Kirsty's BAPP Blog

 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 p...

 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...

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...

 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 presente...

 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 ...

 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...

 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...

It is the time of year when we all have our annual meetings with the director to see whether or not our contracts are being renewed for next season and whether or not we will be receiving a promotion. Having been out for most of the season after my hip surgery I was quite honestly expecting to be let go but was both shocked and overjoyed to hear that my contract has been renewed and I am able to continue working with my current company for the 21/22 season. Naturally as the industry goes others weren't quite so lucky as me and had their contracts terminated. Today we had class with one of my all time favourite teachers; she is one of the most inspirational women I have ever met and as a teacher not only pushes you to be the best dancer you can be but also helps drive your motivation and desire to succeed in a positive way.  Knowing that we had all had our meetings over the past few days and that people had mixed emotions about the news they received she took the time to talk to us ...

About a week and a half ago I thought I had finally decided what I want the focus of my inquiry topic to be; Overuse injuries as a result of overtraining in classical ballet dancers. Having spoken to Helen in my 1-2-1 she thinks this could be a good line of inquiry to take however the main question she posed to me was what are my actual questions within this topic and if I'm honest I have no idea. I perceive from my own experiences and from the experiences of friends I have within the industry that not only are overuse injuries common in classical ballet, they are also often caused by overtraining and rigorous schedules but I don't really know how to turn this perception into a research question. My original plan was to research into common overuse injuries and the root of the taxing schedules dancers are often presented with within the professional ballet world and try to find correlations between the two although this isn't really a question but more of an exploration. Ha...

I had a 1-2-1 with Helen a few days ago and although some of what we spoke about was very specific to my topic I feel like a lot of what we spoke about could be useful to others who feel a bit lost on this journey through module 2!  First off the literature review. This has been giving myself and a lot of the people that I've spoken to an unnecessary amount of stress and I feel somewhat more relaxed after speaking to Helen about this. The key points I took away regarding the literature review are that it can be structured in any way you want as long as the required content is there. The required content should include an overview of   research methods, designs for research proposals and ethics of planning a proposal and give a broad overview of your inquiry topic and the themes which it branches out to . The introduction should be short and basically state that your inquiry spans x topics and that although only a few (3-4) key texts are discussed in this review many peop...

 On Thursday I attended the module two focus zoom call to discuss with my peers and Helen what exactly module 2 is all about and I definitely feel slightly more relaxed as a result.  We started the call going through some important things to consider as we start to compose our inquiry proposals. Helen advised us that our proposal should explain what our area of inquiry is and why, a little bit about that area of inquiry but should focus more on demonstrating our understanding of research methods and methodology and how we will use them in our inquiry.  We were encouraged to take note of the limited time frame we will have to complete the inquiry in module three to ensure that we're not trying to do too much and spoke about making sure the title of our enquiry is feasible and focused on a specific area. In order to formulate a research question we should first find a relatively broad topic that we are interested in to centre our preliminary research around to see what ques...

 This past year has been a strange one for everyone in the arts including myself and having hip surgery last October in the midst of it all has made me view my practice in a different way. Spending time looking deeper into my practice and my experiences in the arts industry during module 1 and having so much extra time to think, upon returning to the studio I'm finding it much harder to block out the toxic environment surrounding me.  Taking time out and away from the studio to focus on my recovery I was surrounded by more non-dancers than dancers which enabled me to view my practice from an outside perspective. Talking to these people made me realise how negative, degrading and medieval the arts industry can be and how more dancers and directors need to start trying to change what has become "normal" for dancers around the world.  One of the many issues within the dance world is how companies exploit young professionals. Unpaid contracts should not be a thing. Once a dan...

I'm not going to lie, looking through the module 2 handbook was starting to cause me a lot of stress and anxiety... The workload seems to have tripled from module 1 and nothing was really making any sense. Having had my one to one meeting with my supervisor earlier this week and attending the welcome back zoom call on Friday I'm beginning to gain some kind of understanding of what this module is about and    how to approach it. My understanding so far is that module 2 is essentially a planning module for the inquiry we undertake in module 3. It allows us the time to complete all of the admin work necessary to undertake a research project at the university whilst also giving us a head start on finding scholars, practitioners and key theorists in the field of study our inquiry will focus on. It is also aimed at providing us with a greater understanding of different methods of research and how to design and plan a research project. During the welcome back zoom call a couple ...

... on module one anyway. Submission day is finally here and against all the odds I managed to complete and submit my work with a full 28 hours to spare. This first module was not what I expected it to be and from looking at the blogs of those who've gone before me it never really is.  I began this course thinking that it would be about taking one aspect of my practice and developing it over the course of the three modules into one final dissertation at the end of module three... I couldn't have been more wrong.  This module has been about investigating my practice as a whole and exploring how different aspects of it link together to form the basis of who I am and what I do. It has been about reflecting on what my practice has been and how I want to develop it as my career continues, about looking at my practice from different perspectives and ultimately about what my practice truly means to me, It has been a big learning curve, getting to grips with unihub, figuring out the p...

 This phrase is generally used in legal contracts but seems to have become my life motto over the past few weeks. It has become apparent to me that trying to complete two online college courses whilst also trying to recover from hip surgery and return to professional ballet is maybe a bit ambitious and is over-stretching myself slightly...but here I am, doing it anyway.  As a dancer I am naturally an over-achiever and with this in mind time management and organisation are potentially two of the most important aspects of my life. There is a finite amount of time in each day (known to be 24 hours) which, for me, is never enough but it is what it is and one must just accept it. In order to achieve everything I want to achieve at the high standard I expect of myself, being organised and planning my time are essential.  In order to plan successfully and create a balance in your schedule being able to prioritise is of utmost importance. If you think about everything you have to...

Yesterdays Skype call discussed how we synthesise information to produce our essays and artefacts. One of the main points addressed was the idea that the information we are gathering is and should be subjective rather than objective. Adesola encouraged us to remain open minded and curious when looking at our practices to allow a discussion to be opened up in order to let new ideas be formed and created ; we should be using our diverse learning community to communicate with others and gain different perspectives.  This diversity is one of my favourite aspects of this course and community. Each student has a completely different story and is in a different stage of their career, yet the common theme of being artists runs through us all and allows us to link our different practices and experiences. This adds another dimension to my reflective process as hearing what others have experienced and comparing them to my own allows me to view things from a slightly different angle. Amongst t...

 As a Professional ballet dancer my practice can be moulded into any number of different things. Through looking at my practice from a wider angle I notice that one of the greatest things about classical ballet is the vast amount transferable skills you learn through your unusual education and career. This is something I have always been very grateful for as it has always been apparent to me that one day I will retire from performing professionally and move on to an entirely different career in another industry.  Working through module 1 and beginning to try to construct a "map" of my practice has almost made me resent how broad my practice is for the first time in my life. My initial thought was to create a mind map including all of the different things my practice involves and significant artists or experiences that have shaped my personal practice and identity. The problem with this is that my mind map became a kind of colourful maze linking all of the different aspects of...

 As a dancer I am a perfectionist and with that comes a lot of reflection. Reflecting on how I did in class, how a performance went, what went well and more often what could I improve on. This is deemed as reflecting-on-action since it's looking back at what I have previously done in an attempt to learn from it but what I didn't realise is how much dancers use reflection-in-action. Reflection-in-action applies in situations where one is responding to what is happening as it happens rather than after the fact. This is useful skill for dancers as we need to be adaptable. Examples of when we would use this skill would be during the creation of a piece of choreography, when rehearsing on a new stage for the first time or during a performance if something were to go wrong.  I can think of countless times when I have been on stage and things haven't gone completely according to plan. A slippy spot on stage, the orchestra changing the tempo, a lead corps member in the slightly wro...

Ballet is like an addiction. You know it's not healthy; it's breaking breaking your body and destroying your mental health and you'd probably be better off without it, yet the thought of ever leaving the industry breaks your heart and is truly terrifying. You can't imagine your life without dance, it's who you are and all you've ever known.   Young professionals and low ranked members of companies are essentially slaves to their art. Often extremely underpaid (if paid at all), and undervalued, recent graduates find themselves in a kind of battleground. They work their hardest with the hopes of one day being promoted or at least acknowledged for the part they play within the company but in the process lose their sense of self-worth and value. These dancers are essentially walking the line between student and professional- they are treated like students but expected to perform as professionals. They generally work longer hours than their higher-ranked counterparts...

 Web 2.0 is a concept that I was unfamiliar with prior to starting this course even though it is something I use everyday and have been using for years. As a dancer my practice is centred around live performances and events, however over recent years and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic web 2.0 has become a significant part of my practice.  The importance of having an online presence for the purpose of self-promotion was first highlighted to me during my graduate year at ballet school when we were encouraged to create an online portfolio. I decided that I would create a public instagram profile to use as a platform for self-promotion. This gave me the freedom to share my portfolio images and information and provided an easy method of communication between myself and any potential colleagues, employers and collaborators. Through sharing content on social media I am also increasing my exposure worldwide and thus increasing the possibility for new opportunities to arise....