Just an update from the middle of term on module 2.
I'm feeling a bit lonely being the only one working on module 2, I think I am? I'm coming across so many interesting ideas through my reading which is great but I'm also struggling to keep focused on what I'm trying to create for my research proposal. What stumbling blocks did people who have completed it find?
I'm aware that I'm not tackling tasks from the handbook in a consecutive order, I've been working on the things that I feel most able to tackle first in order to feel able to start other tasks. I'm trying to read a lot but am not getting much down in writing apart from lots of notes. I've know that reading of the literature of all kinds, needs to happen throughout the whole process of research; focusing, framing, planning, refocusing, data collection, analysis and report writing.
I keep coming back to, or coming across ideas about language and it's meaning and importance. The words we choose to represent are thoughts and beliefs, reveal and contain so much meaning, although sometimes I know I use words that aren't right but I can't find better ones! An example of this in relation to my research is the use of the word 'correction'. Do I want to use it in my teaching? Is it appropriate for dance students at university? It says right and wrong to me, "you must do it this way" and I'm not sure that's always the case in my classes. The students I teach might/should be able to find their own way, their own solution to a movement or skill, after all, no two bodies or individuals are the same. Perhaps there's not a one size fits all solution in technique classes.I certainly don't want students to dance like me, I want them to dance like themselves. What does this all mean for codified techniques such as Limon? Or perhaps it's simply the word itself, "correction" that I don't seem to like using (why do I feel a bit uncomfortable about it?) What does it mean if I replace it with "feedback" but teach in exactly the same way?
Some final thoughts on a different note. I'm not teaching dance at the moment, back to work in January, but I have been taking a few classes, mostly Pilates, but also a couple of Contemporary classes and I enjoyed dancing again so much! It's been 10 months. It felt like my body was waking up again, things felt so familiar (I was worried they wouldn't) the endorphins flowed, the knowledge was still there although I was a bit wobbly, and I REALLY enjoyed the class. It made me think about the importance of trying to find the pleasure in dance ( I was looking around at a few miserable looking students, admittedly it was 9am) that sounds obvious and I know enjoying a class depends on a multitude of different factors but I also remember the teachers at a professional gaga workshop I went to, talking again and again about pleasure, not worrying about what we look like, whether we're doing it right, it won't be right unless you can enjoy it!
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