4d. Literature and Research

Over the last few weeks I have been to my local library and ordered some books I feel will be useful in exploring and developing my inquiry.  I have also been searching for articles online and on "Summon".

What points in Reader 4 about research will I use to develop my topic?

• "The professional Inquiry approach to practitioner research introduces a process of determining knowledge that is valuable to individual learners and their networks". (Reader 4)  Therefore, It is important I choose an Inquiry that will benefit me and others in my professional community.

• I will need to "investigate" and research "case studies" to help develop and explore what other professionals are doing in the practice.

• The use of academic literature will be valuable as it "is often peer - viewed by other experts in the field in order to ensure the research is genuine and that it follows the formal conventions of the discipline. - By including this research, my findings should be reliable and accurate in order to gain information to develop my Inquiry. 

• I found Penelope Hanstein's comparison of research to dance in her "Balancing the Systematic and the Serendipitous" very interesting and feel it is a very good comparison and one I can relate to. "In this sense, research shares much in common with dance making.  Just as choreography is far more than assembling steps, scholarly research is far more than collecting and assembling data.  Like dance making, research is a purposeful, creative, interpretive, and intuitive process that is often circuitous and improvisational.  The quintessential element of both choreography and research is discovery- we enter without knowing, in order to discover what we need to know to lead us to what there is to know.  The skills that we know so well as choreographers are also the skills that we use as researchers". (1999,23). - This quote stood out to me and really made clear the definition of research.  I will be using the skills I already know to help me discover new things which will hopefully lead me to find out what I want to know.

• I will be using primary research whilst exploring and developing my Inquiry.  Primary research includes; interviews, questionnaires, surveys and observations.  I feel this type of research is extremely important as you are gaining first hand information from peoples experiences.

• As well as using primary research I will also be using secondary data such as census statistics and reports, books and journals that may be a mixture of academic and professional analyses and critique, newspapers, television and radio programmes. Reader 4 states many reasons why secondary data analysis is useful and effective. For example; if the data you want to use already exists then it will save time, it could complement the primary data I have collected, 

• I will also be using experiential knowledge through extracts from my journal.  This will allow me to work with my experience at work as "evidence" rather than "conjecture" (Wong, 2010).  

• I will need to include concepts and theories in order to explain my practice, which I will find through research. 

• I will be using the SIG groups, to share ideas and knowledge with other B.A.P.P students to explore and develop ideas.  

• I need to include literature in order to understand my topic in more depth.  This will help me as I can read what other professionals and researchers have written about the topic I want to explore.  I can then use what they have written to back up my findings at a later point.

• It will be useful for me to annotate as I go, when reading through literature.  This means it will be easier to see the main points that stand out to me and what I want to refer back to.

Useful Literature to develop my Inquiry

I ordered the book "Advice for Dancers" by Linda H. Hamilton (1998) from the library.  Even though this book was published in 1998, I feel the topics discussed have not changed since then and will always be the same due to the demanding industry.  This book addresses the social, emotional and physical needs of a dancer.  Linda H. Hamilton is a clinical psychologist who previously danced with the New York Ballet.  The fact she used to be a dancer and has had first hand experience and knowledge of the dance industry was important to me, as I feel people will never fully understand what a dancer has to go through unless they have experienced it themselves.  In this book Linda H. Hamilton discusses many issues I'm sure all dancers can relate to.  For example; Body shape, appearance, eating disorders, what makes a dancer, dance training, competition between dancers, the audition package,performance anxiety, psychological pressures, injury and life after dance.   

I have been looking at the pressures of the dance industry and I feel this book really pin points the pyschological and physical effects those pressures can cause.  I have been looking at the effects that constant rejection has on a performer and I have found this topic crosses paths with a lot of the issues listed above.  

I feel this book will help me to discover more psychological and physical effects the dance industry has on a dancer in more depth and even inform me of some effective coping strategies.   

I have found a few articles online that will be useful in developing my inquiry. 

This article "Dealing with rejection" from "Life in the Theatre" by Tuirenn Hurstfield discusses many key points about rejection.  Tuirenn Hurstfield is a Freelance Theatre Director and Playwright and this article is interesting as it shows the audition and rejection process from a different view.  Instead of getting the opinion from an auditonee, this shows the opinion of a director.  He discusses the audition process, reasons why dancers get rejected, why rejection feels so bad and also how to cope with audition rejection.  I feel this will be helpful in realising "why" dancers can get rejected.

http://lifeinthetheatre.com/dealing-with-audition-rejection/

Another article I feel will be useful in order to understand my Inquiry topic further is "The truth about life as a background dancer" by Will Storr in "The Telegraph". I feel this is an interesting article as it discusses the life of dancers from someone looking in from the outside and explains the pressures even successful dancers feel from the industry, as well as what dancers have to sacrifice and go through in order to be successful.  This will once again, give me another view on the pressures dancers have to face and explains many reasons why dancers may feel disheartened when they are not successful. 
http://lifeinthetheatre.com/dealing-with-audition-rejection/  

I previously posted an article on my blog during Module 1, which I found very interesting. This article was called "Here's the real reason you didn't get called to audition" by Phil Willmot and it was published in "The Stage".  Phil Willmot is a Director, Artistic Director, Playwright, Composer, Dramaturg, Arts Journalist and occassional Actor.  He explains how he makes his initial cuts before the audition process even begins.  This article proves how cut throat the industry is and how you could be cut or not asked to an audition and it has nothing to do with your talent.  He explains how when he can't cut the CV's down any more he will just simply "cut every third one".  I feel this is a risk on the Directors behalf because he could be cutting someone perfect for the job, but he simply can't see them all.  

The last paragraph in the article stood out to me, as it explains the reasons why you may not have been successful but also that it can just simply be down to luck.  "You might not have got the job because you don't look right or haven't got appropriate experience.  You might have an agent who doesn't know the right people for that job, or just isn't very good.  But equally, it might be that luck wasn't on your side that day".
http://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2014/real-reason-not-called-audition/

Whilst looking online I came across an interesting article about the pressures of staying thin as a dancer and the effects it can have.  It turns out this has been written by my ballet teacher from dance college.  It is a useful article because she is looking at these psychological issues from a teachers point of view and eventually I would like to teach. Therefore, by recognising and being made aware of these issues I will hopefully be able to try and prevent them and help my students.  
http://www.istd.org/courses-and-training/resources/food-for-thought/

The article below is from the online magazine "Dance Fullout" and it explains different ways in which a dancer can cope with rejection.  This article could be useful to the more positive thinking auditionees but for the one's who have really been affected psychologically and physically by the effects of rejection I feel they would need more help in order to get back to the emotional level they need to be at to stay positive and give them the best chance of being successful at an audition.
http://dancefullout.com/2011/03/rejection-and-dance-audition/


What I am still wanting to research:

•  Statistics showing how many dancers are affected by psychological issues such as depression, eating disorders etc.

• Coping strategies for these issues.

• I have also ordered more books from the library to do with the psychology of dance and finding a balance between being successful and remaining healthy.