Alys Davies BAPP Blog

  I wrote a post at the start of Module 2 describing how confused and overwhelmed I felt. I was hoping that at the start of Module 3 I would feel a bit more in control, but that isn’t the case. I wasn’t particularly happy with my Module 2 results, so I thought maybe this module I could try a new approach. I’ve been re-reading all my submissions and going over my feedback and inquiry plan, desperately trying to feel more in control of everything.    The issue is, the very nature of data collection, and of a career in the professional dance industry, is that it’s unpredictable. There’s only so much you can control and hold on to. Even in class, as much as you try to be in complete control of your body, some movement needs relaxation and surrender to truly work. Not to mention the many ‘happy accidents’ through error and losing control that result in movement you never would have discovered otherwise.    This module I am going to try a different approach. I’ll stil...

                                               Photo: Brett Jordan via Unsplash.com In my previous blog I discussed the concept of acquiescence in interviews, and so I wanted to continue to research how the oppressive side of dance culture can manifest itself in other research methods, such as surveys.   I’ve been thinking a lot about the ethical aspect of surveys in relation to my inquiry topic. Given the taboo discussing money within the industry (and in British society in general) I was wondering whether more dancers may feel more comfortable completing a survey as opposed to  partaking in an interview. I still am keen to interview dancers since I feel this will give me a greater understanding of and provide context for any opinions and points of views expressed. However, I am slightly fearful that I will have difficulty finding dancers willing to talk to ...

  Photo: Vladislav Babienko via Unsplash.com During the methodology aspect of my research for my inquiry, I came across an idea within the article ‘Survey Research’ by Jon A. Krosnick that caught my attention, that of acquiescence. Within the article, Krosnick discusses how respondents answer surveys and interview questions within a variety of different scenarios and structures, and he touched upon the importance of acquiescence amongst respondents, gauging that people responding to surveys and interview questions feel an innate need to agree with the supposed stance of the interviewer/survey creator. This need is supposedly exacerbated when the interviewer/survey creator is perceived to be of higher social status, as illustrated below,     “When researchers and interviewers are perceived as being of higher social status, respondents may defer to them out of courtesy and respect, yielding a tendency to endorse assertions apparently made by the researchers and/or interview...

                                                  Photo: Riccardo Annandale via Unsplash.com During my research into my inquiry topic one idea has been cropping up time and time again, that of artists (and thus dancers), sharing numerous qualities with entrepreneurs. The main reason for this according to the literature seems to be that the high level of self-employment among artists naturally fosters an entrepreneurial attitude, since artists have to actively seek employment and they primarily gain this through self-promotion.    The definition of ‘entrepreneur’ according to Cambridge Dictionary is as follows:   “someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity”   (Anon., n.d.)   This definition feeds into the idea of dancers marketing their skills to potential employers, but also marketing them...

    Picture: Taylor Wright via unsplash.com ‘We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.  All art is quite useless’ – Oscar Wilde, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’     Whilst trying to refine my inquiry topic, and consequently trying to understand the dance world’s attitude towards money and personal finance, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the reason artists shy away from talking about money and why dance schools fail to educate dancers on it (at least in my experience), is because we feel our work is not important.    Back in Module 1, I wrote a blog discussing the skills dancers possess, how they are acquired within the dance world and their transferability to other fields of employment. This was partly in response to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s comments implying that the arts were an unviable profession and that artists should r...

                                    Photo: Micheile Henderson via unsplash.com As part of my diagram in Module 1, I identified ethical considerations within my practice. One such consideration that stuck out to me was the issue of personal finance. Within my diagram I referenced an article by Lyndsey Winship that discussed how Covid-19 had catastrophically affected freelance dancers.    It occurred to me that this article was one of the few instances in which I had seen any real discussion of the financial reality of being a professional freelance dancer, especially in times of crisis. It made me wonder why it has taken a global pandemic for the difficulties dancers face in this area to gain national attention. Within British society in general, discussing money is relatively taboo, and it seems to me that this trend is even more extreme within the dance sector. The combination of stiff c...