After thinking over a few topics for my inquiry I couldn't find myself focusing on one particular question or idea, and it took my longer than I thought to settle on something. Not being able to attend the campus session I've been looking through other people's blogs to get information and help from what different people took from the campus session.
One thing that has always interested me in dancing is how versatile dancers and performers can be. Even if your "labelled" as a Dancer, or thats primilairy where most of your work comes from, there are many more factors to what makes you a great performer. Recently a work colleague and me, were discussing a dancer we have both previously worked with in the past and even though we both agreed she is not the best dancer technically, she will always draw your attention via her stage presence and her ability to express emotion when she's performing. My colleague mentioned her previous training was also in Acting too and perhaps this previous training brings an extra quality to her dance performance. This got me thinking, her ability as an actress, brings more to her dance and therefore makes her a better dancer overall. Maybe if we have a broader training and focus, it can enhance our professional practice. I emailed my colleague to ask her a few questions and if she felt her background in Acting helped her connect with her performance easier. She explained to me that where she trained they really pushed the importance of acting to enhance there dancers performance skills. This got me thinking again how different the approach to training can be all around the world.
Main question....
How different is the approach to training a professional dancer in various parts of the world?
Sub questions.....
What is the most important factor when training as a dancer?
What makes a dancer a great dancer?
What are the differences and similarities between training approaches across the world?
Who has the most successful approach to training?
How did we get to where we are today?
What does it take to keep ourselves physically fit for our profession?
What/who inspired you?
This is interesting, both internationally but also from school to school in one country. Sometimes the graduates from a school, that is not particularly advertised as teaching dance, for example, work a lot in dance. It would be interesting to see if the schools expectations of what their graduates would do and what they actually do differ.
ReplyDeleteYou might also be interested in looking at the techniques that particular performers you admire attribute to their performance style.
Are you a part of a SIG yet? Inquiry into what is a 'Dancers/ performers versatility' might be an interesting SIG to start, or add to the discussion of an existing SIG.
Adesola
Youve raised some really interesting questions here Melissa. I particually like the one about What are the differences and similarities between training approaches across the world?
ReplyDeleteThis is something i have touched on when discussing peoples SIGS and i find it really interesting. When speaking with a friend about it we were stuck on the topic of location of the school for a while and how that can really effect the training the dancer recieves in regards to teachers and professionals doing workshops and the opportunity they can get after training has ended. If you look at schools in this country for instance often schools based in london have a easier time getting into the buisness. This is partly to do with the fact that the schools are more well known and when they have their final year showcase more agents etc are likely to turn up as they will be london based. Do you have any thoughts on this?