Task 6a: Informal Trial

One of the methods I will use for the research process of my inquiry will be a personal diary from my daily routine. My inquiry will be much based on my personal experience, when since last year I began to get in touch with other techniques and methods and more interested on contemporary dance. It have been also a moment which I am connecting all my experiences from studying and working in different countries, and be part of different processes of education and lines of choreography.

For this task, I decided to report here my observations from a special workshop which happened last Sunday:

Workshop

It was a Sunday workshop, and unique opportunity to work with a great professional with huge experience behind. Her formation includes diverse techniques such as, Release based Technique, Flying Low, Gaga technique, Contact and Improvisation, Soundpainting, Passing Through and others.

On the beginning of the class we moved constantly for 20 minutes, beginning with the lower members until reach the top of the body. During the process she didn’t speak much, just gave us some tips to increase our movements and expand our ideas of ways to get our bodies warm and approach new places. Some of those tips were of dynamics , others were images such as “getting air between our joints” , “fell like we are in a honey jar” and “each part of the body wants to move to one direction”.

Already on those twenty minutes, I could observe some experiences on my body. Because is a non-stop process, there is a moment where I felt tired or without any ideas on different ways to move. After this moment however, I felt that I just let it go and stopped rationalizing too much. At this moment, maybe because the mind fell freer and without self-judgement, non-conscious movements began to happen and continue to follow to other places not before reached. The body gets warm, I felt more concentrated and internalized.  It happened a wish to close my eyes and she mentioned about how important is to don’t close it: not just because a safety issue, but also because we need to be aware of us on that place that we were, to be able to be around by others without losing concentration, and to turn our eyes also a way to move our bodies. I found this last information very interesting: to make the eyes also part of the choreography. To be able to be concentrated in yourself and on what is around you as well.

After these twenty minutes, we began to walk around the room. She asked us to analyse how we were walking, how was the weight on our feet, hips, knees and up body. She then began to ask us to walk faster and make the curves faster. After she began to ask us to drop our weight on the curves, giving a feeling of “rebound” and from this just increased to turns, jumps, and slides. I really enjoy this method which began with a small, trivial action to a bigger and more complicated action. We did this game also very close to each other, trying to avoid the ones around you, as well as redirecting or conducting them to a movement.

The third part was more about Contact and Improvisation. One activity got my attention and made me reflect later about it: after one person has been manipulated/conducted/influenced by the others, she was asked to keep moving and improvise alone. The ones around her had to copy her movements. This generated an interesting dynamics, because at the same time that one shared her movements, the others received and gave their interpretation, stabilizing a cooperative work where all the ones involved would be influenced by each other.

We finished with a sequence choreographed by the teacher. All information shared during the class could be brought into the choreography and is interesting to notice how my body felt more “open” to the movements, and the sequence could be done lighter and more conscious. With all the exercises given, I believe my body had more information and bigger range of movements.

This workshop was an intense and very productive experience. New approaches were given and more possibilities for improvisation, composition and dance quality. Experiences which share creativity stimulus, contact, improvisation, self-conscious and routines on a whole connected package, I believe are very important. Not only because different methods are brought into one class, but also because it shows how is possible to connect all them.  

Task 5c and 5d: Reflection about Ethical Considerations on Professional Inquiry

                Professional ethics have been a constant discussed theme during our course. Each Module, Reader and Task the concept of ethics have been brought and how should be applied and reflected during our activities. For the research process and development of our inquiry, ethical issues are extremely important. Reading through Reader 5 made me re-think on important considerations I should take when developing my inquiry.

                The Figure 2 from Reader 5 which shows the arenas of professional practice and their connection, I believe should be a constant reminder that we should have during our career. The personal ethics is linked with the professional code, which can vary according to the place, and this one is linked with the employer expectation which can also vary. There is a moral and basic ethics we should always have, not just as a professional (and what it is a basic ethics is a very long discussion), however codes and expectations may vary according to the place of work which show the limits and considerations we should take once we sign a contract or have a duty with the chosen place. This situation can be also brought on the inquiry plan: in the case I do a research with a special group from an institution, or an interview or an activity I will have to take in consideration the codes from the place, employer and community.

                When applying ethical considerations on my professional inquiry, I believe certain responsibilities should take special considerations. This is due the fact that even if I am careful, by distraction I can miss one of these conducts: To ensure that the data collected is accurate, relevant and valid ; to ensure that the data is suitably stored and archived and that attention is paid to issues of confidentiality; to manage resources efficiently, such as finances, time and I intellectual property; and to provide feedback of the results of the research to the participants, or at least the intended use of the results, including any intention to publish. For my inquiry, I plan to make consent forms for the ones I interview and make sure that the ones involved are totally clear on what my inquiry is about and give a proper feedback. Also, I had ideas on watching classes, rehearsals and even planning “research/experience groups” and for these, special considerations will have to be taken for permission (to watch , to use the space, to maybe photograph/record), confidentiality, professional codes and employer expectations as I referred above.

                On the section “Power of researcher” from Reader 5, an important fact was brought and I believe is one more issue I will have to be careful about when planning my inquiry: How my status or opinion can influence on the attitude of my inquiry and maybe affect the accuracy of my findings. During the development of my project, I don’t believe my status as a researcher/dancer/student might affect my findings; however I will try to take different opinions and arguments and share different perspectives from the chosen discussion. As my inquiry will work on the section of artistic development (how creativity stimulus might support artistic development) different experiences from different professionals might be shared and I will try to take those in consideration.

                Ethical considerations will be constantly part of the research process for the development of our inquiries. As the Ethical forms are filled in and the discussions with my SIGS groups continue, more situations might come and have to be discussed. 

Task 5a

                On the last weeks I worked on a big festival in Rio called “Panorama” which has many activities and performances. As is being a very intense and new experience for me, I decided to take this place of work to analyse which ethical considerations might be applied.

                

                The Panorama Festival was first showed in 1992 and since 2007 it is organized by the Cultural Panorama Association and it’s recognized by many international institutions from performing arts. It has the goal of bringing different contemporary dance performances and projects from varied formats, to different areas from Rio de Janeiro.  Already with 22 years, the Festival has already brought many artists and dance companies (national and international) and has a fundamental spot on the cultural calendar of the city. During the Festival, many performances (with different formats) are presented in many places of the city, always with popular price tickets, as well as many activities.

                The Panorama Festival has different sections of work. I joined the Education Program of the Festival which brings activities that aim to approximate different audiences and institutions to the contemporary performance field and also, invest on bringing critical thinking to the audience as well to the professionals from this area. The Education Program invests on contacting schools, communities, ONGS and other organizations offering tickets and free transport to performances and do activities which aim to bring a critical reflection of the performance showed. There are also special activities and performances to the children’s’ audience and partnership with dance and arts universities. Some examples of the activities done by the Education Section of the Festival this year were:

-Workshops with choreographers/artists: activities for pre-selected artists from the performing arts segment.

-Workshops on schools: Activities with artists from the Festival on public schools.

-University Laboratory: A three day laboratory where eight university groups from bachelor, masters or postgraduate programs are invited to show their academic researches to specialized professionals and artists from the Festival

-Practices and Tools for Dance Education Seminar: A three day event where professionals expose and discuss their methods of teaching with the goal of achieving better quality on dance education on public schools and other institutions.

-Review Laboratory: Selected students choose performances which after watching will be discussed and they construct a review under orientation from university teachers. The reviews will be exposed on the Festival website later on. 

-Public talks with choreographers and artists involved on the Festival.

                 The Panorama Festival is a very inspirational event and it was an amazing experience to work with. I decided to take those activities from the Education Section of the Festival to reflect which ethical considerations might be applied on it. First of all, for the pre-selection for workshops and laboratories, the applicants filled in forms which contain personal information sections that will be presented to the Festival such as contact, age, address, curriculum etc. The applicant might need to sign a document which agrees with the terms and conditions from the Festival. It is also from the Festival sake to don’t publish what it is private.  For the Review and University Laboratories this responsibility also involves the rights from the works presented, for example for the reviews that are posted on the Festival’s website. It must have also special consideration about the Image Rights from those activities: the applicants might have to sign documents which allow pictures and recordings to be taken during the activities and that if they can be shared on the Festival Facebook Page for example. With the activities that involve schools, institutions and children those considerations need to be taken even more seriously as they are under age. The Festival also needs to be careful with the material given to the activities and also with the artists rights as their performances and activities might be photographed/recorded by the Festival or Institution where the activity is being done.

              

              Those are the issues that came on my mind without referencing to any document or discussion. For the next task I will interview the Education Program Coordinator and analyse the considerations that are taken by the Festival. 

Task 4d: Literature Research

              Reading, talking to my colleagues and observing my routine, I began to be able to formulate the main idea of my inquiry. What has been catching my attention is the exercise of stimulating creativity which has been bringing crucial changes on my points of view, training and perspectives as a dancer. My researches for literature and bibliography focused on the main idea I began to have for my inquiry: How creativity dance related practices can be crucial for dancers’ artistic and technical development. I am quite glad to have found so many interesting papers that can be related with my inquiry. During this first process of research, I focused on looking for materials which aimed on personality/individuality/singularity of dancers, improvisations methodologies, dance creation processes, body expression/therapies methods and their effects on dance training. It didn’t surprise me that I found great academic researches, books, and inquiries from ones who have a similar point of view as me. Here, I will show some and relate them with what I am planning to focus on my inquiry.

               The first one was an article from Andreas Fink and Silke Woschnjak from University of Graz, Institute of Psychology, Austria, compared modern/contemporary dancers, classical ballet dancers and jazz/musical dancers on levels of creativity, general mental ability and different facets of personality:

“(…) designed to investigate personality characterises of professional dancers of varying dance disciplines in order to learn more about the manifold facets of personality specifically involved in outstanding creative individuals.” (“Creativity and Personality in Professional Dancers”, published on “Personality and Individual Differences 51 (2011), 754-758)

Through tests of creativity, personality, motivation and environmental and social variables the authors concluded that modern/contemporary dancers have a considerably higher level of creative expression than classical ballet dancers. They mentioned that this is due the fact that modern dancers are often required to freely improvised, share their experiences and explore their creative potential instead of following well-structure and rigid choreographies and scripts. In other questionnaire, Ballet dancers scored higher levels of conscientiousness compared to modern/contemporary dancers and jazz/musical dancers which maybe can be a result from the training and routine given as well. This study reveals important conclusions and what I thought would be interesting to my inquiry, is to bring those studies as a key on how different activities are able to bring different types of qualities/personalities/manners, and how could the exercise of them help on turning an artist more creative and on this path, develop identity and artistic quality as a dancer.

               When researching about Improvisation methodologies, I found an article on Dance Magazine (August 2008, Volume 82) from Rachael Strauss called “Teaching Improvisation” and a book from Eric Franklin called “Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance”. Both of them brought great descriptions on how Improvisation is crucial in dance education:

“Improvisation is no longer just an outpost of experimental dance. Choreographers are asking dancers to develop/improvise to help generate movement. It’s also an essential tool to develop a command of one’s instrument. Forward-thinking instructors are incorporating improvisation into their lesson plans to foster creativity, intellectual independence and courage” (“Teaching Improvisation” Strauss, Rachel; Dance Magazine. Aug, 2008, Vol. 82, Issue 8, P.74-75)

“Improvisation will improve your dance technique. You will develop an infinite variety of options for dealing with a given moment in motion-time. In an interview I conducted with ZviGotheiner, a New York-based choreographer, he pointed out: “After doing ballet for so long, going into an improvisation class was refreshing. To initiate movement in a different way, experience texture in a different way, and to explore the psychology of the behaviour created by the image was extremely enriching.” While improvising you forget about dance technique, and yet your technique ultimately improves. You forget alignment rules and anatomical reference points, and yet your alignment improves. Improvising is an opportunity to clarify and accumulate a repertoire of sensations which then be transferred to the performance of specific shapes and movement sequences.” (“Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance, Franklin, Eric N. Published by Human Kinetics, 1996)

There are many methodologies of improvisation and what I found interesting was this deep research that happens on the dancers’ body and how this is beneficial for the artist to reach better and different qualities and discover it owns singularity. I particularly found improvisation extremely beneficial for me and I would like to show the importance of this methodology on the dance training.

Another piece of literature I found has a focus on the significance emotions and feelings have in a collaborative dance-making process. However as the research was done during a creation process, I analysed interesting points which I believe would be important for my inquiry. The article “Emotions and Feelings in a Collaborative Dance-Making Process” by Leena Rouhianinen and Soili Hämäläinen (Theater Academy Helsinki, Finland) published at International Journal of Education & the Arts was a study written by the observation of a specific case study from a second-year MA student in dance pedagogy at the Theatre Academy Helsinki who final work was an experiment with cross-artistic work that originated from the interests of the collaborative group members (Rouhiainen & Hämäläinen: Collaborative dance-making process; IJEA Vol.14, Number 6, Pag 3). I could relate some of the discussions brought by the study with the importance of stimulating creativity:

“Through conversations with our dance colleagues, we have learned that what motivates many dance artists to work collaboratively is the chance to produce something novel, the opportunity to explore new ways of working as well as the possibility of sharing the inherent uncertainty of the creative process with others (…). Creativity not only transforms objective materials into creative products, it also transforms the creator (Moran & John Steiner, 2004). Overtime, creative collaboration can become a vehicle for identity development. However successful collaboration is challenging and requires skill to be accomplished fruitfully.” (Rouhiainen & Hämäläinen: Collaborative dance-making process; IJEA Vol.14, Number 6, Pag 2)

“Creativity is understood to require psychological safety, freedom, high internal motivation, lack of external evaluation, surveillance, reward, competition and time pressure. That being said, creativity also requires a certain level of confrontation and group tensions (Parviainen 2006, Sauer 2005, p.80). (…) creative processes thrive on a sufficient level of difference within the group.” (Rouhiainen & Hämäläinen: Collaborative dance-making process; IJEA Vol.14, Number 6, Pag 6).

               I found important how the idea of creativity is brought so many times during this process of dance making and how the differences between the dancers (which I believe it is the singularity of each one) are also necessary during this process as well. Many choreographers nowadays work on a collaborative manner so the creation process requires creativity from the whole group as well as showing their own personality/identity.

Others pieces of literature were found on the past days, but I chose those three to expose primarily here.  Books from body expression methods as well the classes I have been taking and workshops with choreographers such as Anne Teresa Keersmaeker (Artistic Director from Rosas Dance Company) and David Mambouch (Dancer from Compagnie Maguy Marin) have been also part of my research process.