This task is about finding out how the ideas of reflection relate to me, slightly daunting task if you ask me. I'm aware that I use reflection in everyday life as well as my professional working life but now I need to discover themes within my journal, blog and reflective thoughts. Time to give it a good go!
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?
As a musical theater enthusiast I used to keep really up to date with new musicals that were coming out, youtube is amazing for looking up broadway and west end productions as well as documentaries on new shows that might be going to the leicester curve or chicester playhouse. However recently I have not had as much time to enjoy youtube. Since starting my new job I have been really rushed off my feet. I hate to think that my job is getting in the way of my passion as the majority of my job IS my passion! I have taken some time today to view my favourite youtube musical theater videos and will share them with you now,
http://youtu.be/SGnRwgtsjH4 : Addams family musical
Legally blonde the musical rehearsal http://youtu.be/hgINaGab5uM
Since starting this course I have been so interested in the different people that are mentioned in reader 2. I did a lot of research on Twyla Tharp and read a few interviews with her, she comes across as a bit bonkers but definitely a person I would love to meet. She has some brilliant advice that to anyone who isnt a dancer would think she was barmy, but I feel like I understand where shes coming from. She worked so hard with her company, performing for five years in various venues where they were getting little or no money.I then watched various sequences she has choreographed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/books/dance-a-day-in-the-life-of-twyla-tharp.html I really like this interview in the new york times, its like your spending the day with her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWnEGqf6eKc This is a piece called the Upper Room by Tywla Tharp. I really enjoy how the back four dancers choreography clashes with the front four dancers,the back group are jazzier and stronger whereas the front four perform a ballet-esque pas de deux thats beautiful, I just love that contrast. I also really enjoy how Tywla's choreography for the women matches the men in speed, strength and agility.
I really love to know peoples backgrounds and the way Twyla Tharp interviews is so engaging. I am like this in every day life, I'm very interested in people and very much like to listen to peoples issues, triumphs and trebulations. I think it is a trait I have inherited from my Dad, he's a people person and part of his job is listening to how people are getting on with their lives.
What gets you angry or sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?
Spending three years at dance college has given me a very thick skin, I used to get so upset if I wasn't in a piece at college or if I was given a correction in a blunt way. However now I brush alot of negativity off my shoulders as I feel its toxic and a waste of energy to dwell on the bad. I do get very upset if anyone treats my family badly or speaks ill of relatives. My mum is very much the same, shes a very busy lady and she does incredible amounts for my family, she never gets upset if shes struggling with things in her life but when any of her children are having a hard time she lets it get to her. I have sat with my mum when she's been in tears over my brother and tried to console her, she just loves us so much she wants us to be happy. My mum rarely breaks down, and when she sees me crying she always seems to know the right thing to say. It makes me wander if I'll be the same if I ever have kids, is everyones mum all knowing? I think about how lucky I am to have someone love me so much that they would do anything for me. My mums a teacher and sometimes her students can be so rude, it really does anger me, however I have come to realise that we all used to complain about our teachers from time to time and to me my mum is my mum but to her students she is their teacher, its a completely different relationship.
I also find that in the work place I get really angry when people do not pull their weight. Most recently we had a guy who was employed by the company to join our team. Initially he was very excited and talked about how hard he was going to work etc. However as the days went on he was turning up to work late, scruffy and then leaving early. He missed three, two hour rehearsals and didnt learn his words for the shows. It was a really hard situation to be in as I lived and worked with this guy. I honestly did not know how I was going to cope with him for nine months, especially when the rest of us are working as hard as we possibly can. I found writing in my journal so therapeutic, I listed ways in which he pushed my buttons and then listed ways in which I could avoid being around him. After four weeks he ended up getting the sack any way so I managed not to lose the plot!
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?
It really is difficult to describe what I love about performing. When I was younger it was the rush of being in front of an audience and essentially showing off. Now? Its just an indescribable feeling when your pushing your body to the limits and you've got the music pumping and the lights flashing in your eyes making you 10x hotter than you already are. Theres a solo in the 90's show that I am a part of and the build up before it is just amazing, then the music kicks in and I dont even have to think about what my body is doing it just does it. I love working with other talented people who share my passions and who also want to be the best they can be. The thing about being a dancer is that you can never be the best, theres always a bit more stretching you could do, or have more in sight into the piece you are performing, you're always learning and improving. I think that's what I love most about being a dancer is that I know I'll always have something to work on, and when you've achieved a new target it feels fantastic!
There was a girl in my year at college who I admire so much, she just had the best work ethic, I've always found her very inspiring. I have attached a video of Chester who was in my year group as well, he has just got the most fantastic physique and quality of movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDCTYTF416g
What do you feel you don't understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?
There are a million things that I do not understand about this industry. There are an incredible amount of fresh faced talented young dancers that have fantastic abilities and yet they are out of work. The most frustrating thing is when I go to watch a show in the west end and I see performers on stage who can't even shimmy! (This I discovered when I went to watch Viva Forever), it's shocking! I always knew I was heading into a cut throat business but I just don't understand how it could be so easy for some people and so hard for others. There were a few people in my year whose first audition they went to, they ended up getting the job, and yet there I was audition after audition, frustration after frustration with the same training, the same abilities and I could not land anything! It took me four months until I landed my first performing job and it really was the longest four months of my life! In that time I taught in gyms and at different dance schools, I was also earning money by doing promotional work, I was only just getting myself back into a rhythm. I had moved back home and found new social groups then all of a sudden when I think I might embark on a teaching career I get given a nine month contract! I'm not complaining at all but its the not knowing where you might be in the world in four months that gets to me! I am very much a planner and an organiser and not knowing if I'll get a job on a cruise or in London or even in India is something that I really struggle with. A friend of mine who has performed in various parts of the world never seems to be phased by what her next job will be, she is very much of the here and now way of thinking. Its amazing to talk to her because she always says 'everything happens for a reason' and whenever I give her a call I always feel much brighter about the industry. There are masses of successful performers but I have found that when you look at their backgrounds their not always the ones who got the best jobs straight out of college, Geri Halliwel said it took her 100 auditions before she landed the Spice Girls and Joanna Lumley said it took her ten years before she started to make a reasonable living. It is people like this who work and work and work and never give up that really inspire me to keep within this unsteady industry.
How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? why?
Nowadays you have to be so careful with how you respond in certain situations, colleagues are liable to sue, children can extend the truth and parents can be overly protective. In my own training it was amazing how the teachers were allowed to speak to us, especially in this day and age when other establishments have to be so careful. I had teachers who would slam their registers against the mirror to intimidate us, a particular ballet teacher of mine loved to come right up to your face and shout at you. It was humiliating, I look back now and think why on earth did I put up with that? No one should be allowed to speak to you like your a piece of dirt on their shoe, especially not someone in authority. I would never speak to any of my past students in such a way. When I was teaching there were certain delicate subjects that were hard to deal with, for example with one teenager I used to teach, he was obviously only just going through puberty but he didnt have any idea about cleanliness and some of the other students in the class would make fun and talk about him in a really inappropriate and unkind way. I spoke to the principle of the school about it and she spoke to the boys parent. Luckily the boys mum was really understanding but I hate to think what things would have been like if she had taken offence. The entertainment industry seems to attract very tactile people, I'm very close with the people I work with and we all hug and put our arms around each other which obviously isnt something that you would see in an office situation. My 'non dancer' friends find it strange that I can strip off infront of anyone, but I feel its so normal to do that as I am used to doing it in a mixed changing room. I don't know why it is more acceptable for entertainers to be so much more tactile and open with their bodies, I think it must be something to do with being comfortable with your body and always having to show it off on stage anyway. I find that people who have trained just in acting or just in singing dont seem to be as open as the dancers I have worked with. I think with dancers we are used to being touched (when being corrected, in pas de deux) and it just does not seem to phase us. Personally I have never met a dancer who isnt a tactile person.
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