Developing Questions relevant to my Professional Practise

Developing Questions relevant to my Professional Practise

                I have been reading and exchanging thoughts on various blogs of my own and other BAPP network colleagues. Alongside this, asking a friend outside the BAPP programme but still finding herself in a similar position to myself of being in the ‘limbo’ phase between performing and teaching is helping me to use my reflection skills to acknowledge ‘where I am’ and make light of the next stage of my developing practise.  I have found these exchanges of opinions from others with similar interests or fellow professionals working or aiming to work in similar sectors in the Arts extremely useful and a way of seeing a much wider view. Initial thoughts of mine have been ‘blown wide open’ and I am learning that when undergoing a professional inquiry my own is one opinion of many and it is extremely beneficial to share thoughts with others, to help both one and another reach a fair and in-depth analysis and conclusion. I am blogging my progress on my developing questions leading to finding a line for professional inquiry as it begins to take shape in hope to stimulate my own ideas further and produce some useful questions.

What I need to know/have in order to be a professional?

-          Self – discipline

-          Determination and a positive attitude – a sense of focus of what I want/need/hope to achieve, self - belief

-          Motivation and Enthusiasm – of my own, but to bring out in others too

-          Respect – for others and myself

-          Self – awareness (knowing yourself, your gifts and your limitations, once reflected upon, you can go on to help others)

-          Apathy – ability to see from different perspectives, being a wear everyone learns and relates differently to situations

-          Common Sense – an ability to think on my feet and adapt to any situation

-          Communicational skills – ability to constructively criticise, relate to all range of people (students, employees, members of professional networks, parents of students etc)

-          Organisation – paramount importance, could come under many topics, time management for example

-          Health – being in a state of complete mental social and physical health, and maintaining it under pressure situations

-          Technique and technical ability

-          Connections – networking, strong social communication

-          Team work/team building skills

I feel in conclusion, as a dancer, an element of all of these aspects is required to ensure constant professionalism and as a result, hopefully constant employment.

What do I need to know in my sector? 

  I found that the above were quite general considerations that suit most professionals across different sector related boundaries. For my specific area of interest, I needed to be more specific as my competencies and skills as a performer (dancer) and as a developing dance teacher:

-          Knowledge  - relating the different elements of knowledge I have from initially being a dancer and now a developing teacher, I am so what relieved to see there are many similarities. Many skills needed for one role, are also needed for another. However, as I am embarking as a teacher in my professional practice I find I am working in a more trandisiplinary situation. The knowledge I am gaining tends to not always fit so neatly into specific categories. On top of this, I am finding, for both roles, not only do I need knowledge on dance itself, but also understanding the concepts of dance in education and the importance of business and managerial skills in order to make a profit from my work. Looking into my role as it sands more specifically, I realize that I have to gain and contextualize knowledge on much more than one disciplinary level. I am envisaging becoming an effective teacher will require a much wider scope of understanding that will cross many boundary disciplines, examples listed below, please refer to another post of mine ‘Establishing Knowledge On Professional Practice’

-          Ensuring sense of teamwork

-          Complying with specific professional policies

-          Security Insurance and Public Liability

-          Ability to Dance – Demonstrative skills, choreography skills, knowledge of specific syllabus

-          Appropriate use of musical a compliments

-          Exposure to latest dance trends/teaching methods

-          Experience related advice – skills to communicate this

-          Recognition and communication of different teaching techniques and styles – each student learns and relates differently

-          Injury Prevention – ensuring safe practice in the workplace

-          Technology – use and availability of

-          Inter Personal Skills – personal attributes (creativity, sensitivity and apathy, respect resourcefulness, patience, motivation)

-          Behavioral Management

-          Planning and Preparation Skills

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This has then lead on to more close analyses on more of a personal levels of my own competencies and capabilities. In doing so I have discovered and highlighted factors I already know I lacked or have yet to attain in order to improve my professional practice. I hope this will help to point me in the right direction and to where to go know to gain more knowledge or improve on existing skills as an individual. I think knowing your own competencies is a skill in it’s self, staying positive and focused to improve on what you have is a great achievement in any profession.

What do you know? 

I know what my professional experience has given me and how it has shaped the performer I am today.

I know my initial aims from college have changed due to my changing likes and dislikes, up to date trends and with gaining more knowledge and experience in various sectors in the dance world. I know considering making these changes collaborate into a careea that will be financially stable and fulfilling is essential to sustain a job as a professional practitioner.

I know my skills and knowledge have brought to a certain level in my career already, so hopefully I can continue to improve on these through this course.

I know I can't predict the future, and that I should always remain open minded. Oppertunities may arise that hadn’t been forseen, these could each be incredablity insightful in their own ways. Experience is everything,

Regarding inter personal skills, I feel I have a particular personal strength I hold is my communication. Ample experience from communicating with many ages, nationalities and personalities while being onboard an international cruise liner had educated me and helped me to develop.

With having to have some hospital treatment to regain my state of full health after a stressful 13months has helping to develop some ‘life skills’. I now feel armed with the fact I know my bodys limits, no one is a machine. This in itself is quite empowering.

I know in order to remain ‘top of my game’, I can’t afford to take too much time out. I need to keep up with my own technique, regular practicing/stretching etc, but also up to date on what is going on in the dance world. Potential new styles, new teaching skills, new trends, all of this need to be in the forefront of my mind so I can meet the demands of new students.

What do you not yet know?

Where or when my next professional contract will start and what it might be.

What area I should next focus on in my career as I feel the need for constant assessment and improvement.

Specifically from a teaching angle, I am yet having to teaching someone with special needs, or behavioural disorders.

How long my body will withstand the demands of being a professional dancer

What do you want to know?

Why I haven't been cast for certain roles in the past when I felt well suited- more feed back would have been appreciated.

Realistically how long can I make a career out of being a performer?

Will I be able to make a change in career direction financially viable?

Which skills would I need to attain to make this transition process run more smoothly?

Can I give back some of the enjoyment I have got out of being a performer?

Can Dance Benefit you at any age?

What is the importance of dance in education?

These then became a great source for me to gain perspective and focus my attention on what I wanted professionally.

  

With looking at a past blog from Natalie Less, she had some great ideas about listing what advantages she had as a professional and the challenges she is yet to face, I have incorporated this idea into my practice to explore elements relevant to me as an individual.

Within my own Professional Practice, what are my Advantages, and what am I challenged by?

Advantages

-          My sound professional training

-          My previous experiences, employment as both a dancer and a dance teacher

-          My youth (ethusiam, physical state of health)

-          My communication skills

-          My self awearness of my own capabilities as well as my limitations

-          Professional contacts I have begun to acquire

-          My availability of exposure to differing teaching styles

-          My enthusiasm of knowledge of maintaining good health (Nutrition, Injury prevention and cure etc)

-          My motivation to achieve and gain new knowledge

-          My passion to curb my dance enthusiasm and capture it!

Challenges

-          Finding and sustaining work that is financially stable

-          Lack of opportunity where I live in the North Of England

-          My recent health setbacks (I need to work on my fitness)

-          My lack of dance teaching experience due to my age (more difficult to be taken seriously)

-          Funding travel to auditions

-          Making myself stand out from many at future auditions

-          Competition - very high standard

-          Staying in ‘the loop’ for current dance trends

-          Lack of experience in an interview situation

Looking closely into these points has been relevant to me progressing any further. Along reading reader 4, and further reading into the literature of Raelin, I can now decipher between focusing on my strengths but not being defeated by my challenges. Thinking positively, I am reminded of my advantages and competencies, some of which I have worked very hard to attain, being realistic about how to tackle my challenges will be the next step. Finally, having listed similar points to both sides of my debate fills me with confidence, I believe if I am able to see where the areas are for potential improvement, this can only help me to continue on the road for a sustained successful career.

However, I have found a particular passage of literature raised an interesting point, this being the question of whether competency attainment is actually always necessary to be a good practitioner. To conclude, I am finding that although some key competencies probably will contribute to performance, a solid technique for example, sometimes other attributes, either tangible or intangible, and controllable or uncontrollable should be considered. For example, a performer may have an absolutely solid technique; however a situation such as them acquiring an injury may arise. The situation was an uncontrollable circumstance, and nothing to do with the dancers competencies or capabilities. Realin sums this up but addressing the ‘real issue at the heart of the competancies debate is whether competency attainment is necessary to be a good practitioner’, and that ‘competancies that might lead to effective behavior for one job in one organization may not translate into effectiveness for that job in a different organization’. (Raelin, 2008, P 43 – 44)

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Developing questions relevant to my professional practice?

What does it take to be a professional dancer?

As a professional, what competencies do I have and which do I lack?

What does it take to be a professional teacher? Are there transferrable skills relevant from being a professional performer?

What’s the importance of Dance in our Education System?

Does Dance benefit a child’s education?

Can Dance benefit you at any age?

Are there benefits to encouraging artistic stimulation and creativity through dance movement at a young age?

What can be done to ease the transition between performing as a Dancer into a career diversification such as teaching?