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Artefact, analysis and approaching final submission

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 It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog and if I’m perfectly honest I feel like I've been drowning in work recently. As a professional ballet dancer, this time of year can become crazy with trying to rehearse and perfect nutcracker whilst still performing another production and I just haven't had the mental energy to do any work for a few days.  All this being said I have quite enjoyed the analysis portion of this inquiry. It has been interesting for me to watch my own perception of my practice and industry evolving and to start piecing together and comparing recurring themes across my data set. I have been using voice notes on my phone in an attempt to keep track of my ideas and used a transcription service to transcribe them to help reduce the amount of time I have to spend staring at my laptop.  Coming up with ideas for my artefact has been one of the more difficult parts of this module. Although I have a career in the arts I am not the most creative or imaginative person
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"I do apologise we appear to be having some technical difficulties"

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 This is a phrase that every performer, company and patron of the theatre hates to hear but inevitably will at some point during their lives... there also could not be a more fitting phrase to describe my most recent interviews.  I had three interviews scheduled this week - one on Tuesday, one Thursday and one Friday and the technology gods have NOT been on my side... My first interview was scheduled to be at 7am my time on Tuesday but ended up being postponed to Thursday due to the wifi being down at my participant's work place, my cat then proceeded to launch my external hard-drive off my bed after my second interview on Thursday after which for some reason it would not "mount" to my laptop. I am recording my meetings directly to the external hard-drive before uploading them to the middlesex one-drive since I have no storage on my laptop and my phone and this happened before I'd had chance to upload them. Luckily after I faffed about with it for a bit and, unplugged
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The first interview

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This whole interview process has ben making me kind of anxious if i'm honest. It feels strange to be interviewing important people (directors/medical directors/physios) who are pretty much always super busy and I guess I'm worried that I am wasting their limited time.  Conducting my interviews via zoom seemed like the best option for my inquiry. It allows me to interview people in a wide range of places and get perspectives from a lot of different people. It also makes the interviews easier to schedule since I don't have to organise travelling to meet people and factor that into a time frame.  That being said technology has been testing my patience recently. I completed my first interview last weekend and it didn't run quite as smoothly as I had hoped. I set up the zoom meeting in advance and sent the invitation link to my participant but for some reason when it came to the day of the interview when I started the scheduled meeting the meeting ID and passcode were differ
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Getting the ball rolling

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 It's the first week of term and I'm sat here trying to get my brain to slow down and start actually comprehending everything that needs to be done over the next 12 weeks. I had my first 1-2-1 with my new supervisor Pedro on Monday and am glad I have all my initial admin questions ironed out. We started our conversation introducing ourselves and basically going over the ideas behind my inquiry, what inspired it and where I am in terms of preparations for this term and my study plan.  My first question was to clear up the confusion within my module peer group over the participant ID codes that must be listed on each participant information sheet as we were unsure if we made them up or were given them but I confirmed that they are just made up for the purpose of anonymisation.  I wanted to clarify the structure and layout of the report and in particular the length of the literature review. The way the report is described in the handbook, each type of information is presented sepa
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Here we go again...

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 The well-needed summer break is finally coming to an end and I'm actually kind of excited for module 3. Don't get me wrong, the thought of having to actually complete my inquiry in the next 12 weeks terrifies me but I'm excited to dive in and begin really investigating my field of inquiry.  I've spent the summer teaching alongside training to keep myself in shape, which has given me a fresh perspective on my inquiry topic and helped me understand how perceptions change when one transitions from being the dancer to being the teacher/director. Since I was between seasons I also had time to start organising myself for module 3 and as such feel like I'm more prepared going into this module than either of the previous two. I have created a participant organisation sheet to help me keep on top of my interviewees detailing their participant ID, the dates of contact, if they have been sent the participant information sheet and consent forms and if they are signed, as well
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Time flies when you're having fun... or have a deadline to meet

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 The past two months seem to have flown by and it's hard to believe we only have a week left until the draft deadline and 4 weeks until the end of module two! I don't know about anyone else but I feel SO far behind at this point. I have finally got to grips with the MORE form after watching the zoom calls from both this year and last year and am starting to realise tat even though it looks long and daunting it really isn't that complicated and a lot of the questions just require a simple sentence or the ticking of the correct box. After speaking to Helen I have also realised that once the MORE form is complete the proposal is somewhat of a walk in the park... By no means is it actually easy but it is definitely a lot less complicated than I originally thought.  A fair few of the questions (and subsequent answers) from the MORE form can be used in the proposal with just a little bit of extra waffle to make them more sophisticated and tick the "academic writing" box
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Studying in the Dressing Room Dungeon

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 Blessed as I am to be in a theatre and performing during this time, it is making staying on top of all of my work slightly challenging... even as I am writing this I'm sat watching my opposite cast doing their first costume run of our upcoming production. Long days rehearsing in the theatre mean most of my work is being done in rehearsal, backstage between shows, or if I have an off show during the show as I sit backstage as an understudy. This in itself produces many challenges. Firstly, being in an underground dressing room our wifi connection is patchy at best. Myself and the other girls in my dressing room who also do online uni have shared many moments of frustration as the wifi cuts out in the middle of trying to upload or save a piece of work. Imagine you've just finished section 5 of the MORE form and just as you go to click 'save' the wifi cuts out and all that work is gone. More frustrating still is that it sometimes doesn't reappear for up to an hour, re
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