The Inquiry Task - 2d

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

I have found this question relatively easy to answer as I am very enthusiastic about my current daily practice. Having danced professionally for many years I was not interested in teaching children when I stopped. I tried several office based jobs, ensuring that my knowledge was backed up with qualifications each time. I managed a travel agency branch for six years taking various management qualifications and then trained in accountancy  and ran an accounts department for eight years. However, it became clear to me once I had turned forty that I was not happy and longed to be in a physical profession. As I had also had my children by this time, I realised that I was now ready to teach them as this would enable me to utilise my lifelong passion of dance. I am enthused every day by the response and reaction of the children as I am teaching them and when you see something finally click into place it is enthusing and rewarding!

Having read some of the other BAPP blogs on this task, I found that anyone who was teaching seemed to have the same enthusiasm. Carla Mason is enthusiastic about her new dance school, and Anna Timms is enthusiastic about the results she sees from her children. Interestingly, Chelsie Johnson was coming from another angle as she is still training and is not yet teaching, but shows enthusiasm for her teachers and her boyfriend.

If I was to cite anyone as someone that I admired, I think it would be an old jazz teacher of mine from Arts Ed. Everyone that I know who trained at the same time as me, and quite possibly after us, talk about this particular lady. Her name is Jackie Bristow and she was the toughest most disciplined practitioner that I and the other students of the day,have ever experienced. However much we disliked her at the time, she made us all very strong and disciplined and the fact that we still talk about her shows her legacy! She has only recently retired.

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

There are two things that make me angry or sad. Firstly, It makes me sad when you are teaching a child with obvious ability, but they have nothing coming from inside to support that natural talent. I try repeatedly to get them to feel the passion that I have and to project that passion to improve and enhance their performance. I find it harder to teach this type of child than the other way round. There are always children who may not have the best ability but their enthusiasm is boundless. This can also, at times, make you sad as you can teach them the technical aspects and really try to hone their skills but not always with the best results. I admire any teacher who is able to find a way of working with children who challenge their teaching skills without feelings of sadness. But, there again, if this emotion is missing, would it mean that their teaching skill is weakened?

Things that make me angry are very similar to the frustrations experienced by Anna Timms. As I teach in a boarding school, there are always issues caused by the school to annoy me! For example, I have the use of a beautiful purpose built dance studio which is used for all sorts of storage, table tennis groups, lectures etc. which mean that often I have to move sports equipment, table tennis tables, exam desks etc. before I can start my lessons.

There is also the lack of commitment that makes me angry. Some children and their parents appreciate the level of commitment required to enable them to get the most from their lessons. However, there are always people who don't appreciate the amount of work that is needed to be successful in exams or in performances and I am often missing children due to netball/hockey matches, just going home instead of staying for dance and a variety of silly excuses. Then the parents wonder why the children did not get the best result for their exams. This makes my angry.
Again, I admire any practitioner who experiences anger or sadness at this lack of commitment and who has to deal with it and try to get the best performance at the end of the day.

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

This is easy I love the art of dance in all forms. I love the passion, the energy, the skill and the audience appreciation of the skill.
Dancers tend to emote through their work and although there are times when there is tiredness, anger, frustration, there are also times of great joy, laughter and happiness all as a result of expressing to music.
Although I may not be physically as able as I used to be, I still enjoy the feeling of moving to music, of using my body to express the music and I try to pass this on to my students. I love talking to them about different dancers/performers who have inspired me and frequently get them to look up performances on YouTube to try and make them understand what I am looking for.
There are many clips on YouTube of Mikhail Baryshnikov, whom I admire tremendously for his passion and his level of performance. Then you see this passion evident in people like the Lukas McFarlane, the winner of this years' "Got to Dance" and of course the older movie stars like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.
Obviously there are many successful practitioners of dance and everyone has their favourites and I feel it is important to educate the children to appreciate the performers of the past and the legacy that they have left in the dance world.

 What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

The things that I don't understand are the things that make me angry. I do not understand people without passion, I certainly do not understand how people cannot stick to commitments and how they do not understand how they let other people down as well as themselves.
It's difficult to say who I admire in this case as it I suspect that everyone would feel the same. So I guess I admire all teachers of the arts who will experience the same issues but have learned to accept them when they arise.
I am not entirely certain that I have a full understanding of reflective practice yet, but I admire the people who seem to have grasped it from  the content of their Blogs. For example Iona Holland who is also currently studying Module 1 seems to write with ease a understanding of the tasks.This is also clear to me in Georgie Birds Blogs, who is currently on Module 2.