A note on Drafts...

Drafts of work are in which is great! 

Drafts are intended to initiate a feedback dialogue (in person, skype, via email) with your supervisor, they are not usefully used to ask if things are 'right' or sent with an expectation of receiving corrections, by way of a pre-marking opportunity.

Please do receive feedback as an extended discussion of your work. 

Often feedback contains prompts for further reading, suggested texts/practitioners to look at, comments regarding the level of critical thinking/analysis in your writing over overly descriptive personal narrative approaches etc.. Feedback comments are not telling you to 'correct' something and re-submit, but more trying to help you to move your thinking and writing on as we see the process of your work developmentally.

With this in mind, when you have received feedback on a draft of work, please take time to read and consider comments made, come back to your supervisor asking to extend the conversation, arrange a skype is you have further thoughts and questions as a result of the feedback, but please try not to send a 2nd draft asking if the work is now correct.

At MA level we put our trust in you as professional people and see our role as supervisors as guding you, being a critical friend, promting, pushing your thoughts, challenging sometimes in order for you to develop further. We are not testing you getting things 'right' we are interested in your engagement and curiosity about your own work.

Making Connections...

In the 2nd of our discussion groups today we had some great conversations around notions of creativity, advocacy and leadership, social, economic and cultural implications of dance and dance training. Connections were made between themes of interest, across cultures and communities of practice, between theory and practice and through utilizing the comments thread on skype to share resources as we spoke. I heard a strong sense of community in the sharing of practices and noticed the different perspectives we all experience and how we are able to nurture a community of learning through revealing these connections.

Those that were a part of this disucssion please do add links to your blogs below in the comments!!



I thought I'd share as a reflection on the conversations on creativity in our teaching and learning some notes from my own early PhD research around the relationships between environments, creativity and rigor in dance improvisation...

Creativity is not a new concept and creative exploration is not necessarily about seeking or finding ‘newness’; it is about approaches to learning and living.  Creativity is about allowing, offering, inviting a clearing of mind/body/space through which to think/move/feel a little more freely, intuitively perhaps. Whilst not suggesting that creativity is exclusive only to dance and dancers, or indeed the arts, this is where my practice and understanding is formed.  For dancers to engage in a process of exploration (to be creative) is not uncommon, and yet the facilitation of environments conducive with, and the level of engagement and understanding from this engagement can vary considerably and should therefore not be taken as a given facet of dance. To be open to acknowledging and accepting alternatives through the challenging of existing assumptions is pivotal to my practice-as-research.  To be spontaneous whilst re-visiting, re-ordering, re-learning I believe is at the heart of creative exploration in the arts.

 An area I feel is problematic within dance improvisation as a practice of creative learning is its apparent lack of pedagogical structure and rigour, making it a little ambiguous as an educational experience when sitting alongside a curriculum of codified dance techniques with (through documentation at least) longer more hierarchic heritage.  There is an assumption following this line, that improvisation in dance is instinctively creative, as it is apparently without boundaries, open and free.  Context is critical here as we begin to unpeel the layers of the arts in society through to dance as an art, through to particular nuances within the dance experience.  In the context of mainstream Western society, the arts are generally perceived of as free, open, accepting, experimental and creative.  Dance as the most explicitly physical, sensory practice in the arts, attracts the same breadth of description in the context of the other arts.  Within dance, contemporary (modern, post modern) is generally regarded to be more 'creative' than classical ballet, and improvisation, with its perceived lack of form as 'the' creative dance.   

I wonder what your thoughts are around assumptions held with regard to technique, form, structure and pedagogical value in dance?

 

Ethics...

Those of you in Module Two you'll be starting to look at the ethical considerations of your research proposals and note that there are some ethical procedures for you to undertake as part of submitting your proposal at the end of this term.

We are using the MORE (Middlesex Online Research Ethics) programme - there is a link to this on your MAPP programme page. It would be good to take a look at this and begin to familiarise yourself with it. The Ethics application needs to be completed online for your Supervisor to review by November 23rd (this is when you will also send a draft of your inquiry proposal).

We will be running a skype session with you overviewing the whole Ethics process on SUNDAY NOV 4, 9PM (immediately after our group skype discussion group that evening) and a follow-up session to look at the MORE site and process in more detail on WEDNESDAY NOV 14, 8PM.

Please comment on Adesola's blog to 'sign-up' for these sessions...