Finalist Presentations in January...

Well done on getting work submitted for all modules. 

We are now in the marking period and then taking a break over the holidays, so please note that we will not in email or skype contact now until January. 

Your handbooks for your next modules will be live for you to download on Friday Dec 20th from our programme page on Unihub, these will include your updated schedule of activities, skype sessions, dates and deadlines etc for the term ahead - Jan 27 - May 1, 2020.

We would like to invite all those in Module one and two to attend the MAPP Finalist presentations which will be held on Jan 8th and 9th 2020 at our Hendon, London campus. 

If you are in the UK you are expected to make every effort to attend to support your peers and get a valuable insight into their areas of research inquiry, and a chance to see what you are moving into in your next terms of study! 


Presentations run as follows:

MA Professional Practice, Dance Technique Pedagogy

and

MA Professional Practice, Dance (specialisation)

Finalist Presentations

January 8^th and 9^th 2020

Middlesex University London

Jan 8^th 2020 - room PAG03

1.00 Nighat Chaodhry

1.30 Dilini Seneviratne

2.00 Tara-Jane Warburton

2.30 Marianella Rodriguez

Jan 9^th 2020 - room C218

11.00 Terri Adams  

11.30 Katya Coleiro

12.00 Agata Lawniczak

Those of you not in the UK, please comment below if you would like to skype in to the presentations and we will do our best to make this possible.

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF OUR FINALISTS PRESENTING IN JANUARY!!

Open discussion...

This evening's open discussion skype group was attended by people across all three modules and the discussions centred around a general theme of reflection. We talked about reflecting across the term and what key ideas or questions had surfaced across the module you've been in. Agata spoke about the beauty of the learning being not a thing you do within any module but about recognising learning as being in the process of whatever you are doing, as well as the in-between places between modules, between terms. 

The notion of connections became apparent as people reflected on their learning journeys and and looked to bridge gaps to the next module and with their professional practice. We spoke about being in relationship with your research, your study, your practice and being able to listen to it rather than tryng to make it 'fit' or answer your questions.

Those that were a part of this discussion please comment here with your blogs to share more from your perspectives.

What are your questions? What directions might they lead you in?

Module One focus Skype

Last night we had some good discussions around reflection, reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, using reflection as a tool for our continued professional development. As module one is centred around your engagement with reflective theories and the relationship these have with your practice conversations bought in the need to question your practice through reflection and to challenge your own learning. Jessica offered the idea that we are in coversation with ourself in this process. Stella and others spoke of the shifts they felt in their practice, and seeing learning as a process. 

The focus of the reflective essay in module one is very much on your learning through this module, the start of your MA journey. Allow yourself space now to reflect on this journey of the past 10 weeks...What are the questions that have been raised for you? What is your relationship with the theories you've engaged with? Where are you in your practice, in this MA journey?


Blog your thoughts and comments here and those that were part of the discussion please comment adding your blog address...

A note on drafts and RPL claims...

A note for some further clarity around the role and purpose of Drafts of work.

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, and please do consider that we are working our way through draft work from all students across the three MA programmes at this point in the term, 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, or continuous re-drafts up until the submission date.

At MA level we put our trust in you as professional people and see our role as supervisors as guiding 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.



RPL claims:
Those of you currently working on your AOL essays and developing your RPL claims for submission on Monday November 18th, please do make sure you complete the RPL claim sheet as a cover to your claim. 

The claim sheet is a really hlepful way for you to identify clearly to us and the Accreditation team at the university what you are making a claim for academic credit for, how you are seeing this claim in the context of your professional practice and within the context of a wider field of practice and scholarship. Please give some thought to your AOL titles, making sure that they are clearly identifying the Area of Learning that you are addressing in that essay, that they refer to the discipline of your practice (ie: 'The use of imagery', would be more effectively stated as 'The use of imagery in teaching classical ballet'). Please do ensure that your AOL titles are not longer than 60 characters in length, if they are this simply delays the process of them being accredited as they will come straight back to us for revision. The claim sheet does have examples to guide you in how and where relevant information should go, please do follow this and don't forget to include your professional practice statement at the top of the form where indicated in order to offer context to the whole RPL claim

The RPL claim sheet is in the Forms and Templates folder on your programme page UniHub.

Module Two: Research focus

Last night we had a skype discussion with a module two focus.
We unpacked 'a research inquiry', looking at terminology around research, qualitative research, methodology, literature review, research methods, data, analysis and ethics. We stripped back and talked about our research questions in order to really discuss relevance in the other terms and stages of the research. Rhoda flagged up the need to take into account the scope and range of the inquiry and to be realistic in what we might achieve within a 12 week time frame. We're not going to save the world but contribute to it through this research. 

Catherine, Fiona, Rhoda and Tanith will blog about the areas they found most useful from the discussion...

Theories and Frameworks in practice...

For me a framework of my practice is Bartenieff Fundamentals (a movement system developed by dancer, choreographer, physical therapist, Irmgard Bartenieff, somewhat a bodily focused extension of her tutor Rudolf Laban's work through Laban Movement Analysis).  Bartenieff Fundamentals offers me a way of structuring and a language through which to articulate my moving body through specific patterns (Bartenieff sees the body as connected through core-distal, head-tail, body-half and cross-lateral patterns in order to achieve total integration). The theories I am interested in are in relationship with this framework, theories of the body in movement. These theories look at space-time and our relationship to, with, in, as it. I am also interested in theories of improvisation developed by other practitioners, and what frameworks are used to speak of the moving body through these. Theories and frameworks can offer us ways through which to deepen our understanding of things. They can frame perspectives and allow us to question and challenge our own practice. I do not have to find theories that match my framework, I am more interested in learning more about my body as I read, and experience in practice, and see the theories as ways of opening new doors to more questions for me.


An image I like to think about learning and knowledge is from the kids movie Monsters Inc. where the opening of a door into an unknown place is like the opening of a book, the taking of a new class, the conversation with another practitioner , it can open the way to more doors, more questions, to alternative perspectives and deeper understanding. Bartenieff's work sees value in the opening of space in the body as opening greater possibilities for moving efficiently through the space of our environments. I use the imagery of tiny doors at the joints of the body with the idea that we try to open the doors to allow the breath to travel and flow freely through the whole connected body...

Theories and Frameworks Sunday Discussion group...

At this Sunday disucssion group we took the themes of Theories and Frameworks as a starting point for discussions. The conversations involved those from all three MAPP modules and moved between looking for relationships between theory and practice, how we begin to relate theories we are reading with the day to day of our professional practice, how we engage with theory through critical reflection, and what kinds of theoretical approaches to research people had found and are using. 

We then stripped back to really look at what the term Theory and the term Framework mean to us and how they might be seen in relation to one another. Nighat spoke about theories being thoughts and ideas that scaffold to form a framework and how frameworks are needed in research to bring theories into a structure to offer context. Stella has blogged about already, and spoke about the notion of 'fitting in' to frameworks, and more interestingly noticing what falls outside of the framework. Agata spoke of seeing theory as a lens to help you see your own framework, or using theory to help you to define your own framework. 

We spoke about 'things' always needing to be questioned in order to be developed and how this questioning, unpacked, scratching away the surface happens in different ways through all the modules. 

Those in this discussion please do add your blog post here in the comments so that we can engage further with the thoughts you gathered from the discussion and now share through your blogs...

Queering the Somatic: Interrupting the Narrative Symposium

We are excited to let you all know that BOOKING is NOW OPEN for our next somatic-inquiring symposium!!

Queering the Somatic: Interrupting the Narrative Symposium
Nov 1st - 2nd 2019 (Friday 1st, 1-5pm, Sat 2nd, 10am-6pm)
at Middlesex University London

We really would love as many of you as possible to join us for this and we have FREE places for Mdx students to attend.

Please comment if you intend to join us!

We are excited to have a key note presentation from Dr Thomas F. DeFrantz, Duke University and a number of International and UK-based artists and scholars ...we will post the full schedule soon.

Module Three focus on Research terms...

Last nght we had a discussion with a Module Three focus. 

We talked about the different approaches to, and stages of the research inquiry process and the need for being in the process of the research in order to be able to listen to it...not rush through to find answers or results.

We covered Qualitative Research approaches, agreeing that everyone in this discussion was using this approach to their inquiry and unpacking why, what it offers the research knowledge. We talked about data, data collection, and organisation, sharing systems of coding, colour-coding to help track and organise the information gathered.We spent some time unpacking analysis and tri-angulation in the process of discussing wht we do with the data. 

Those in this call, Agata, Tara, Katya, Nella, Nighat, do comment here with your blog post focusing on this discussion...

Open discussion Sundays...

Last night we had our first Sunday Discussion group of the term and it was great to hear discussions from many of you across the different modules and different MAPP programmes.

Disucssions centred around Learning and articulated our different experiences of others as learner when we teach, ourselves as learners, how we experience, through reflection the different strategies and processes we engage with. 

Some of the thoughts I took from the conversation were around the need for curiosity in learning, frameworks or structures which hold or shape learning enviornments and experiences, containers, discovery, freedom and balance. 

Others who were a part of the discussion please comment here with your blog address with your reflections on the discussion and what you feel you took from it, what was the discussion as a learning experience for you?

Re:generations conference

We are really excited to be able to offer a few funded places for MAPP students to be able to attend the Re:generations conference hosted by One Dance UK in partnership with Mdx in November. The funding covers three days of entry to the conference plus your accommodation. The conference is held at The Lowry, Salford, in the UK. 

Re:generations is a biennial academic and artistic conference which aims to share current practice and research in the field of dance of the African Diaspora (DAD); explore and stimulate further research, documentation and new approaches to education and training in the field; and encourage new perspectives on the future of African Peoples Dance (APD). The conference invites scholars, artists and dance practitioners from the Caribbean, Africa, the United States, Canada and the UK to share their research with other artists, practitioners, dance teachers, students and the general public.

The Re:generations Conference* is the UK’s ONLY international platform dedicated to connecting academic and artistic voices within African influenced dance styles; such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Afro Caribbean, traditional and contemporary African and Caribbean, Afro-Latin, and African American Dance.

This will be a great opportunity to be a part of a vibrant conference, network with other artist-scholar practitioners, and get inspired in your own professional development. The funding requires you to blog each day about the sessions, papers, workshops and performances you attend to share with the rest of the MAPP community.

To express your interest please comment here. We will then email you directly. We will announce which students have places on October 10th 2019. 

*Re:generations – dance and the digital space

7-9 November 2019
The Lowry, Salford

An international forum exploring how technology drives innovation in dance of the African Diaspora.

Hosted in partnership by One Dance UK, IRIE! dance theatre, Middlesex University, Dance Immersion and The Lowry, the theme for Re:generations 2019 is dance and the digital space. We will explore the ways digital technologies can be used for artistic innovation and creative practise, unite global communities through online platforms whilst increasing the visibility of diverse work to mainstream audiences.

Across the three days there will be panel discussions, lecture demonstrations, masterclasses, workshops, academic paper presentations, performances, networking events and more!

The conference will provide CPD for dance teachers, healthcare practitioners and other dance professionals, in addition to bespoke programming for producers, new media practitioners and executive artistic leaders. A key event will be the launch of the report for One Dance UK’s ‘Dance of the African Diaspora Mapping Research’; presenting the current state and needs of the DAD workforce with a scope for future growth and development.

Critical thinking - boxes, boundaries, resistance, fluidity

What is critical thinking for you in your practice, what does it feel like?

Week two of your study now and I wanted to share with you this TED talk from Professor Giovanni Corazza from the University of Bologna and ask you to respond with your thoughts around 'thinking', 'creativity', 'boundaries', 'fluidity' and in doing so to think about being part of a network - the network of your learning, the MAPP programme, your professional practice...

I look forward to hearing your thoughts... 

How might we exchange knowledge?

New term...

Welcome to those joining us and beginning their MAPP journey this term and Welcome back to all our returning students. 

We have Induction/Welcome back skype sessions scheduled for the following times next week:

Friday Sept 13th - 5pm  
OR
Saturday Sept 14th - 2pm

Please make sure you sign-up for one of the sessions by commenting on Adesola's blog:

http://adesolamapp.blogspot.com/

Those new to MAPP please send both us a skype contact request before the calls so that we can make sure you're able to be a part of them!

Helen's Skype - helen.kindred2
Adesola's Skype - aonthephone

Looking forward to talking with you all then and to the term ahead...

Helen

Submission of Work and Finalist Presentations...

As you all make the final push to prepare your work for assessment, a few notes and an open invitation for you all to attend (in person or via skype) our MA finalists presentations this term.


Submission of work:

May 3rd 2019 is the submission date for all work across all modules of the MAPP programmes. Work is to be submitted via Turnitin by 23:59 (please don't leave it until this time though in case of computer/system problems...please submit your work in good time. Any late submissions are classed as non-submissions and receive a fail grade. 

The Turnitin drop box is under your Module folder on your MAPP (DTP, DANCE or Somatic Studies) page on UniHub. Please check that you have found this and tried submitting work ahead of the deadline. You can re-submit work, each new submission simply replaces the previous one, up until the deadline date/time on May 3.

Please email a copy of your submitted work to us as Programme Leaders so that we have it as a back-up in case of any problems with turnitn. Please email to both a.akinleye@mdx.ac.uk and h.kindred@mdx.ac.uk again by the deadline. This is simply as a back-up, we cannot accept any late submissions via email in the same way that they will not be accepted via turnitin.


Finalists on the MAPP DTP and MAPP Dance programmes will present their research over two days in May also. Each student will share the journey of their research inquiry and their professional artefact with us as the culmination of their MAPP programme.  All MAPP students are invited and encouraged to attend these to support the MAPP community and to get an insight into others areas of research and practice. Details below: 

Please let us know via email if you intend to attend via skype so that we can call you in.
 

MA Professional Practice, Dance Technique Pedagogy 

and 

MA Professional Practice Dance

Finalist Presentations

Thursday May 9^th and Friday May 10^th 2019

 

Room C106 (College Building) please go to Main reception on arrival

Middlesex University London

Presentations will run from 13.00-16.00 (UK time)  

Each presentation (including sharing of the artefact) is 30mins in length with some time for questions/comments afterwards.

You do not have to attend for the whole session but please be mindful of timings if you are dipping in and out of the session.

Sunday Open Discussion... Communicating Ideas...

We had lots of voices on the Open Discussion Group call this evening. 
We talked about communication of our ideas both within our practice and within the MA. 
We talked about the need to recognise and acknowledge the 'bigger picture', looking beyond your immediate knowledge of something, moving beyond a personal narrative of experience in order to be selective, more critical in your communication.  

Some of my notes while people spoke included;

Process
Translation
Finding different ways
authenticity
asking questions
focusing
recognising challenges
making comparisons
listening to (becoming aware of) other perspectives

All of these words I feel have resonance with your journey on the MA. They came from listening to you speaking of communication in your practices. They are my interpretation of what was said. 

Do share through your blogs your interpretation of the conversations this evening. What did you take from them, what thinking was sparked maybe, or challenged, how might you relate this process to the process of communicating your ideas through your writing for your module assignments?

Remember that the MA itself is a process you are engaging with. It is not a fixed thing. Each module is developmental, connecting to the next module, to your practice to the wider field of practice around you. There is not an end point in your learning by the end of module three, it is still part of the process of your learning through practice which will continue beyond the MA. 


 

A note on Drafts...

As drafts of your work come in now; I am re-posting this blog post from last term for students on Module One who would not have seen it and as a reminder for those of you on Module Two and Three...


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.

Reflection and Ethics...

We had some great conversations around reflection and ethics this evening with people from Module one and two contributing to this discussion group.

We recognised how reflection offers a kind of making-sense of past experiences, attributing value and learning from in order to situate and continue on the journey of our professional practice. We noticed how ethics are central to our lives and practice, not something only addressed through research (just that ethics become neccesarily visible then perhaps) and we discussed both ethical considerations, how we are mindful of our actions, words, practice and the potential impact is has on those around us, and how these considerations cannot avoid the social, cultural and historical contexts from which they emerge, and ethical procedures, the ways in which we may go about informing and 'safe-guarding' others of our practice-research. The MORE process we use in Module Two is just this, the ethical procedures that the university requires you to undertake in order to approve your proposal for a research inquiry.

Rhoda bought a good point into the discussion, that of Self-Care, how we might develop a sense of our own ethics as central to who we are particularly when there is no other overtly recognised ethical practice or policy in place to support us, Rhoda will blog more on this. Tara shared some literature she's been reading around Social Research and talked about how she related this to conversations from a previous skype discussion, she will blog more on this in relation to reflection and ethics.. Christopher, Jovanka, Catherine, Nighat, Marianella will also blog their thoughts extending from this conversation. A great discussion with lots of valuable areas raised by you all...thank you.

I look forward to reading your blogs for more, do add your addresses to the comments here!

Respect...Trust and Flow...

I've been thinking a lot this past week about respect, about trust and about flow.
 I've  been thinking about how these words are meaningful in my life, through my practice, in all that I do. I'm not sure I can see these three things separately from one another, so I am going to explore a little of what I see as their relationship with each other.

Respect and trust for me, are earned through our encounters with others and through the flow was are a part of in our environment. When we meet others in contact improvisation for example (as I've been leading a lot of CI sessions this past week, I have been thinking through this practice particularly), we greet each encounter as a possibility. We offer and we respond, we give and receive information through a non-verbal dialogue with a shared understanding of their being respect for each others offering-gesture through movement. We trust in the environment we are in, co-creating it in the moment of our movement together. We trust in our own bodies, our relationship with gravity, with the earth and with each other. We do not know what is going to happen in an improvisation; that is the very beauty of it!! The word improvise from the Latin 'improvisre' means quite literally not being able to see ahead of time. We enter the space and in doing so we enter into the flow of possibilities; of change, encounter, interruption. We are in a continous flow of communication. Flow becomes an energy which supports us. It is not a thing as such, it is not related directly to time(space), but aware of the presence of flow within each of us and so within the environment we are able to be responsive to it, responsive to its energies, and responsive to change. With a respect for each person and our environment having something meaningful to offer, we can trust ourselves to enter the flow of the moment, to be open to the possibilities of the now. 

These processes are not exclusive at all to improvisation, to dance, but this is how I have been thinking about them this week. Respect, trust and flow are a part of who we are as people, communities, societies, the environment, how was approach and are a part of the world around us. It is important to to respect the encounters we have in life, through study maybe this is with other artist-scholars work through literature, or direct engagement through practice. We should respect that this is their lifetime's work, something they are passionate about, have invested time, energy, effort, life into to explore how it is meaningful and are generous enough to share that with you through their writing and/or through their practice. While we don't have to agree with everyone's ideas (in contact improvisation, we don't have to respond to every offering), we should be open to explore why we don't agree (why our response did not meet the offering of another). We do this through researching further, finding out more, considering our practice further in relationship to others, asking questions (verbally and through our practice) and trusting ourselves to be ok with being challenged by the possibility of something other than us, an idea outside of our immediate or current frame of reference. If we allow ourselves to be in the flow of our own lives, of our learning, to be in conversation with each other, with our environment, we are able to at least notice and acknowledge change as possibility and make choices in our responses in relation to that trust in ourselves.

This short TEDTalk by Itay Yatuv offers some thoughts around flow, trust, respect, challenges and learning to respond, through contact improvisation.   

What are your thought in relation to your own learning?

Theories and Frameworks...the evening discussion

Lots of great areas came up in this evening's Open Discussion group. 

I want to offer a brief summary here and some provocations for you all to consider further and share your thoughts through your blogs (please do add your blog post in the comments below here).

The theme of the discussion was Theories and Frameworks and we talked about some possible perceptions of what these are, how we can see them in our practice and through the modules of the MA. We looked at different examples for these and acknowledged that examples can come from both within and outside of our immediate frame of reference. See Adesola's blog from the earlier discussion on this today- 

http://adesolamapp.blogspot.com/


For me a framework of my practice is Bartenieff Fundamentals (a movement system developed by dancer, choreographer, physical therapist, Irmgard Bartenieff, somewhat a bodily focused extension of her tutor Rudolf Laban's work through Laban Movement Analysis).  Bartenieff Fundamentals offers me a way of structuring and a language through which to articulate my moving body through specific patterns (Bartenieff sees the body as connected through core-distal, head-tail, body-half and cross-lateral patterns in order to achieve total integration). The theories I am interested in are in relationship with this framework, theories of the body in movement. These theories look at space-time and our relationship to, with, in, as it. I am also interested in theories of improvisation developed by other practitioners, and what frameworks are used to speak of the moving body through these. Theories and frameworks can offer us ways through which to deepen our understanding of things. They can frame perspectives and allow us to question and challenge our own practice. I do not have to find theories that match my framework, I am more interested in learning more about my body as I read, and experience in practice, and see the theories as ways of opening new doors to more questions for me.


An image I like to think about learning and knowledge is from the kids movie Monsters Inc. where the opening of a door into an unknown place is like the opening of a book, the taking of a new class, the conversation with another practitioner , it can open the way to more doors, more questions, to alternative perspectives and deeper understanding. Bartenieff's work sees value in the opening of space in the body as opening greater possibilities for moving efficiently through the space of our environments. I use the imagery of tiny doors at the joints of the body with the idea that we try to open the doors to allow the breath to travel and flow freely through the whole connected body...

 



My provocations from this evening's discussion ;

- There is a need to challenge dominant discourses, how might we go about this as artist-scholars?

- What do you feel is the value of research (our own and the work of others)?

-  How might we look at the between-ness rather than focus on the binaries of things (male-female, theory-practice...)?

I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Sunday PM skype discussion...

So this evening we had some great discussions around initial thoughts on Knowing and Leanring which touched on, leanring from and using past experiences, knowing what / knowing how, seeing things from different perspective, the translation of ideas and communication and language. 

We talked a lot about expressing our ideas and thoughts to others in ways that we feel our intentions would be communicable and we got on to talking about language and expectations. 

Some things we left the conversation cosidering were around communciation is its broadest sense, that things aren't always fixed things, that learning is a process and new contexts bring with them new challenges, encounters, new learning demanding many responses.

There were a lot of us in the discussion... I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on your blogs as you continue these conversations...please post the link to your blog in the comments below so that we can all continue to connect and discuss...


I completely forgot to give time at the end of the call to talk about Agata being your Student Voice Leader this year. This means you can communicate with Agata anything about the MAPP programmes that you would like to be raised within the university as a whole. Agata will then represent the student body at our Programme Voice Group meetings. It's an opportunity to engage in dialogue around processes, practice, and to voice the student experience, so do contact Agata with your thoughts in the coming weeks.

Agata if you could add in the comments here how you can best be contacted for this please?

New term...new blogs

First week into the term and it's been great touching base with some of you, talking to new starters and hearing from returning students... A note as we set into this term to really engage with the MAPP community in order to feel connected in your learning, use the rich resources that are you!!

I took part in a workshop with dance artist/choreographer Rosemary Lee today...we shared in her process and stories of making two participatory works, Meltdown (from Square Dances) for Passage for Par, both beautiful examples of connecting, sharing, making journeys...


This made me think of the premise of the MAPP programmes...such a rich place for practitioners to come together to share, to learn, with others that are interested!!
  
Square Dances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXamnO0nE6A&t=44s


Passage for Par 
https://vimeo.com/276339048




One of the key connections of the programmes is the blogs...

Module Ones do get your blogs up and running now as a first 'task'  -a first post can simply be an introduction, you saying hi to others, introducing yourself, your practice, your thoughts, hopes, wonders coming into the programme... send your supervisor your blog address as soon as you can and we'll list these on our programme pages so that you can find each other, connect and comment easily..


Returning module twos and threes a chance to refresh your blogs, share your thoughts on progressing through the previous module, your feedback, things you're considering now as you move into the next module...let us know what you're thinking, pondering in your practice...

Do make sure you've checked in on Adesola's blog this week...some wonderful reflections on 'beginnings'... comment with your thoughts..

http://adesolamapp.blogspot.com/2019/01/beginnings.html 


Looking forward to lots of sharing...

Welcome Week...

Hi, welcome to new students and welcome back to returning students on the MAPP DTP, MAPP Dance and MAPP Somatic Studies programmes.

Our term starts next week on Monday Jan 28th.

This week is a settling in, getting started, getting back into study week.

New starters you will receive an email from your supervisor this week with further information on getting started, links to unihub programme pages, calendar of events and your study plan. Do make contact in repsonse to let us know you've received this and to ask any questions you may have in order to get you all set up and ready to go next Monday.

Returning students you will receive an email from your supervisor this week with your feedback from your last module/assessed work, calendar of events and your study plan to come back to and update ahead of our Jan 28th start date.  

Get your blogs up and running, re-fresh them this week too and note the dates of our skype sessions. Following your feedback we have a lot more skype sessions this term including some with a module specific focus.. Please make every effort to attend and contribute to the MAPP community!

Looking forward to a great term ahead!


Helen