Saturday 31 March 2012

refining inquiry ideas

It's been so difficult to decide what I want to base my inquiry on. Has anybody else found that they have had so many ideas that have taken them off on so many different tangents?! Starting off with performing and management I began speaking to other people and developing my ideas. I realised that management is something that I would really like to consider toward the end of my dancing carer but it's not relevant to my work right now and there's a lot more that I need and want to learn about the performing side of the dance industry before I move forward down the management route. Getting stuck into the ethics part of the module I discovered how strongly I feel about things being done in the correct way. It made me think over many situations in my life, not just dance that may not have been ethically dealt with in the right way. The fact that so many rules are "unwritten" due to many aspects such as culture, religion and even personal opinions made me want to delve further and further into the subject of ethics alone. I considered inquiring into ethics and how well different companies adhere to their policies and how different their standards and expectations were from one another but this would have been such a broad subject and so controversial. As ethics is a lot to do with people's decisions would the inquiry have been a benefit to performers such as myself? I continued chatting to others and asking questions and I felt my survey helped to pin point other problems. A big (or small if your lucky) part of a dancers life is injury. At some point in your career as a dancer it is likely that you will sustain an injury of some kind. Even the most minor of injuries can cause a lot of frustration. This lead me to my inquiry idea of "Dancers working through injury". What support is available out there for dancers with injury? What can be done to prevent it? What can be done to help cope with it? I feel that ethics will play a great part in the inquiry. Different employers may expect different things. If dancers know what to expect, how to deal with their injury, how to help prevent future injury then I feel this will benefit them a great deal possibly even help to extend their performing life. I also thought that it would be good for me to see from a dancers point of view the support that is needed or expected? What doesn't happen? This will help me in the future on the management side of the industry. Hopefully my inquiry will help me find the best ways to keep my dancers in shape and help them through injury when I need to. Does anyone else feel that they will benefit from this inquiry? I'd like to hear from you

3 comments:

  1. Emily, I think this sounds like a really good inquiry. I think you have pin pointed an area that is specific enough to research within the limitations we have on the course.

    The outcome of the inquiry will definitely be benefitial to all professional dancers and like you said your interest in ethics can definitely come into play with this.

    I think you've hit the nail on the head :)

    Look forward to hearing more about it!

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  2. Hey Emily
    I have had more than my fair share of injuries throughout my career and would have definitely have benefitted from a step by step guide to avoiding, treating and living with injuries. Although most performers intellectually know what they should do with injuries, when you are actually dealing with one all of that seems to go out of the window. You have the pain and frustration on top of the worry; when/will it get better, what will i do for money if i can't work, if i am working will they understand or get rid of me pressurise me to push through it. Some times you are faced with genuinely uncaring management, other times they my seem unsympathetic but they are just trying to deal with the knock on affects your injury may have caused, among which are real feelings of concern for your problem but often overwhelmed by practicalities/rules and regulation/legislation and paperwork (no company wishes to be sued through making things worse).
    I'm more than happy to chat to you about my years performing and time at college dealing with numerous very challenging health issues, if it helps. Just give me a call any time (07967 729 903) or drop me a blog.

    I have finally finished my pilot survey i would really appreciate your thoughts on it.
    If you go to 'Pilot Survey' on my Blog and click on the link it will take you too the survey.

    Stay safe - Phil

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  3. Thanks guys! Just started rehearsals for a new show, getting a bit behind with keeping up on here just sorting out some internet and ill be back on track to fill out your survey Phil and read all the recent posts! Xxx

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