Module three - Literature Review

Rory Foster

Rory Foster trained at the American Ballet Theatre were he went on to become a ballet dance performer, teacher and choreographer within ballet. He has worked with many choreographers and fantastic ballet teachers including David Howard, Vincenzo Celli (Cecchetti Method) etc. He then began teaching professional dancers and young students where he became company ballet master for New Orleans Ballet and Chicago Ballet.

David Howard was an English Ballet dancer and teacher. He taught internationally at many institutions such as the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet and National Ballet of Canada.

Ballet Pedagogy

Whilst reading his written work I came across many points which I can relate to with my practice and inquiry.

'There are some teachers who assume that all they need to know to be successful and effective are the contents of the syllabus, which will either include methodical exercises and combinations or a guideline of ballet vocabulary. It is important to recognise that all of the training methods/systems in ballet are simply tools-specific approaches to the teaching process.'

'Knowing how to use this tool effectively requires good teaching skills. These do not come automatically through learning and memorizing a particular syllabus, nor do methodologies inherently delineate skills such as proper demonstration, counting, correcting, musicality, anatomical approach, et cetera. These skills are taught in formal training sessions, or they are learned through experience.'

I believe completely in this statement as I can comment from my own experience. In the past I have learnt from a variety of people and I know that I have learnt more off someone who understands and has been within the industry which in return gains further respect from myself to someone who has not been within the industry at all. The reason for this is because I believe that to become a great teacher within anything you do you need to have acquired knowledge from experience and gained knowledge from others within the same industry to help you become versatile and learn in a variety of ways.
This is why I would like to look further into the past experiences I have acquired from others who have provided me with tools. I will look into them and see how they have worked for me. I would also like to look further into performance and gain an extended knowledge on the performance of characterisation through dance. This will help my practice as a performer and intern will enable me to become a better teacher in the future.

'There are many who give very few, if any, individual or general corrections-they simply give class rather than teach class.'

Here Foster hits the nail on the head about many dance teachers who turn up to a class unprepared and take a class which they have thought of whilst on their way to the lesson. However this is something I don't and do not want to do as a teacher and certainly do not want to be taught by anyone who does this. In my opinion I believe, to create a great architecture of a lesson generates in a very clear structure for the class. To have a clear structure will help gain what you have set to accomplish. Many ideas for diverse lessons would need experience to put together variety of tools learnt in the past. I will look back at my past experiences to help develop a dance class the plan. The small goals you accomplish by making the class clear and structured will result by taking small steps. During training this was very helpful as it became clear to myself to know what I was working towards. Here I felt like I was learning because during the dance class we discussed ideas, thoughts etc to enhance our training.


I have really enjoyed reading Fosters work as he is very passionate about teaching and the way in which his students learn from him.

Module 3 - The Final Stretch

 

After being introduced over Skype by Paula into Module three it became apparent to me that from my feedback and conversation I need to make my vision and inquiry clearer and more specific.

Many times the words PERFORMANCE and CREATIVITY were coming into conversation. At which point Paula challenged me to answer what is PERFORMANCE and CREATIVITY?

 

 

 

I believe that I needed to go away and research both of these areas as they are so vast and big. To do this I need to narrow down what it is that I want to understand about both words and how I can incorporate them into helping me to make changes to my practice and future goals.

 

At the momet if anyone asks what I am doing and looking into will be;

Changes to my professional practice and my future goals.

This is not my final question but for now this is what I am finding out without a specific question until I have researched further.

 

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We spoke about many other tasks I need to complete as well as the Tasks within the Mod 3 Handbook. I need to make sure that I write literature reviews and look into the Author and understand if it is a reliable source. To do this I will look into the contents page to gain knowledge on the authors experiences prior to writing the book/journal etc.

 

For me to fully take in everything that had been said I have made a spider diagram with certain headings to help me out. These headings are;

- My influences as a performer and how I learnt

- PERFORMANCE

- Literature

- My own Experiences of teaching.

Here I will add to it as I progress by adding pictures, experiences, memories, literature I have come across tohelp finalise my question quicker as I will have a clearer root.

 

 

Looking into My Inquiry Question

My question:

'Enhancing practice as a dance teacher by combining pedagogy and creativity, with my students from my theatre school within the studio.'

From looking at my title I need to make it more specific and shorter so people understand the question quicker with it being more to the point. I also need to change it as my ethics have slightly altered which may have an impact on certain words within the question.

Whilst looking into literature and doing a couple of literature reviews I feel that the understanding of my inquiry is becoming easier to visualise and the intentions and goals are becoming clearer. To help with shortening my question I am going to write down the intentions of my inquiry and the goals of what I would like to achieve to gain further vocabulary for the question.

Whilst reading books about pedagogy/ dance teaching and creativity I believe that my knowledge will become greater about previous work others have already done. With this I would like to compare, liken or disagree with this knowledge/opinion, to my own opinions and findings I have gathered over the past 6 months.

Literature Review - Teaching Dance in the 21st Century

Taken from:
Anu Sööta*, Ele Viskusb, The European Journal of Social & Behavioural Sciences (eISSN: 2301-2218), Teaching dance in the 21st century: A literature review, from University of Tartu, Estonia, pg 1.  

It is now widely accepted that transformation of dance content knowledge into knowledge for teaching and learning involves far more than dance technique and control, and that teachers need a wide range of teaching strategies to motivate and engage their students (Chappell, 2007; Shapiro, 1998; Smith-Autard, 2002; Sööt & Leijen, 2012).

Here it agrees with my understanding of needing a range of teaching strategies  to engage students within  the dance class. Within the 21st century dance classes have changed their approach to students as they are more accommodating to include students of all backgrounds.

References
Chappell, K. (2007). The dilemmas of teaching for creativity: Insights from expert specialist dance teachers. Thinking Skills and Creativity 2, 39–56.
Shapiro, S. B. (1998). Toward transformative teachers: Critical and feminist perspectives in dance education. In S.B. Shapiro (Ed.), Dance, power and difference (pp. 7–21). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Sööt, A & Leijen, Ä. (2012). Designing Support for Reflection Activities in Tertiary Dance Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 45, 448 - 456.  Here I believe

Literature Review - Pedagogy in Dance

I came across this video which links to my Inquiry question on how I would like to influence my  students in dance.

How to use Pedagogy in Dance

Uploaded on 22 Mar 2011

Education Director Yvonne H. Chow talking to her students during the BLADE Dance Technique® Class (Dance Theory and Dance Heuristics) lecture. She prefaced this starting with the heuristic process and learning styles of different people and then explained how to use the pedagogical approach in relation to dance classes taken outside of the conservatory:

 

 

I believe that the way in which people approach dance is completely individual and dependent on their knowledge before hand or lack of knowledge. This dictates the varied approach within the class by all students as they all see, understand and experience information, instruction, movement, choreography in different ways.

The part that strikes me the most is when Yvonne H, Chow talks about how no one is taught how to learn dance. This encouraged me to look further into my inquiry question of how to explain/put across dance in a variety of learning styles for students to find their preferred way of understanding and learning dance.

As a student I remembered struggling with rhythm and their were so many ways in which I have found help me later on in my career from trial and error. However if those tools are put in place at a young age there will be less confusion and more understanding dance students.

In some cases the idea of trying to cater for everyone is tough and you may not have the answers and tools for specific students, but by having a presence an informative approach and by asking questions at the appropriate time, something may shift in the students mind which may unlock a certain part of confusion to understand a small part of what they are trying to achieve.

 

I believe that as a dance teacher the pedagogy within dance is varied and can be hard to teach if other students have had previous training under a different pedagogy. Nevertheless, with the different learning styles and tools I hope to look further into, this could be understood, stripped back and changed in a shorter space of time.

 





Critical Reflection for Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Looking back on module one I gained  an interest in certain issues that arose from my journal and blogs and once I had addressed each question, I could see where my passion and interest remained,  Appendix A. I automatically found an interest when looking at theorists and the ways in which people learn whilst linking them to  my time as a student  Appendix B.

I wanted to base my research on ways to enhance my dance teaching and how to benefit my students. I had  accomplished a three year  physically intensive course in Musical Theatre where  I received  training from the best and I wanted to be able to pass this information on to my students and I have found that  by undertaking  my research it has given me an  understanding of how to incorporate my experience within my teaching in an exciting way to benefit my students.

I have experienced a variety of teaching styles and I would like my students to also experience the variety in order to help advance them as dancers. It would mean that by looking into different learning styles I could try to incorporate them within each dance class. I also wanted to cater for children with Dyspraxia and Cerebral Palsy by incorporating any students who are affected by these disabilities/learning difficulties into my research, which in turn would, enable inclusion within the classes I provide (Appendix C).

To be certain that I had selected the correct Award Title for myself I looked into each avenue that I would like to pursue. I have spoken to a Head Teacher of a school and also looked into the ISTD qualifications to ensure that my title is acceptable for each of the routes I plan to follow, see Appendix D.

Ethics for my Inquiry

When looking into Ethics I already had an insight as to what is needed (Appendix E) and I have also looked into the ethics of dance associations (Appendix F). When looking into the ways  ethics relates to my Inquiry (Appendix G) I  realised how important the confidentiality of children needed  to be even though I need to be able to incorporate my findings within my work, see Appendix H

I will also be incorporating two SEN children within my inquiry, and I will need to consider ethics for them. (See Appendix I)

Tools I will use during my Inquiry

To be confident in the tools I have chosen, I found the merits and limits of each and  based my decision on the specific tools I will gain the best information/feedback from, see Appendix J.

I then looked into the structure of my Interview and Questionnaires and carried out a pilot Interview (Appendix K) and pilot Questionnaire (AppendixL)  to fully understand what worked and what didn’t. I have yet to conduct my pilot observation but I have been fortunate enough to teach and observe students dancing for a long time.

Conclusion

Module two has been an eye opener and has enhanced my research  allowing me to gain further information. I will continue to gain more knowledge from a variety of literature which will give me more information of how to enhance my practice as a dance teacher by combining pedagogy and creativity to prepare for module three.

6c Award Title

When trying to make a decision on my Award Title I became very confused and stuck as I didn't know what I wanted my Professional Practice to be in as I needed to do more research as to what qualifications I needed for the career paths I would like to pursue in the future.

When deciding I had a lot to take into consideration;
- What qualifications I had already done at Bird College and what Degree I would like to compliment my hard work.
- My future plans for a theatre and dance school and the workshops I offer at the moment.
- What degree title would be the best if I wanted to do a PGCE or Schools Direct.

PGCE and Schools Direct
After a lot of confusion about my Award Title I approached a Head Teacher of a primary school who then rang up Warwickshire Council and checked with a variety of contacts within various positions of other schools or who work higher up in education.

I currently am yet to hear back from this Head Teacher and am interested in what has been said however I know that with any degree I am able to accomplish schools direct or a PGCE and offer my services regarding dance and musical theatre within a primary/secondary school.

Dance Associations
I know that to become a dance teacher I need to complete further qualifications within the different associations I hope to teach the syllabus from. I currently am in the process of sorting out each teaching qualification I hope to do in different associations.
RAD - Classical Ballet
ISTD - Tap
ISTD - Modern theatre




www.istd.org/

Here is a ISTD Qualifications May and near the bottom is the degree I am doing at MDX.

This degree is something that you would do after completing your DDE ISTD and if you went on to do your MA in Professional Practice you would become a 'Fellowship'.
















Narrowing the Award Title Down

BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance)
BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Musical Theatre)
BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance Teaching)


Here I have put down the three possibilities that I would like to base my degree title on as these three titles are close to me and what I have worked on for a long time, yet I cannot decide between them as they all have a reason and purpose as to why I would like them as a title.

(Dance) - I would like my award title to be 'dance' as I have worked consistently since the age of 6 years old completing many exams and investing a lot of time and effort into dance as a whole. I then feel that for three years at Bird I worked extremely hard within each dance class trying to better my knowledge, technique and performance within each style gaining a better understanding of each discipline. I feel that it would be a great title as I have invested three years into my qualification at Bird and to add this on for it to become a degree would be a good decision especially as my Inquiry is based within dance.

(Musical Theatre) - I would like my award title to be 'musical theatre' as I have put a lot of time into musical theatre since the age of 3 and invested in a lot of peoples time and effort to get me to where I am today. I also would like to use it as a title as this is the career I have dreamt of pursuing since a very young age and have already gained two smaller qualifications in 'Musical Theatre'.  I have just recently set up my own theatre school and look to continue with a theatre school which works on the three main disciplines of Musical Theatre and so to have a degree specialising in 'Musical Theatre' would be great to show to parents of any students that join my school. I primarily believe that the hard work, time, dedication and effort I have put into musical theatre, like dance, my award title should be 'musical theatre' as it is a way of changing my qualification, from Bird, (Level 6 Diploma) to a degree.

(Dance Teaching) - I would like my award title to be 'dance teaching' as I would like to continue to pursue this career in my future as I have currently set up my own theatre school which requires me teaching dance but I hope to expand this as I draw to a close with my career as a professional performer and want to teach dance and Musical Theatre as a career, this is why I think I would benefit with a degree in dance teaching. This award title also compliments my inquiry title very well.

Deciding on a Title

I finally came up with my Award Title which includes both dance and musical theatre as I realised that these two titles meant a lot to me and that I have worked hard for five years and continue to do so and I would enjoy having a degree in dance and musical theatre.

BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance and Musical Theatre)

My Rationale

After training for three years and graduating from Doreen Bird College, gaining a Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre, and prior to this gaining further qualifications within many dance styles and Musical Theatre I have decided on my Award Title being ‘Professional Dance and Musical Thetare’. Over the years I have acquired the knowledge and understanding within dance disciplines as well as Musical Theatre which has made me the professional I am today.

Since a young age I wanted to follow my dream to become a professional performer which I have worked towards tackling many obstacles along the way. At the moment I am very fortunate to continue auditioning whilst being lucky to work professionally, however I am yet to reach my dream of performing in the West End. Another passion of mine is to own my own dance/theatre school where I could pass on the knowledge that I have developed and watch my students flourish within the three main disciplines of Musical Theatre whilst being educated in a variety of dance styles. At the moment I have just recently opened my own theatre school where I offer workshops in Musical Theatre which offers fantastic opportunity’s.

Once I reach the end of my professional career I would like to expand my Theater school and open a dance school which will work alongside.  I am extremely passionate about teaching which is demonstrated through my line of inquiry.

The reason I chose this specific title was the reason that I have trained extremely hard within both areas where I have learnt a large amount of knowledge from a variety of people. It will also compliment my future plans when I expand my Theatre and Dance school where I will teach both areas of performing arts to a high standard.