Alys Davies BAPP Blog

During this entire research period I have been trying to analyse every aspect of my practice and where it comes from. However, there’s one aspect that I have always tried to ignore, partly out of embarrassment, partly out of fear of judgement, and partly because of a feeling that it was not relevant. But it is exceptionally relevant, because the management of it is imperative for me to practice efficiently and to the best of my ability. This ‘aspect’ is that I suffer from depression and anxiety and have done for several years.    It sounds almost paradoxical that I can be doing what I have always dreamed of doing (i.e. dancing professionally), yet I can still have depression and feel as if my life is without hope nor purpose. But that is because it is an illness that affects your brain chemistry, not a logical stream of thought following the positive and negative pathways of your life. Moreover, within the dance community, despite positive steps being taken in the last few yea...

On Wednesday 14 th  October I took part in a ‘Talking about Writing’ workshop with Peter Thomas. I was keen to attend this meeting since although writing comes relatively naturally to me, I wanted to find areas upon which I could improve and was curious to hear other people’s viewpoints. I noticed that in many areas discussed, there was a large correlation between the writing process and the choreographic process, alongside general dance practice.    We started the session with a freewriting activity. The aim of freewriting is somewhat self-explanatory. You aim to write for a certain amount of time (in our case it was five minutes), without stopping, re-reading, correcting or judging. I found this exercise rather daunting since I often struggle with self-judgement and I feel anxious when I can’t check what I have written as I feel I have the tendency to go off topic whilst writing freely. This self-criticism is mirrored in my professional dance practice, and it struck me ...

Yoga has been a key part of my practice since early last year, and an element that has always resonated with me is the idea of ‘apana’ versus ‘prana’. ‘Prana’ is the idea of pulling up from the ground, whereas ‘apana’ is the concept of releasing into the earth. From these ideas I thought about how they could correlate with the idea of using force and almost designing movement as opposed to letting it materialise organically. Perhaps a key example could be when learning a very intricate piece of choreography, or doing a style that we are unfamiliar with. I feel as if I have to force my body and mind to understand and translate the movement, since it feels so alien. On the contrary, if I am learning a piece of choreography that sits well with my movement style or I am partaking in a class in a genre in which I feel confident, less mental and physical force is required and I can trust my body to deliver.      As well as being useful in dance practice, I feel a knowledge of t...

During my reflection upon my practice a particular idea has often come to mind, that of skills that dancers possess. Some of these skills are taught in training, others learned through (often difficult) experience. I like to think of those taught in professional training as ‘formal’, and all the others as ‘informal’. I use this terminology because in my opinion, ‘formal’ skills are those that are painted from the outset as essential to success. ‘Informal’ skills are equally important, however these are never expressly mentioned, since they are often acquired from dealing with the dingier side of the dance world, that no school wants to advertise the existence of. Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ dance skills:    Formal        ·        Picking up choreography quickly ·        Technique (whichever style) ·        Self-presentation – i.e. stage m...

I am currently in an all-too familiar situation. A dancer on the training course of the company I work for recently tested positive for COVID-19. Hence, we have not been in the studio since last Saturday, and yesterday we all had to independently get tested (the cost of which was reimbursed by the company). Throughout this experience thus far, aside from experiencing fear and anxiety, I have been reflecting on the idea of individual versus collective responsibility, and how they intertwine. This idea was reinforced by my own reading, where Nicholas Ridout examines the philosophical ideas of Kant, ‘In particular, he replaced a philosophical emphasis on ‘being’ with a dedication to an ethics based on the existence of the ‘other’’.    If we take the unfortunate real-life example of COVID-19, the lines between individual and collective responsibility are somewhat blurred. Following the guidelines, i.e. wearing a mask where required, maintaining social distance, disinfecting your h...

'To understand a concept, to grasp the meaning of the words which express it, is always at least to learn what the rules are which govern the use of such words and so to grasp the role of the concept in language and social life’ – Alasdair MacIntyre     The Module 1 focussed BAPP discussion group on Monday 28th September was an extremely intriguing one.  I had planned to come to the session with a specific idea - to talk about the use of language in my practice. However, over the course of the discussion my thoughts changed, as did my discussion topic.     Another participant was keen to discuss the impact of Web 2.0, in particular social media, on the dance industry (especially during COVID-19), having recently watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ (Jeff Orlowski) on Netflix. The conversation was full of varied opinions from multiple perspectives, ranging from current performers, who felt social media was their only way of self-marketing given the current climate a...

On Wednesday 23 rd  September I took part in my first BAPP discussion group, led by Helen Kindred. Beforehand I felt very apprehensive as I was unsure of what to expect, alongside feeling slightly nervous about presenting a discussion topic for the first time. On the flipside, I was extremely keen to hear from people on other modules, since I felt it would help me understand not only my own module but also the following ones and consequently how the whole course fits together.    The meeting started by everyone introducing themselves and their topics that they wished to discuss. I was grateful for this, since it made me feel more at ease and also helped to humanise the other participants, who previously had just been names and pictures on a screen. It was comforting to see some fellow students from Module 1, and to hear that they, like myself were feeling somewhat perplexed and overwhelmed. In addition, I found it fascinating listening to other people’s topics, and was pl...