Filming Experience - Professional Artefact

I wanted to share some reflections on the experience I have had today in organising a group of dancers to get together, openly discuss what Dance means to them, and share ideas on how we can creatively and collaboratively express this through filming some audio visual material.

Admittedly, I have not envisaged today's session being such a learning curve. Discovery of what Dance means to others has been inspiring, and similarly to what I experienced with collecting data at a community based organisation in which I freelance for and am gaining teaching experience at, it has really caused me to identify with why I Dance, and what it means to me. It has challenged the way I think about my practise, I have become aware that if we understand better what Dance can offer us as individuals, as teachers, we can develop our skills to make Dance more available to all walks of life.

I am very gratefully already receiving positive feedback from the session, so I feel reassured that the participants have equally gained from the experience. Through breaking down my project, why I'm doing it, who it's aimed at etc, I have been able to clarify in my own mind my progress. But by explaining to a different community to which I undertook data collecting, I have explaining my findings through giving this new group of dancers the experience of collaboratively sharing creative ideas, and filming material that represents what Dance means to us as a whole.

I had initially panicked that so many insightful ideas were being thrown out within the room, how was I going to be able to remember them all once I had left. There would be no way of re creating that atmosphere again, so I wasn't keen on having to organise a secondary session to clarify on anything I had missed. I was pleased with my decision to actually get each participant to contribute to page of field notes during the session. That way, each individual could volunteer a specific theme they felt they wanted to represent, why they choose that theme, why they choose the coloured scarf to represent the theme, and why they chose to enter and exit the dance space as they did. It also meant I could be part of the piece myself, I felt more involved with the community, and with the inquiry provoking a route of self - discovery into what Dance means to me, I realised it was important that I contributed to the Professional Artefact too. I also now have clear notes to be able to refer back too, which are also helping me in constructing some text to support the filmed material.

It's perhaps not very easy to read, but below are the field notes the whole community created as a result of this afternoons session. Getting others involved in documenting what took place, the how and why's has given much greater depth to any reflections I can make solely on my own.

I have decided to sleep on the days experience before beginning to write up the explanatory text, but overall, a an inspiration learning curve!

Where is everyone else up to at the moment?

Professional Artefact - Audio- visual material.

Having just read a post from Nicole, I have been introduced to another programme to create a presentation. 'Prezi', available at www.prezi.com. Thanks for this Nicole. No doubt most of us are already familiar with Powerpoint, and Flickr too. My Artefact, as it stands, is not a presentation so to speak, but a single video evidencing creative representation of my findings through the use of movement from bodies within a community of Dancers. Because I am not wanting to upload  lots of images aswell, I am unsure as to which programme will be the most effective to use. Having just checked out the website Nicole suggested, the example 'Prezi's' demonstrate a fairly simple but methodical presentation format. I am also inclined to try it and learn a new skill! The site has example presentations which very concisely demonstrate how to construct presentations too, and Prezis have a plus in that you can watch them on line or offline. Has anyone else got any other suggestions?

Learning Curve - Professional Artefact

So having already had a few ideas for my Artefact (see previous blog), I experienced a huge learning curve within my practise this evening.

As it stands, I intent to incorporate a media based approach, and film willing participants in a way that represents what I found about what Dance means to a specific community, and communicates this in a way that reaches others within the Dance sector effectively

The specific Dance community I based my research on, and gathered data from aren't actually going to be used for the specific artefact itself, within the time constraints of our projects I was unable to get adequate time with participants from within the organisation. This however I feel has been a benefit in disguise, by asking participants from within my own professional dance practise after classes this evening, generally people were enthused about taking part, and sharing their experiences in Dance. By explaining to them the purpose for enquiry, and summing up my main findings, it has clarified in my mind what I have gained and learnt from the project as a whole. So by communicating the whole process to others who didn't even know I have been researching what Dance means to a specific community, insights of my learning have developed even more so. I still intend to show the Artefact to the original Dance community the findings were based on however, hopefully they can learn as much from it as I can. In a way, if the new group of participants perhaps suggest new ideas on their own Dance experiences, another route for future research can be created. I wonder if the meaning of Dance varies from one specific community practise to another perhaps?