Sunday 18 March 2018

Check-in...

As we move through March now just a reminder of the guidelines we've offered to help you organise your time-study for the MAPP programmes.

Module Ones - you should have now sent / be sending this week please your first Area of Learning essay for your RPL portfolio claim, along with a list outlining the titles of and draft plans for your other claims. Do contact your advisor if you have questions around any of this. Don't struggle along - a yell for help is fine!

Module Twos and Threes, we're expecting drafts of work from you later in April, after the spring break. Again, contact us if you've questions, you're wanting to talk through ideas... We're here to be your 'critical friend' through these modules and happy to hear your processes in order that we may move you on by asking questions and probing your thinking along the way.


Sunday 4 March 2018

2nd skype discussion March 4th...

Our 2nd discussion group today had many voices, mostly sharing themes around reflection, reading, revealing 'gaps' in the literature and how we might relate to the development of our professional practice.

We talked about the idea of adding the 'the field' of your practice, of your research and of ways in which to structure the literature in order to make meaningful what you read to what you know and what you don't know but are seeking through the literature.

There were examples from peoples specific teaching practice shared, research inquiry ideas and process shared and generally a feeling of working together, listening and sharing in order to learn. There was an acceptance of feeling lost (multiple times) along the MA journey and of hitting points of 'crisis' when different perspectives to those you held as 'true' are perhaps knocked by something you read and engage with now through your MAPP learning - GREAT!! Remember life, practice, research is not a linear path from A to B... enjoy the wiggles and bumps along the way, they let you know you are alive and learning!!

Those who were part of this discussion will continue these conversations through their blogs, do check them out and comment, so that the blogs reach their potential of being interactive conversations.

Davis Hobdy
Jo Roots
Brandon Sears
Kirsty Searle
Hannah Jackson
Julie Williamson
Garry Clarke
Katherine Bates
Jane Syder
Anthea Garratt
Michael Joseph
Elissavet Linkzerakou

Please comment with the link to your blog on this conversation below...


The body as evidence...

A good first discussion today with Agata, Davis, Raymond and Rebecca.

We talked across all three modules about common themes of the body, approaches to learning and teaching technique, about structure and freedom and about the importance of multiple perspectives.

Davis reported back as Student Rep to the group from the recent Student Voice Group meeting help at the university this week and updated all on the move of the MAPP programmes from the school of Work-based learning to the school of Arts and Creative Industries and the shift in focus this allows now from work-place to practice-based. About the positive changes to handbooks in terms of language and clarity and the administrative and resource support available in the university beyond your advisors. He will blog about this and, from today's conversatiosn, about the use of breath and breathing in teaching and learning in order for us not to become or remain static in our dancing, in our lives.http://kensdancer.blogspot.co.uk/

Agata will share more from this conversation with a focus on how we perceive our own body as central to how we approach 'the body' in dance training through multiple techniques.
http://krabumbel.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/dialogue.html 

Raymond will talk further about the notion of Intuition in our teaching - 'why do we do the things we do they way we do?' and about recognising the limitations of putting our teaching and our students 'in boxes'.
raymond-chai.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Rebecca will blog about seeing research as a framework for deepened/extended learning and starting to look within rather than outside us for inspiration and knowledge.
http://rebeccas-k.blogspot.co.uk/

This looking within, reminded me of a workshop I observed with Shobhana Jeyasingh and our BA choreography students at the university this week. She spoke in reference to her own work about seeing 'the body as evidence'. Looking at what stories it has to tell and how you tell them. How do you reveal the knowing of your body. How does that shape and structure your dancing?

Let me know your thoughts...

Friday 2 March 2018

Multiple narratives, multiple perspectives...

It has been interesting being involved in several discussions this week about how we see things, how are perceptions are shaped and how they can easily, and often unwittingly, slip into telling a story, offering a narrative as if it were a singular truth.

There are multiple ways of seeing things, interpreting a piece of choreography, reading an article, receiving some feedback and I think it is important as you enter your modules 

- reflecting on your own practice - Module One
- reviewing the voices of others in your field through the literature - Module Two
- constructing research questions and thinking about your approach to analysis - Module Three

to raise the issue of 'a single story'...



This TED talk has been shared and shared again...well worth listening/watching.

Love to hear your thoughts...