Ideas for emerging lines of Professional Enquiry.

Ideas for emerging lines of Professional Enquiry.

For this task, I am really trying to focus on looking inward and how the different ideas and theories I have researched (Dewey, Schon, Kolb and Moon) on Reflection really relate to me and my professional practise. I have simply followed the points suggested on the Module Handbook to see where my research into emerging lines of professional enquiry takes me.

I have found I really am lucky to experience huge amounts of enthusiasm daily. I think waking up in a new city, or country even every morning keeps me on my toes- I love not knowing what t expect or what I will find once the ship is cleared and crew can get exploring. The inspiration I get from new cultures, sighs and surroundings is phenomenal. There is never a sense of the monotonous same old same old that so many people experience on a daily basis. This inevitably lifts my mood as soon as I wake so I am able to face the trials of my daily tasks as Dance Captain. I think you will agree, I cannot really complain about having to write the tediously long Dance Captain reports that are required at the end of every cruise whilst lying on a beautiful beach on the exclusive island of St Bart’s or whilst admiring the fantastic city skyline of New York’s busy Manhattan district.
I admire all my fellow cast who, like me, manage fantastically to set appropriate time for rehearsals, going to the gym, working on own personal corrections etc, yet balance this with creating time to explore these wonderful places. Both of these factors are very important in regards to our Professional Practise as I believe very strongly, like ‘Tharp’ and ‘Moon’, that to initiate instinctual sensory and response from the outside world can set our ‘creative juices’ flowing like nothing else. They key, I feel is to establish a real ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic from the very beginning.

The question ‘What do I love?’ got me thinking of a specific cast member who I have had the pleasure of working with. What I loved and admired, was witnessing the total focus he displayed 100% of the time. He conducted himself perfectly professionally without fail and was a fine example to everyone, including myself. Although he was technically far more experienced than I was, in the sense that he was much older and even has a Broadway credit to his name, he accepted that I was Dance Captain and was always offering positive encouragement to my developing leadership skills. I really admired his total dedication to his job as lead male singer on board, but also my admiration for him extended to witnessing how really very clever he has been to work extremely hard training in a forte he loves and therefore creating a situation where his will never dread going to work as soon many do these days. He has managed to make a sustainable living from his passion, this I feel is an extremely admirable quality. He is also a perfect example of someone who really was ‘born to perform’. This was just so evident from rehearsal day one. I can relate so well to him perhaps because I took feel this way!

Taking a slightly different approach now, the ideas upon what I perhaps struggle with or have a lack of understanding on in my Professional Practise. I have found I do not understand why I am not totally comfortable with delegating corrections to peers of my own age or older. I am assured in knowing I am a very fair person, who, according to my best judgement would never demand the unrealistic, this should then let me feel entirely ok tell fellow cast members what is expected of them in that particular moment. I am however definitely wear of a feeling of slight anxiety it is necessary to reprimand someone appropriately. For instance, being late to a set rehearsal, displaying inappropriate behaviour in or outside the rehearsal situation, perhaps even something like not wearing the correct uniform according to the ships policy etc. In conclusion, I admire all who are able to feel totally comfortable in knowing they handle the responsibilities in their specific role with complete contentment as a result of their required self-acceptance and satisfaction of its results. I am sure many of us have been in the position of feeling slightly unfairly done by when such roles are given to say a totally new member, or someone with seemingly little experience to their age, but what’s important is learning to develop a sense of acceptance that the role of Dance Captain is delegated based on shown promise of the relevant leadership skills. The face of age, sex and other similar factors are simply irrelevant in this situation.

Finally, and the one point suggested in the Module Handbook that I already knew the answer too was the question ’has an event or experience prompted questions that you would like to find out more about?’. Unfortunately, whilst on board, I have recently been helping to support a fellow dancer who is suffering from a developing eating disorder. Obviously, this issue is an extremely delicate one which affects the girl in question but all around her as well. Seeing such struggles stimulates me further to want to be able to offer advice and help in any way I can. Alas, my knowledge on this specify subject is not particularly sound so I feel almost helpless. Linking to this though, I already have an interest and thirst for knowledge on nutrition as I feel so strongly about promoting having good nutrition in order to maximise optimum performance for dancers. I have done some extra research as I feel so passionately about this, my most valuable findings were as follows. By simply typing in the Google toolbar ’The Definition of Health’ this is what I found:

‘Health is not merely the absence of disease, it is the balance of mind, body and soul’.

I found this really inspirational, what does any body else think?