New year New Ambitions

This industry is hard and it's seemingly not getting any easier. BBC news tells today of how unemployment among young people has increased a considerable amount.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16587735

Jobs are few and far between in every industry. Consequently, there is not much money generating the likes of entertainment.

My outlook is, if there is no work; create it. Watch this space.

GRADUATION

Wow!! Cannot believe it's so soon. It's all a bit strange, as even though I very much felt a part of the institution; because the course was long distance I felt slightly ostracised from everyone. However, that said I am really looking forward to Thursdays events and seeing everyone!!!

Acting times....

showcase tomorrow, scary times. I have previously had a musical theatre showcase, i'm not sure if a straight acting one is easier or worse!!! I hope it all goes well and leads to bigger and better things for my career......only time we tell and a lot of proactive-ness!!! But two auditions on Tuesday so can't be bad!!

Proactive Acting

http://lawshowcase.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/lucy-florence-clark/

excited for the show coming up!!!
working on my script now, get to play a psycho, interesting how I've been cast as one!!!!

Twitter

I've finally joined the masses for this world of twitter. Luckily, my phone isn't the smartest so I won't be able to get too addicted. Whether I will find this craze inspiring, intriguing or downright depressing; we shall see.....


Follow me @ClarkFlorence

Never stop learning..

So on completion of the degree, it was nice to finally say I have finished being a student!!! So in celebration I signed up to a 12 week acting course, as you do.

I love learning, and I love acting. I am already working as an actress, but acting is something I find if I leave it a while the nerves and self-doubt start to build up.

I did an acting course before my professional training and it really inspired me and brought my love for drama back.

I have had my first week on the course and I love it!!! It went so quickly!! Can't wait for the next session!

To gain the most out the course I will be using the techniques acquired during the degree course, i.e reflecting on what I have learnt and using the knowledge to allow me to push further into what I want to gain from it.

Results!!

I hope everyone got the result they were hoping for!!

I know most of us worked ridiculously hard during the last module in particular.

Lot's of blood, sweat and tears were the making of our degree work.

So we should all be proud of what we have achieved.

Something to Share

amazingly beautiful

In the Business

So today I have been working on a new project. My professional practice covers many different aspects, but today was ony of my favourites; choreography. Today, I worked as the choreographer for a film.

It was great meeting the crew and cast and getting stuck into what I had prepared. After a quick warm up, we got into the routine. It is hard bringing work to a team when you haven't met them and don't know their abilities let alone what will look good on them choreographically, as I wasn't involved in the audition process.

It was great using my latest piece of equipment; my video recorder, which I used to record the choreography which I could then refer back to during the rehearsal. This meant if I had any major mind-blocks or forgot anything (which if you know me at all- I forget everything) I was quickly reminded. It was very useful. I also recorded them at the end, so I can make any adjustments tomorrow.

So the dancers were not the ability I expected, but more or less what I am used to teaching-wise with quite a mixture of ability. The part I found most challenging was being given the track to work to. In any other circumstance I can choose the music myself and I have particular types of music/dynamics that I am inspired by and am drawn to. I managed to finish it after two days, mainly working whilst sitting on a train, which meant when I came to try it out some parts didn't work as well, which I could then alter. However, when I teach choreography I am usually learning it myself too as I haven't really danced it myself yet.

It was a massive experience today, and I loved it!!! The production team loved my work which was encouraging. I did work the dancers hard, which hopefully they are used to being professionals.

It is also interesting working with adults rather than students as they have larger personalities and bigger characters, which can challenge and question ideas or concept, whereas students tend to just accept what they are given. They still got on with it though and eventually started to take shape. I was hoping to work at a faster pace than usual, but with the mixed ability and late comers it wasn't really possible. I did have some very hard workers, determined to pick it up and took their break (and mine) to go over sections. A long day, but a great experience. Tomorrow the filming begins.

February 2011

So the stress which has been, has definitely died down. It's crazy how quickly it can creep up on you, without even realising. The side effects have not been enjoyable.

So this week I have been a busy bee, filming the lead in a short film, which was shot in East London. It was great getting more camera experience. I absolutely loved it. In a month or so I should possibly be able to get some stills which I can post.

Now the degree work is behind me I can get working on my career and get to where I want to be. Above all though, I want to enjoy getting there. I've heard it said that the journey to the top is the best part, not the being there. So I want to carry on working hard and reflect on each achievement/challenge and not let life pass me by.

Career Career Career

Now my degree work is out of the way I am back on focusing on my career, which took a backseat for some of last year. I read in a free London paper in the week about how youngsters (i.e new graduates) are having to work in unpaid or volunteer jobs to get work remotely close to their chosen career. This is true for me. I have found this industry to be somewhat a viscious circle in the sense that no company will take you without experience, yet you can't get experience if no company will take you. So many are forced to grab any work they can, be it unpaid or what......!

The same is happening for every other industry it seems. My friend told me recently how she has given up her full time bar job to volunteer in a school (she's like to work with special needs) so she's given up money to do something closer to what makes her happy.

My view is if you never try, you'll never know. I don't want to regret never trying in my chosen career. I work hard, and hopefully good things come to those who work hard as well as wait!!

Changing Ways

It is really quite astonishing to see how much my research project has already influenced my professional practice. I have seemingly picked up these tried and tested ways to use teaching and choreography skills and applied them to my work.

I've noticed how I am now demonstrating what I want rather than constantly breaking it down. This helps the students and children to see what the choreography is supposed to look like. Also I am using filming to help improve my work, in terms of creating and remembering a dance as occasionally I have a lot to remember. Writing it down takes time, filming seems far more efficient. The senior girls have been filmed so they may watch themselves and see where they are not together in time. I have also appeared more confident with creating movements with the dancers if necessary, rather than beforehand. For example, I was teaching in another school today, the class got further than I had expected with a piece of jazz choreography for a show. So I used my initiative and continued the dance and noticed what looked good. Before, I was not very confident with this skill as I felt under pressure, but today we achieved quite a lot and the school Principal turned up and really loved the dance so far, so much that she would like to use it in a public show coming up! Good news!

Happy New Year!!

A (slightly late) Happy New Year to everyone. I think after that module, we all deserve a good 2011. :) xx

Critical reflection on Learning Throughout the BAPP Course

Since starting the BAPP course back in September 2009, I have learnt so many ways to progress, explore and reflect upon my own professional practice. The course has taught me skills, which will stay with me throughout my career.

I have been opened up to a whole new world of networking and blogging. I would never have even considered a blog if it wasn't for this course. Now I am considering starting new blogs for other areas of my life as well.

Delicious, Google Docs and Skype are further ways of networking recently brought to my attention which I didn't use before the course. Delicious has been great for bookmarking websites and viewing websites others have saved. Google Docs has allowed me to back up my work and share documents with my work colleagues. Skype has enabled me to keep in contact with friends and peers, when nowadays most of us don't have time to meet up frequently.

When reflecting on the tasks I have completed, they have taught me a lot about myself and my practice. We were asked back at the start, to look at our backgrounds, education and training and see where it has led us today. We created a CV for our blogs and looked at different writing styles. We looked at the Kolb cycle and learned how to apply it to previous experiences.

The skills I learned allowed me to achieve things I never thought I was capable of. For example I organised and helped create the website for one of the schools I teach for. This is the school in which I conducted my research for 3861. The website took several months to complete but is up and running today. I also ran my own Musical Theatre Easter and Summer schools and blogged the journey of these online. Running my own business was hard work, but the reflective skills I have gained allowed me to improve for the next time. I shall hopefully be running another one this Easter. Finally, I ran a field trip to London for my students, organising every detail, including meals, a class and a show. I also organised two extra speciality classes during the holidays, none of which I feel I could have done without the skills gained through this course. It has made me think more logically and academically when considering my practice.

On reflection of all the modules, this last module has by far been the hardest, yet definitely the most exciting. I was able to incorporate a huge amount of my practice into my work. When we were told last term we would have to write 12,000 it seemed like a distant dream and not a reality. I don't think I realised back then, how much work that would entail, especially considering all the set backs I endured since. It was also made much harder when working full time across nine jobs.

Reading published texts throughout the literature review made me aware how much information is out there. It really is finding the time to have a look which is the problem. There is so much out there to read. Some that I found to be very influencing, such as “paying attention to what one is doing” having sensory awareness, “and then reflecting on what one notices” (Stinston via Hanna, 1994:1). After certain classes, it would be helpful to see what worked and what didn't and be able to try new things. Working this way is guaranteed to improve one's practice.

Generally in life, I noticed I can be easily persuaded. This degree course has opened my eyes to questioning rather than accepting, though it has possibly got me into trouble already I wish to continue thinking this way. I have grown and become more open and assertive in my relationships, which I am sure can develop further. Looking back to how I was at college, I was often very closed. If I were to complete my diploma again, there would be certain things I would change and do differently. Having said that, I certainly have no regrets.

Lastly, I think when I started this course I didn't have a clue what it would involve or how much of an effect it would have over me and my career. It's a great course, but not easy. I hope it continues to affect my practice and life for the better, helping me to achieve where I want to go.

Main Project Findings

Through my exploration of approaches in teaching/learning dance choreography I found:

1. The "order a dance is taught" showed contradictory survey results on professional dancers. During the experiment, students struggled to remember each section.

2. Imagery and improvisation showed diverse responses from professionals, yet literature supported the idea of imagery to be beneficial. The more experienced students enjoyed the improvisation but felt practise was needed.

3. Counts were mostly rated "extremely important". Some students struggled without counts, whereas others didn't notice.

The main benefit was to incorporate improvisation into my teaching to develop the students into more rounded, intelligent dancers.

Continued Deliciousness...

I have been using Delicious for a couple of months now and have found it to useful in many ways. The ease of bookmarking websites encourages users to make the most of the tool. The drop down menu bar is also helpful and clear directing you to what you want use directly.

The best feature of Delicious in my opinion is searching through what others have tagged in websites, this is invaluable as it can bring more relevant websites straight away than if you were to use a search engine. On the other hand, if websites do include something you are looking for and it hasn't been tagged as so, important websites could be missed.

It was also made easy to add others to share my tags with, instead of acquiring everyones user names, they can share the bookmarks I've created and I can share relevant ones of theirs.

I have bookmarked several websites relevant to my professional practice which could be used to inform or inspire my work.

Survey Time!! Calling all Professional Dancers!

Hi all! I hate to admit it, but I am in a state of panic. I have had so much on recently with all nine of my jobs......it's all got a bit too much. Last minute, I couldn't attend the campus session and it frustrates me that I've no doubt fallen even further behind. So if anyone could enlighten me with information or things I may have missed, you will be much appreciated. So I've tried my hardest to get myself back on my degree-driven-track and would like to update my blog with some survey news.

My survey has been out and about collecting information and ideally I would like to collect 100 responses!! So........cutting to the chase, if you are a professional dancer or are in professional training please click on the link and complete my survey. It is eight questions long and shouldn't take more than five minutes if less. Hopefully it will give me the results I am looking for. It's been tried and tested so it should all go to plan but any comments would be appreciated also. Thanks in advance dancers!

It is all about choreography and concentrates on the opinions as a professional dancer on learning choreography. I would like your honest opinions on how you think you and others learn best, what elements within learning/teaching choreography are most important and who you've worked with in the industry who has choreographed successfully with you.

Click here to take survey

Project Part One: Survey Notes

Analysis of Survey Draft and Creation Notes/Reasoning For Official Project Survey

The first part of my project is a survey to be completed by professional dancers or those in professional training. These results will give me the basis in which to develop my experiment (the second part of my project involving student/amateur dancers). Below are notes used to form my final survey.

I have looked back at my first draft of my survey and analysed the results concentrating on the relevance of each question, thus creating my official survey for the project. (See figure A below for draft survey questions)

I have allowed the initial questions for some back ground and basic information from participants, for example gender and length of professional dance training.

The question asking which gender; male or female to useful to know for varying results, my project is only aimed at female students, so survey results may show that there is a difference or no contrast between opinions of gender

I queried the question asking “how many years of professional dance training” had the participant experienced, concerned as to whether it should it be how many years of dance training (professional or non) had they completed. The dancers completing the survey should all be professional dancers so is it relevant to know any of this. I concluded on asking how many years of professional training has they experienced, followed by how many years had they worked professionally. I decided on this version of the question because the survey is concentrating on the professional aspect of their dancing career so questions should focus on that.

I added in the question of how many years have they worked professionally as a dancer as the amount of experience can affect opinions on the best way to learn choreography.

The point of the survey is to find out how professional dancers believe they learn best so it would be of relevance to their opinions knowing how many years they've trained and how many years they've worked both professionally. Options include not having trained, yet they may have worked professionally, less than one year as they may have dropped out or got work during training, one to two years, a short professional course, 3 years the standard length of training, 4 to 6 they may have done a couple of consecutive course and 7+ they may have attended a dance school then continued on to college.

I scrapped the question about age as this doesn't tell me anything, dancers can train at different ages and talent is not based on age therefore the answers would not fit with their careers and tell me nothing about reflecting on their opinions to learn dance.

“What element of learning a piece of choreography accurately is most important?” I added in this question as this directly gives me answers to my main question from a professional dancer's opinion, which means if 100 dancers complete the survey I would have 100 different ideas in which to base my experiment or ideas to trial in my experiment.

I eliminated the question about famous choreographers as this holds no relevance as the dancers have not danced with them, however asking their favourite choreographer that they had worked with and how they taught their choreography was an interesting question and it showed different approaches to teaching that dancers enjoyed and got on well with professionally. This question also helps to bring an awareness to dancers' own learning.

The “style of dance question” is not relevant to my project, as I will be teaching street jazz either way. I have to stick to the usual outline of the class I will be imposing the experiment upon, therefore I need to stick to the usual street jazz style. The students come to the class out of choice not just another part of their training as some professional dancers do, which means finding out if a style makes a difference would be unnecessary as the experiment can't allow a change of style. However I did mention in my proposal about mixing styles into street jazz such as street ballet and street Bollywood..

The question asking about “liking the choreography or not”, 80% said yes that if they liked the choreography they would learn it better. This is an obvious question to ask and is irrelevant to the experiment. Also the “familiar steps” question is bound to be a yes answer from most, making it pointless to be included. During the experiment choreography will be kept similar to control the changes of variables.

Figure A First draft survey

1.What is your gender?
2.How old are you
3.How many years have you trained professionally as a dancer?
4.Who is your all-time favourite choreographer that you haven't worked with and why?
5.Who is your all-time favourite choreographer that you have worked with and how did they teach their choreography to you?
6.How easy do you find each aspect of choreography?
7.What style of dance/choreography do you most enjoy learning?
8.Does it make a difference to how well you a dance whether you like the choreography or not?
9.If movements are familiar does it make it easier to learn a routine?
10. Which ways do you find easiest to learn a dance well?

Skypemania

Ok so the invention that is Skype....

I have downloaded, installed and set up my Skype machine, it's all ready to go go go.......


My name is: florence.clark50 if any wants to have a chat!

I had this before, but it didn't work with the one person I set it up for, so here's hoping it'll work this time.

September 26th Permission Slips

So the letters have been handed out to my students. They have a deadline of 19th October to return the form giving three weeks to think about the decision to take part in the project or not. Several were confused about the importance of needing three weeks to state they would like to be apart of it as to them the project didn't seem a big deal. I advised them it would be best to take time to consider the elements involved, such as filming.

Hopefully, I will have enough students with permission to take part. This will be an enjoyable part of my project, doing what I love.