BAPP Course Blogs

I went along to my first campus session since I've been on the BAPP Arts course the other week.  I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it and I found it extremely helpful! I did much prefer the face to face interaction, it made it a lot easier to progress through conversation and having everyones input and ideas made it a lot easier for me to understand where I need to head with my inquiry.  Although I was the only Module 3 there, I found that listening to the other modules really opened my eyes. I admit I had just left the past 2 modules 'on the side' and after the session I realised that I needed to go back through, see what I have already done and create more links from there.  The modules aren't just 1, 2 and 3. They are all linked and this is something really important that I realised when having everyone there. So thank you all for that!   We also talked about the HUGE subject that is, ethics. It's a concept that I know I understand but I have always found i

After a frustrating week of being unable to access my blogspot (amongst other things) I am now back!  So last week, I had a Module 3 skype chat with Helen, Gonzalo, Hannah, Alisha and Eleanor. This was very helpful, as we got to talk with one another and see where we were and where we were heading.  I'll be honest, it was quite quiet at times, as I find it's hard to have a conversation with people you can't actually see! But with Helens help and a little probing, once we got onto a conversation, it really started to flow.  It was very useful hearing about others techniques when it comes to their tools for the inquiry. I think most, if not all of us are doing interviews, and with the fact that I have recently had to edit my inquiry's purpose (for the better) it was great to hear how others have been doing!  A lot of their points I have written down, including the most important point which is not to ask them a closed question. With my inquiry I want and ne

So I have recently received my feedback from Adesola, and it was extremely helpful so I wanted to have a short discussion with her about where I went from there. So tonight I had a skype chat with her and here are my thoughts after.... My aims and objectives have changed quite dramatically now. One of my first aims was to try and create a simple definition of ‘’what is community dance?’’ After speaking with Adesola, colleagues and looking at several pieces of literature, I have found that this would completely defeat the object of community dance itself. It cannot be specified into one short definition as it is an extremely vast subject. It is not a technique within dance, but an approach instead. Many practitioners will all have different opinions on what is community dance, and they are all right. What I have discovered so far is that there isn’t really a ‘wrong’ answer. Community dance is about empowering and creating opportunities within the dance world, using the community the p

One of my pieces of literature i am reading is ''An introduction to community dance practice'' Diane Amans (2008). So far, this book has really intrigued me and I must say I am hooked. I have made so many notes on this book and I am barely halfway through!  I decided to mind map a couple of points (as I find mind maps very useful and easy to read) and I thought I would share these with you. The first, is what differences to look for when teaching in a community dance setting (however this can easily be applied to all teaching settings). Apologies for the bad quality, my camera is currently broken!  When writing these out, I was automatically comparing my own practice and thinking about whether I do already look out for these, or whether I need to start to. I must admit, it is a bit of both! I like to focus on learning needs and methods within my classes, but looking at this, there is so much more that I need to include.  Secondly, is Diane Amans '

Hi all,  So summer is officially over, and I think the weather is definitely reminding us of that!  During the summer I had a lot of free time, so I was researching and planning for the year ahead, as well as going along to so many interviews for new job opportunities to help develop my career.  As this was the first week back at university it was time to put my plans to practice. I must admit I have struggled having such a huge gap between modules but I am now feeling ready and replenished to give Module 3 my all!  Let's get going! I am now working in 2 different stage schools, one is definitely more community based. Alongside this I am still working for the same dance company where I teach all ages from 3-100 years old (and that is no exaggeration). They have also offered me office work within their company which is amazing as I can learn what goes on 'behind the scenes' when running your own company. I have also signed up to 2 different agency's

So as I haven't posted since handing in my final Module 2 bits and bobs, I thought it was about time I updated you guys as to what I've been doing on here.  Firstly, as i had a pretty hectic year I decided to give myself a break for a couple of  weeks. Just to relax and set my brain back to 0 once more.  More recently I have been reading and writing lots and lots of notes down ready for the next and final module. I am currently going through a few different books based on community dance, but if anyone has any recommendations that would be fab! I have spoken to a few of my colleagues as well and they are all rummaging through their book shelves for me too which is lovely!  I am thoroughly enjoying this and learning so many new things ready for me to put into practice when September starts and the new terms begin.  I'll keep you updated with ideas and my tryouts to see what works and what doesn't (hoping they all do!) Anyways that's me of

So for the past few weeks I have been extremely busy preparing my final submission for Module 2. The plan for my final inquiry.  This final process for this module has taken up a lot of my time and brain! I honestly have struggled having anything else in my mind. Which was great! I've loved really delving into this final part of the module, finding more resources and research material and now I am finally starting to see my inquiry coming together. It's not been easy, but I do love a challenge.  Despite having struggled at the beginning of this module, I have really grasped the concept now and have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm about to hand my final document in for submission and not only will it be a huge relief but I will be able to focus my mind on preparing for the next step with this course. 

This task has asked us to provide our Title for our proposal. Looking at our questions for our inquiry to give us an overall title.  Based on my questions I have decided to call my proposal the following: ' An Inquiry Research Proposal into the dynamics of community dance, it's history and the benefits it entails.'  Written Rationale: The rationale behind my title is based on community dance as this is such a broad subject I wanted to focus it on the 3 main sections: what is community dance? the history (how has it developed) and the benefits of community dance. I decided to focus my inquiry on community dance as I am currently a community dance practitioner and would like to develop my knowledge on this subject, using my practice and the support I have around me. Currently my work role involves teaching in various locations with a wide range of participants. This includes Dance in the EYFS (early years foundation stage) all the way up to care homes where participan

This task involves us looking at the merits and limits (pro's and con's) of the tools provided in relation to our professional inquiry topic, of which mine is looking at community dance: history and benefits.  Tools of Inquiry: Observations: Merits: Easily repeated. Planning is simple.  You can be both a participant and an observer giving you different aspects of the observation. Accessible in my line of work.  You can pick up points that you may not have considered using other tools.  Limits: Time consuming. Getting permission from the correct people.  Analysing is quite complex.  Interviews:  Merits: Can either be informal or formal.  Structured provides an easy to repeat method.  Uncover unexpected data.  Using equipment such as a tape recorder can help you check your analysis.  Limits: Time consuming. People may not be comfortable taking part in interviews.  Focus Groups: Merits: People may open up more in focus groups.  Explores different

The end of Module 2 is slowly creeping up! Now I am on the final tasks. The first task for section 6, was to read and review Reader 6. This reader is based on tools of professional inquiry. The idea is to experiment with these different tools and from there design our own practitioner research. I already had a few ideas of what methods I would use for my inquiry, but I was very interested to look at and see the other tools I could use, and to see if the ones I had previously thought of, would actually benefit my inquiry.  Designing Practitioner Inquiry: The inquiry involves capturing evidence using specific tools which will benefit you most in your inquiry. It's aim is to be a process of self discovery as well as a piece of literature to use to educate others in your chosen inquiry. The data you collect should be used to inform your professional practice. There are 4 main tools which are used usually (explained in more context below). Involving both qualitative and quantitative 

As mentioned previously I have been looking through a variety of literature, as my subject of enquiry is so large I have struggled to whittle it down to 3. But now I finally have!  My first piece of literature is an article from Princeton university (Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies) titles 'How the arts impact communities' by Joshua Guetzkow June 2002. The piece of literature is targeting the fact that previous literature involving the art and communities is too vague. For example what is actually meant by 'The Arts' and/or 'Community'. It lays out the issues that need to be looked at more thoroughly, looking at studying this kind of work as well as showing the impact literature has on the arts. This piece of literature has really helped me to look for more useful pieces of literature. Also looking through theoretical and methodical issues. It has thorough explanations of 'The arts' and 'Communities' and what they could potentia

As I am now getting closer to preparing my research and acting on it, I now need to look closely at what ethics I will apply whilst conducting my research. I will discuss this with the SIG groups so they can offer me advice and I can look for inspiration from them. I will be conducting a few interviews for my inquiry so I will need to take the following into consideration: Questions : They need to be appropriate, and necessary. Forms : I will need to put into place all the correct forms, such as permission forms so that the person I am interviewing will know its professional and feel comfortable with any information they are going to give.   D ata protection : Alongside the forms and interviews, I will need to protect any personal data in which the person I am interviewing gives me.  Morals: I will need to take into consideration the morals and ethics of the person I am interviewing to make sure I do not offend and make them feel comfortable. To do this I will create my own set o

We were asked to review reader 5 for our next task. Within the reader it looks at the development and history of ethics and codes of practice and how we can use them for our inquiry. Ethics have 3 main contexts: Personal (family/religion) Professional (specific to your work) Organizational (based on Ethos) After researching ethics in my place of work I can see how these contexts fit in, and also how I have been following them without really realising.  The reader then looks at the history of ethics and evolution of them. Dating all the way back to Ancient greeks and philosophers. These root from moral philosophy. By the 13th century Aquinas adopted natural law and this started to look at how law and religion is linked to ethics and morals.  From there they went onto look at the characters of people, looking at their virtues.  In the reader a task was set to write down your virtues and the virtues in the work place including the two extremes of this. As I did this I was ve

After my previous blog, we were asked to look at the ethics of your workplace and see the examples they have used. I firstly looked online, to see examples and ideas of other workplaces ethics.  First I came across People Dancing - Foundation of community dance, which is also the place where I get my insurance from so it was useful to see all of the other things they offer on their website including their code of conduct. This is a perfect example for me to follow, as it is based around community dance, which is currently my profession.  What is a code of conduct? Codes of conduct are a set of 'rules'/ expectations that are agreed within the company you work for. All companies need this to mainly ensure safety of the employee and the participants/ general public.  People dancing have looked at several sections as part of their code of conduct, these include: Professional competence. Responsibility. Safety. Working with people. Commitment to the code of

For this task we were asked to look at the ethics in our workplace. As I work for a variety of companies with people of all ages/capabilities/shapes/sizes there are quite a lot of ethics in the workplace that I need to consider.  To start of with, I needed to make sure I have the right qualifications to do my job as a freelance dance artist. Such as a DBS check, safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults, insurance and also first aid. Then on top of that the correct training for the specific roles I take on, for example to be a TAPfit instructor I needed to go on a training day to gain the qualification to run these classes.  So with the correct certificates I can now be a freelance dance artist.  As I travel from place to place within a variety of settings I can never guarantee what the area of teaching will be like until I get there. So the first thing to think of is preparation and safety. Insuring I arrive at least 15 minutes before each class allows me time to look a

I have currently been working on task 4D which is to pick 3 important pieces of literature which will help me further into my final inquiry. As I am basing my inquiry on community dance and it being such a wide variety I have been struggling to focus on just 3 pieces.  I have found and ordered a book which after reading the summary looks to be perfect for what I need. So as and when that comes I will be reading and writing about it, which I highly look forward to!  I have also found multiple articles which all have very good links to my inquiry as well as having links and references to other pieces of literature. So throughout this week I will be finalising my main 3 pieces and working towards my blog about this. So keep an eye out! 

So Tuesday was a very interesting and exciting day.  I went to London to train and gain!  With a colleague of mine, we went together to get our circle dance in  dementia training.  We both already work with dementia participants in the care homes we go to for dance classes so we know most of the benefits this has on people.  For those of you who don't know what circle dance in dementia is. Here is a link to look at: http://dementiapathfinders.org/circle-dance-in-dementia.html It was such a fantastic day. There was a huge variety of people there, from dancers, to care workers to administrators and people from the alzheimer's society too! We really bonded well as a group. So much so, that we now have a facebook page to share our experiences/ ideas etc so we can all keep in contact.  Circle dance is highly beneficial to those with dementia, and it is also a class which can be altered and developed depending on who you have come to your classes. This is my opinion

The next 'task' was to create a special interest group and join others along the way too. This idea is to find people who are working along the same sort of lines as your inquiry, so that you can share and discuss ideas/ literature and help each other along the way.  So I've created my SIG on google groups. I am hoping this works!  As I am looking into community dance and how it has changed over the last 20 years or so, I would really like anyone from any background to join and share their ideas/ opinions of community dance. Also looking into how in a lot of schools now dance is part of their education whether it is a core subject, or they do this as a whole term subject. I know I myself go into primary schools for a cross-curricular approach to their lessons etc.  So yes please all feel free to join my group, and I am going to look at some others to join myself to.  Here is the link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/special-interest-group-community-dance

As you can see, I've had a very slow start to Module 2. But that is all about to change!  I was quite stuck to begin with. I work for so many companies doing a variety of things I was really struggling to find a path to go down but after discussions with Paula and a colleague that has also done the BAPP arts course previously, it started to make more sense. I need to start simply by looking at what I know.  So currently in my profession I work for 3 different companies, as well as running my own fitness classes and volunteering in a Secondary school to gain some experience.  For one of the companies I work for I am a Level 2 teacher, where I take on various classes from street to rock and roll to creative dance to line dancing and many more! I am also and Educating Dance teacher, this is where we go into school and do cross-curriculum classes, and the subjects could be anything! I even had to teach gumboot dancing last week which was brilliant. I am also a Level 2 Active a

Goodness,  It's been quite a while since I last blogged!  After having a very hectic few months - new jobs, finishing old jobs, looking at new training courses and to top it all off moving house!, I can finally start to focus myself onto the next part of the course. I am very keen to get started with the next few tasks in module 2, which will then lead me onto my final module.  After the skype session the other day, it really got me thinking, where do I want to lead this module to? What is my main focus going to be? Most importantly, what will give me the best outcome for myself? I have been looking at other peoples blogs from my course and they all have some fantastic ideas and are really doing well so far. This is good as reading them has not only helped me, but really encouraged me and got me excited to get started!  Today I will be starting my first task and I am looking forward to focussing back on the course and continuing my development as I enjoyed the first modu