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?
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