Just a short blog to say congratulations to all on your assessments this term, you should all have seen your grades published on Unihub now, and a big WELL DONE and look forward to seeing you at the graduation ceremony on Friday to our finalists!!
Whilst we wish you all the best on the next step of your journey, do remember you are still part of the MAPP community and welcome to continue to contribute through blogs and our monthly Skype calls, and we'd love to hear what you're up to!
Monday, 11 July 2016
Saturday, 7 May 2016
Submitting work...
A reminder of the submission date for all MAPP DTP written work - MONDAY MAY 9th.
All work must be submitted electronically via UniHub AND hard copy (in person or via the mail).
Submission via UniHub:
Login to MyUniHub
Go to MyLearning
Go to MA Professional Practice Dance Technique Pedagogy Programme page
Scroll down to the folder named MAY SUBMISSIONS
Upload your work (as one word document) to the Turnitin drop box for your module
Submission in Person:
Hendon Campus
Sheppard Library
UniHelp desks
Please retain your receipt as proof of submission
Submission via mail/post:
Please send to: (date of posting counts as date of submission)
Helen Kindred, Senior Lecturer in Dance
School of Media and Performing Arts
TG55 Town Hall Annex Dance Office
Middlesex University
The Burroughs
Hendon
London NW4 4BT
UK
For all submissions -
Please ensure your name, our names (Helen Kindred / Adesola Akinleye), the programme name (MA Professional Practice Dance Pedagogy) and the module code are clearly marked on your front/cover page.
Module codes:
Module One - WBS4510
Module Two - WBS4630
Module Three - WBS4760
We look forward to reading your work and seeing you (if possible) at the presentations next week!
All work must be submitted electronically via UniHub AND hard copy (in person or via the mail).
Submission via UniHub:
Login to MyUniHub
Go to MyLearning
Go to MA Professional Practice Dance Technique Pedagogy Programme page
Scroll down to the folder named MAY SUBMISSIONS
Upload your work (as one word document) to the Turnitin drop box for your module
Submission in Person:
Hendon Campus
Sheppard Library
UniHelp desks
Please retain your receipt as proof of submission
Submission via mail/post:
Please send to: (date of posting counts as date of submission)
Helen Kindred, Senior Lecturer in Dance
School of Media and Performing Arts
TG55 Town Hall Annex Dance Office
Middlesex University
The Burroughs
Hendon
London NW4 4BT
UK
For all submissions -
Please ensure your name, our names (Helen Kindred / Adesola Akinleye), the programme name (MA Professional Practice Dance Pedagogy) and the module code are clearly marked on your front/cover page.
Module codes:
Module One - WBS4510
Module Two - WBS4630
Module Three - WBS4760
We look forward to reading your work and seeing you (if possible) at the presentations next week!
Sunday, 1 May 2016
Plurality of meaning...
It was good to hear from Alanna and April in this morning's Skype call, both at different places (geographically and in the MA) finding connections through notions of teaching and learning, values, motivations and expectations. It is always something of a 'push' I think to be asked to articulate to others your research in order to begin sharing it, and this push was well met this morning.
Something that arose for me during the discussions was the idea of plurality. The idea that there are, and there should be, space for multiple methods, perspectives, meaning, not only in dance but in the world. There is a need to make this space more visible through research, to experience is one thing, but to be aware of it moves it. We talked a little about polarities, distinctions around what we are not, but the danger of then 'fixing' of limiting what we are as a result, about different perspectives as we reveal the many voices to our research. So in attempts to promote a move away from a culture of either / or and advocate instead for multiple alternatives, I am going to share here some research around the practices and philosophies of improvisation in dance.
Something that arose for me during the discussions was the idea of plurality. The idea that there are, and there should be, space for multiple methods, perspectives, meaning, not only in dance but in the world. There is a need to make this space more visible through research, to experience is one thing, but to be aware of it moves it. We talked a little about polarities, distinctions around what we are not, but the danger of then 'fixing' of limiting what we are as a result, about different perspectives as we reveal the many voices to our research. So in attempts to promote a move away from a culture of either / or and advocate instead for multiple alternatives, I am going to share here some research around the practices and philosophies of improvisation in dance.
"All binaries need now
investigating not for their deceptively reassuring ability to be collapsed into
stable - and static - units, but the very opposite: that all binaries are
'really' hidden - and dynamic - triads. Because any two terms necessarily
postulate the notion of 'relationship' as the necessary - third - factor which
simultaneously separates and joins any two related forces or factors ... The
crucial factor here is not how many ways two different units can relate to each
other, but recognition that this 'third element' is not a unit but an axis, not
an entity but a state of being, less a relationship than an act of
relating" (George, 1989: 71-85)
Writing on ambiguity in performance David George posits the need for an investigation of binary terms, a need to acknowledge and I would argue, to value the fluidity of the space between polarities. In the practice of Improvisation it is in this between space that things happen. The Gap as Nancy Stark-Smith refers to it, between the conscious and the unconscious, the place where you do not know where you are, where frames of reference (of normality, of practice, of visibility) are suspended - this is the place in research, investigation of any kind that you need to experience and to be aware through reflection that you are experiencing it. It is only through suspending what you know, that you can be open to acknowledging the value in what you do not know.
The nature of dance improvisation being that you are making choices in the moment of movements arising in relationship to your self, others and your environment necessitates for me a relinquishing of control, a letting go of fixed ideas around this or that and a move towards taking pleasure in the multiplicity of options available to you. The body as a site for investigation is infinite in its possibilities. The ability to play between inner and outer spaces (Bartenieff), offers in itself a site for exploring beyond the binaries of mind and body, body and environment. If we can accept that our self is not limited to a fixed notion of mind and body (as two entities) but take pleasure in negotiating, re-articulating our sense of self through an exploration of the relationships between the two we may move through our research with a similar acceptance of plurality.
One research question will usually grow to give voice to several other questions (I thought I was looking at one colour, but now I'm aware of the whole rainbow!). These questions in turn will be addressed through a number of methods as feels appropriate to your field of practice and the context of your research. The methods used will in turn gather data which is unlikely to offer a singular meaning. Whilst multiple voices to your research (yours, those of the literature, the participants to your research, the context of your practice) may present conflict and this tension may throw into question what you thought you knew, your sense of stability (we very much hope it does!) the acknowledgement of these pluralities is crucial to change and development.
April spoke this morning about her research making space for new learning, offering alternative experiences of dance for young children in the primary school where her research js based. I think it is the responsibility of the researcher to make visible the spaces for alternatives. If we move away from a need to be this or that, to align with this theory or that one, to see dance as entertainment or education, we are able to offer a voice to many possible meanings. Making space for alternatives is necessary if we are to give value to the plurality of meanings and reduce the privileging of one over another.
What spaces have been made visible through your research?
Thursday, 21 April 2016
MAPP Finalist Presentations...
We would like to invite you all to join us as our MA Finalists present their research this term.
The presentations will take place across May 12th and 13th, at our Hendon Campus in London.
If you cannot attend in person, but might be able to join us via Skype please do let us know and we will do our best to call you in to join on the day(s). Details below:
MA Professional Practice, Dance Technique Pedagogy
Finalist Presentations
May 12th & 13th 2016
College Dance Studio (CG60)
Middlesex University London
Thursday May 12th
Schedule of the day
0900 Space for finalists to prepare.
0930-1000 – coffee/tea/juice
served outside the studio
1000-1130 Presentations 1 -
1045-1125 Ainsley Sudds
1145- 1315 Presentations
2 -
1145-1225 April Brown
1230-1310 Louise
Warren
1315-1400
Lunch
1400-1440 Presentations 1 - One-to-one with assessors / Video
Booth
1400-1420 – Sinead
(skype)
1420-1440 – Ainsley
1445-1525 Presentations 2 – One-to-one with
assessors / Video Booth
1445-1505 – April
1505-1525 - Louise
Friday May 13th
Schedule of the day
1600 Space for finalists to prepare.
1600-1630 – coffee/tea/juice
served outside the studio
1630-1830 Presentations 3 –
1630-1710 Hayley Arthur
1710-1750 Sarah
Lockwood
1750-1830 Julie
Campbell
1830-1900 Light tea
1900-2000 Presentations 3 - One-to-one with assessors / Video
Booth
1900-1920 – Hayley
1920-1940 – Sarah
1940-2000 - Sinead
You will each give your oral presentation / present
your professional artefact. Each presentation is 30mins (max) in total (20mins
oral plus 10mins for artefact) with approx 5mins for questions, comments,
invited from the audience afterwards.
The one-to-one discussions that follow after all
presentations are with Adesola and Helen and are a chance for us to raise any
questions looking across your critical review, oral presentation and
professional artefact as your three modes of dissemination of your research and
for you to respond.
Video Booth:
As a
way of creating a legacy of your MAPP journeys we would like each of you to
come prepared to record a short (max 5mins) video in which you share a
bite-size chunk of your research; stating the title of your research project, outlining your methodologies,
identifying any emerging themes, and noting any change or impact the research
has had on your professional practice. This is basically the outline of your oral presentation
which you are all working on anyway.
We simply thought it would be great to have your research documented in
this way. We will record these in
the sound studio (directly above the Grove Dance Theatre where you will be
presenting) in the time slots after your presentations allocated for
questions/discussions with us. It
would also be nice if you would like to offer any tips or advice for future
MAPP students!
Please confirm attendance
via email to Adesola Akinleye a.akinleye@mdx.ac.uk / Helen Kindred h.kindred@mdx.ac.uk
If you are travelling by
car, please let me know ASAP as parking on campus is limited, I will do my best
to book spaces for those that need them.
Any queries about the space, technical facilities etc please do email h.kindred@mdx.ac.uk
Thursday, 31 March 2016
Summer Intensive...
Our Annual Dance and Writing Professional Practice Summer Intensive is now booking!!
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/dance-and-writing-professional-practice-summer-intensive
5 days of transitioning between moving and writing, communicating, connecting, sharing...
The summer intensive is open to any movement practitioners and we strongly advise all MAPP students to attend during their MA journey (it doesn't matter what stage of the MA you are at and as students you book through the concessionary rate!)
Through the intensive we will move together, starting each day with morning class alternating between GYROKINESIS and Bartenieff Fundamentals (Release) followed by looking at and discussing key texts, developing thoughts and ideas around literature reviews, making connections between our movement practice in the studio and our expression through academic writing.
Plus it's a great way to connect with each other in person, develop friendships moving, thinking, talking, writing together and spend a week in London with social events and performances on and off campus to enjoy!
At the end of the Summer Intensive programme we will move into our Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium 'Wright-ing the Somatic' - a coming together of artist/practitioner/researcher/academics through the sharing of papers, workshops and performances looking at how we articulate and capture our embodied experiences in dancing, in writing. 'Wright-ing the Somatic: Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium is open to all attending the summer intensive for just a small top-up fee to cover catering.
Booking for the symposium will be open shortly!
Reminder for now that we have our monthly Skype this weekend - SUNDAY APRIL 3RD,
1100 AND 1700 (London Time)
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/dance-and-writing-professional-practice-summer-intensive
5 days of transitioning between moving and writing, communicating, connecting, sharing...
The summer intensive is open to any movement practitioners and we strongly advise all MAPP students to attend during their MA journey (it doesn't matter what stage of the MA you are at and as students you book through the concessionary rate!)
Through the intensive we will move together, starting each day with morning class alternating between GYROKINESIS and Bartenieff Fundamentals (Release) followed by looking at and discussing key texts, developing thoughts and ideas around literature reviews, making connections between our movement practice in the studio and our expression through academic writing.
Plus it's a great way to connect with each other in person, develop friendships moving, thinking, talking, writing together and spend a week in London with social events and performances on and off campus to enjoy!
At the end of the Summer Intensive programme we will move into our Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium 'Wright-ing the Somatic' - a coming together of artist/practitioner/researcher/academics through the sharing of papers, workshops and performances looking at how we articulate and capture our embodied experiences in dancing, in writing. 'Wright-ing the Somatic: Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium is open to all attending the summer intensive for just a small top-up fee to cover catering.
Booking for the symposium will be open shortly!
Reminder for now that we have our monthly Skype this weekend - SUNDAY APRIL 3RD,
1100 AND 1700 (London Time)
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Tools for learning...
Good to check-in with those of you on the evening Skype at the weekend.
A thread I picked up through the conversations was the notion of having, needing, seeking, support in your learning and we talked about referencing across the modules of the MA in order to re-engage with specific tools like reflection, when needed.
Reflective practice is introduced in the first module and very much forms the basis of the analysis and writing you are engaging with there as you compile your portfolio of prior learning (annotated CV, Job Description, Area of Learning claims, Review of Learning essay). The tasks you get to grips with through the Introductory handbook (reader) in module one, are offered as tools for your learning beyond this module however. The notion and value of reflective practice is something that runs throughout the MA and we believe is important as we see ourselves as embodied, living, sensing, experiencing beings.
In Module two, you should feel as though you are perhaps more forward-facing as you identify and area of potential research and plan for how you might undertake this. Time for reflection (as a considered 'act') may not seem as pertinent here, but should still be flowing through your practice, notes made in journals, blog posts to share your experiences and thoughts as you process your engagement with extended literature, research methodologies, revealing your questions around your professional practice.
As you delve into those research questions on module three, and remain open to others that may come, you should find yourself looking back in order to move through your research. Coming back to and re-analysis theories, viewing your practice through the lens of your research, reading, considering, forming responses to others through blogs and linked-in discussions are all methods of you continuing to engage in reflective practice and should all feed your research, your journey.
With reference to Adesola's blog this week on distance, something that I was aware of through our conversations on the Skype call was a sense of immediacy that seemed to come with the action of 'reflection'. Making notes immediately after an event, or in-situ particularly through your observations is important, but consider perhaps that these notes have not experienced any space/time/distance yet from the event to which they relate and so 'reflection', I would suggest has not yet been possible. Try not to look at the MA, your research, your practice as a linear journey from a beginning to an end, but more of an interweaving thread of connections that go back and forth and around in their journey of knowing and understanding, with plenty of 'not-knowing' on the way.
Beginning to see reflective practice as something of a rhizome underpinning, flowing through the MA is perhaps more useful that addressing it as a specific 'thing' one module at a time.
What are your thoughts?
Helen
A thread I picked up through the conversations was the notion of having, needing, seeking, support in your learning and we talked about referencing across the modules of the MA in order to re-engage with specific tools like reflection, when needed.
Reflective practice is introduced in the first module and very much forms the basis of the analysis and writing you are engaging with there as you compile your portfolio of prior learning (annotated CV, Job Description, Area of Learning claims, Review of Learning essay). The tasks you get to grips with through the Introductory handbook (reader) in module one, are offered as tools for your learning beyond this module however. The notion and value of reflective practice is something that runs throughout the MA and we believe is important as we see ourselves as embodied, living, sensing, experiencing beings.
In Module two, you should feel as though you are perhaps more forward-facing as you identify and area of potential research and plan for how you might undertake this. Time for reflection (as a considered 'act') may not seem as pertinent here, but should still be flowing through your practice, notes made in journals, blog posts to share your experiences and thoughts as you process your engagement with extended literature, research methodologies, revealing your questions around your professional practice.
As you delve into those research questions on module three, and remain open to others that may come, you should find yourself looking back in order to move through your research. Coming back to and re-analysis theories, viewing your practice through the lens of your research, reading, considering, forming responses to others through blogs and linked-in discussions are all methods of you continuing to engage in reflective practice and should all feed your research, your journey.
With reference to Adesola's blog this week on distance, something that I was aware of through our conversations on the Skype call was a sense of immediacy that seemed to come with the action of 'reflection'. Making notes immediately after an event, or in-situ particularly through your observations is important, but consider perhaps that these notes have not experienced any space/time/distance yet from the event to which they relate and so 'reflection', I would suggest has not yet been possible. Try not to look at the MA, your research, your practice as a linear journey from a beginning to an end, but more of an interweaving thread of connections that go back and forth and around in their journey of knowing and understanding, with plenty of 'not-knowing' on the way.
Beginning to see reflective practice as something of a rhizome underpinning, flowing through the MA is perhaps more useful that addressing it as a specific 'thing' one module at a time.
What are your thoughts?
Helen
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Mdx Dance Lecture Series
IF YOU ARE ABLE TO GET TO OUR HENDON CAMPUS AT ALL, YOU ARE VERY WELCOME TO ATTEND THESE TALKS, THEY'RE ALL FREE AND OPEN TO THE DANCE COMMUNITY
presents
Professor Joanne Butterworth
University of Malta
HAMLET,
THE BALLET: EXAMINING A CHOREOGRAPHIC PROCESS
What are the considerations and conditions for
the creation of new narrative ballets in the classical genre? Northern Ballet,
based in Leeds, has a constitution which specifies that the company should
create, produce and perform such ballets. This paper investigates the creative
and rehearsal processes of one ballet, David Nixon’s Hamlet (2008). The work was set in 1940s occupied Paris, and
challenged the company to explore and create a tragedy, in ballet, where
believable characters play out their lives under extraordinary and fearful
conditions. How was a Shakespearian text transformed into dance? What influences were pertinent and how
were the interdisciplinary elements perceived?
Jo Butterworth is Professor of Dance
Studies at the University of Malta, where
she set up a new Dance department in 2010 and was founding Director of the
School of Performing Arts. Formerly Head of Dance at Bretton Hall
College/University of Leeds, she initiated the BA Hons Dance and MA in
Performance Studies programmes. Her research interests focus on dance making
and its applications; she co-edited
Contemporary Choreography: a critical reader with Liesbeth Wilschut in
2009, and published Dance Studies: the
Basics in 2012.
Tuesday 23rd
February
1pm
Grove Dance Theatre
All interested members of
staff, faculty and students are welcome.
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