developing acceptance of more realistic goals. Perhaps aiming to gain employment within 12/18 months after graduation is a more realistic goal?

Perhaps the greatest beginning, part 2

In my experience it takes a good 6/12 months for a young dancer to make an effective transition from the official beginning of their new contract to an energetic beginning, a point at which the dancer has begun to understand and except themselves and begin to apply and discover methods that help them branch away from studio focused technique and become a confident story teller and artist, where the technique becomes a vehicle for artistic expression rather than the entire focus. 

Watching the auditions it is clear to see that dancers at this stage of their life are so predominantly focused on their technique that they seem to miss understand or even forget what directors are actually looking to hire.

Of course, it is vital that dancers develop strong and consistent technique, however it is not only the dancer with the highest legs or number of pirouettes that get the jobs. Directors need a dancer to tell the story, bring something to the process, not be afraid to have a voice and become a positive and engaged member of the group... not just a body type or leg line.

Dancers at the energetic beginning of their career have started to understand that their role is to adapt choreographic ideas into physical material and help a choreographer physicalise their concepts into performance pieces that may last for only a few short performances or perhaps feature in the repertoire for many years.

Having developed through these personal official and energetic beginnings it is with a sense of natural evolution that dancers grow into their own effective beginning, a time when they start to apply equal appreciation to their technique and creativity. This is the holy grail for almost all directors and choreographers, developing an artist who is physically able to apply dynamic technical ability with a strong sense of creative exploration, risk taking and an active intelligence that can make a valued contribution to a creative process.

Of course, it is our job as teachers to help our students become the best they can, however should we not equally help them develop a more realistic understanding of what the industry expects of them? Do we need to review traditional training methods? 

Something I have come away from this event feeling is, are our current training methods creating dancers that are fit for purpose? With so many individual aspects to consider I’m not sure if it’s possible to find an answer... it will be great to hear your thoughts.

Swan Lake Rehearsals Begin

 

Images taken from today’s  rehearsal for the Black Swan pas de deux,

Dancers: Artists of Ballet Theatre UK

Photography: Daniel Hope

This is my first blog post and as I sit here poised to introduce myself to you all I realise that this may actually be the first time I have been required to sit and reflect on myself since I was working as a dancer and needed to update my CV and promotional material. There has usually always been a clear objective in anything I have written for many years (feedback, delivery notes, a production or event etc) and there has been very little requirement for me to discuss myself or my work in anything more than basic level, so this is new territory for me.

Currently I am the Artistic Director of Ballet Theatre UK and Head of Training at our feeder school, The School of Ballet Theatre UK.

Becoming Director was not a job that I applied for but more of a position I evolved into having founded the company myself over ten years ago. The company came into existence as a platform to provide classical graduates and young professionals with another option for employment in the UK and it was my ambition to help enrich the culture of British independent dance companies. I had been inspired after spending much of my dancing career working in the US where classical ‘workshop’ companies and projects are much more prominent, San Francisco’s Lines Ballet, featured in Adesola blog post today, Ballet Met in Ohio and also Ballet Memphis are wonderful example of this.

Ballet Theatre UK started on a very small scale and brought together only a handful of artistes to collaborate on a small gala season of repertoire and new works. Over the past decade it has grown and now employs over 18 company dancers on annual contracts and a supportive team of ballet staff, stage technicians, Physio’s, wardrobe staff and administrators to help the company present over 150 performances a year.

Nearly all the work we present is my own choreography, I like to think the style is predominantly classical with a contemporary edge that helps 2-hour ballet performances become a little more palatable for our regional audiences. We are just about to finish our winter production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ next weekend after 58 performances and today is also the first day of rehearsals for a new production of Swan Lake that will open its tour in March.

(if anyone would like to find out more about the company and its repertoire, please visit BalletTheatreUK.com)

With the company evolving into something more stable and long term I began to realise a greater need to invest in the development and training of young dancers, developing a feeder school would be vital if we hope to build a lasting identity as a British tour ballet company.

In September 2014 we opened the doors of our full-time vocational training programme, we now have 36 students enrolled on the BA (hons) Ballet Performance programme. That same year we also moved from rented studios in London to our own building in Hinckley, Leicestershire and now benefit from three large studios, wardrobe department and offices within the building. Moving to Hinckley has allow me to provide the dancers with a much more detailed and lengthy rehearsal/creative process as I am no longer limited by budgets or availability of studio space. Personally, I have found that the move out of London this has afforded me a greater focus on the quality and authenticity of my choreographic work.

I also have a second role within the organisation and as Head of the training programme my role has evolved greatly, from delivering much of the practical trainings in the early years to now overseeing a faculty of nine lectures, the admissions office and administration team whist maintaining our university and academic partnerships.

I find this role comes with a great deal of rewards and satisfactions as I see our students graduate into our own company and other companies around the world.

As the course has evolved, I feel my teaching style and approach has altered drastically and I look forward to investigating this further as I submerge myself in the first module.

Recently two of the students in our final year have been offered employment contracts with a ballet company in Connecticut, US and this has led me to repeatedly question if the students are progressing due to the commitment of the faculty and our united approach or are the faculty members becoming more empowered due to the commitment and focus of the students? Inspiration and motivation seem to be blossoming from both sides of the equation this semester.

If anyone is interested in leaning more about the school, I will add a link below, otherwise I am very excited to begin this journey and am looking forward to getting to know you all (and myself) in a lot more detail.

(BTUKschool.com)