Reflections on Literature

Task 6c - Continued

I have been reviewing in depth three other pieces of literature and reflecting upon the contributions there angles and approaches can have to my enquiry topic of exploring what the meaning of Dance is to a specific community local to me.

Both ‘Understanding Dance’, Graham McPhee, ‘Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Enquiry, Sandra Horton and Penelope Hanstein, and ‘Dance As Education’, Graham Folwer have been my choice pieces of literature.

I have had to consider when reading literatures that the suggestions they introduce are coming from dance enthusiast’s points of view. Recognising this is important as writings may edge towards being bias. Acknowledging their opinions and collaborating them with my own thoughts has developed my approach to researching my topic. I cannot use their writings as fact, only supporting evidence as to why I plan to do the things I do. It seems both authors cannot remain entirely objective all the time, this would seem impossible considering the literatures titles and topics. But, the pieces seem to seek a greater understanding on what is involved when trying to understand the meaning of dance, and in what ways having this knowledge may be valuable.  Intensions from all three authors seems to be one of  having their view heard, but that any claims they cannot prove are merely ‘suggested’.

(Online sources are available to both books through Google Books, they are however only previews of certain exacts, still useful oversights though.)

In more general terms, all three books have developed the approach to my plan by suggesting angling my research to focus on exploring the relationship between human behaviours that one may consider ‘Dance’, and how these behaviours define the meaning of Dance to the person partaking in it.

Both literary pieces support an approach that to understand the meaning of Dance, one has to consider their own actions and behaviours to identify with the personal significance of what dance is and what it means to them. This is where I feel I have learnt how ones personal circumstances – their background/culture/shaping life events/personalities and personal experiences determine can determine how they dance in terms of the steps and movements created, and that this then relates to dance being something of very personal and individual significance.

Now having a better grasp on this concept, a workshop I recently gave really benefited from a new approach to creating a dance experience to a group of community dancers. The participants had free reign on choosing their own theme, the focus for the movements evolved directly from the topics THEY chose to explore, not suggestions of my own. Upon reflection, I saw real relevance to how the reason for dancing (in this case creating movements to a chosen theme of the Olympics 2012) facilitates the behaviours which produce movements, these movements then create a piece of meaningful and significant choreography. Participants felt a sense of ownership to the piece they created, in this sense, practising in this way gave the workshop experience for both myself and the participants a new level of personal significance. This will defiantly be an approach I intend to repeat when facilitating future workshops.

I wonder how the motivation levels witnessed during the workshop may have differed if I had chosen the theme to work on? Would this approach have been met with such enthusiasm I wonder? Does one become more enthused and perform at a higher, more complex level when dancing choreo that has personal relevance or ownership?

This has also drawn my attention to where literature on my topic for enquiry actually falls short in addressing what dance means to any specified community. Being such an established dance company for the North of England, I have been surprised to find no other research projects of similar nature have taken place at the Ludus. Ludus dance is fairly local to me, and its community of practitioners I am envisaging will play a part in my future practise while I develop my freelance work experience with them. Therefore, it seems logical to undergo my proposed enquiry not only for the benefit of my personal stance, but also to other establishing freelancers in the North of England specifically.

There also seems to be a gap in any researched evidence to support the idea that whatever ‘it’ is that dance means is irrelevant. In the future, I aim to promote awareness of dance opportunity, therefore encouraging participation in dance through working towards increasing its accessibility. It seems necessary therefore to angle research to support teaching dance in a way that stimulates any opportunity for participation in dance, regardless of the dance subject or style, regardless of the dancers backgrounds, and regardless of the subject or theme of the work covered or choreography composed.

Gathering all this together,the range of key texts I have reviewed seem to cover three main areas, the research itself, the topic of education in dance and finally understanding dance and dance philosophy.