Kirsty's BAPP Blog

 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...