Inquiry -Task 2d

Here are my answers to task 2D

• 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?
I am very enthusiastic about a patterns and unison in a group of dancers, my favourite part of a ballet performance is watching the corps de ballet, the synchronism and unity is very powerful to watch and when I dance in a group I get very excited when I feel the whole cast moving in unity. Gailene Stock (1946-2014) director of the royal ballet school was an inspiration through my 5 years at The Royal Ballet School. At the end of each school year all 8 year groups would dance 'Defile' on the Royal Opera House stage, Gailene Stock would critique every small detail from the head angle being exactly the same to the count we started running on stage from the wings, ensuring all the dancers were perfectly in time enforcing the 'corps de ballet' rules from the age of 12!

• What gets you angry or makes you sad?  Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger? 
I get angry and sad at being unsuccessful in auditions. In auditions for ballet companies I am very tall and judged on a factor I have no power to change, it feels like a handicap that I am ashamed of. Under the pressure of any genre of dance audition and short amount of time you are seen, I often feel I cannot show my strengths in this short frame of time. I consider myself as very similar dancer in terms of my strengths and weaknesses to my friend Amelia, she shared my feeling of anger in the audition process. She helped by explaining that she treats each audition as a learning process, practice for when the 'right job' presents itself, and helping me find ways to keep positive to pick myself up and carry on the next day.

• 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? 
Every day I dance my body feels slightly different, so each day I strive to find my perfect point of  balance, energy in my legs to jump the highest I can and emotional connection with the music to make steps into a performance. This describes what I love about what I do, I love the feeling that you can always achieve more; a perfectly on balance and turned out pirouette is great but then as a dancer I begin challenging myself 'if I can do 3 pirouettes now I aim for 4.' I admire every ballet teacher I have ever had, they guide us a aspiring professional to always push for more! Dance is never a finished product therefore the strive and passion never dies.

“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.
” 
― Merce Cunningham

• What do you feel you don’t understand?  Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you? 
I don't understand the lack of emotional and psychological support at vocational dance schools. As young individuals dedicating our lives to dance, I don't understand why the school would not have a 'guidance concealers' or more approachable house mums to talk too. Boarding school is a very intense environment, especially when there are assessment or school exams where you could be 'assessed out' of the school! I take this matter very personally as when I suffered a severe back injury I was only offered support by the physio medically, the dance teachers concentrated their time on the 'fully fit' students and I often sat crying at the front of class trying to write notes or correction from observing the class. I feel this process needed some guidance to help me stay positive and also a person to talk to about career options if my back injury did not heel. I know many dancers who feel the same, and some dancers who have developed depression because they have not been given any tools to deal with the harsh and competitive 'dance world'.

• 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?
Dance teachers have to use a 'hands on approach' with their students. Take posture and alignment corrections as an example, although spoken words and imagery are good tools to help a student correct their posture, sometimes it is not enough and being 'manipulated and moved' into the 'correct alignment' gives the student opportunity to 'feel' the change into the correct posture. As long as the use of touch is strictly used to improve or help a dancer find the position or sensation I think physical contact is a very useful tool. Dancing in Argentina for 'Tihany Spectacular' I have experienced how the 'appropriate ethical response' is different in other countries. I was asked to attend promotion for 'Tihany' in a hospital, the children in the hospital wards would run to us and give me many hugs and kisses! Usually the rule in every professional performance company are 'no sitting in costume, audience members are not allowed to touch the costume or accessories and no photos taken in costume.' By contrast in this promotion the company encouraged us to break all of the rules above and encouraged us to interact with the children as much as possible! I was handed babies to carry and have photos with which was a very special experience and felt like I was able to 'give back' to the paying public.