Body image surrounding dancers

Hi bloggers,

Just thought I would share the link below as I think it is a really interesting article and argues both points well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/body-image-dance_n_5798654.html

I know I don't fit the 'mould' as a dancer, I'm 5ft 2" with hips because of this, I know I have missed out on job opportunities. Is this fair? Who knows! It is still and I think it will be an ongoing argument for near future as I believe, our shape is changing as a whole.

Take this for an example:
In the early 1900's, a lady who was curvy showed they were wealthy because they could afford alot of good food. Also being pale was attractive because wealthy people had umbrellas to keep the sun off them and their jobs properly wasn't outside laboring for a someone.
However, in today's society, wealthy means slim and tanned. You can afford the expensive healthy food and the gym and personal trainer. Tanned skin is also a sign of health and wealth.

The world is changing constantly without us realizing and as this article states ... "beauty and self expressions exists in many shape" which I couldn't agree with more.

Just some food for thought!

Happy Saturday night :)

Interview with Justin Bieber's dancers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mGMgioqlIg


I'm not sure why I enjoyed this video so much but I could feel myself smiling all the way through. It is a video of an interview with Justin Bieber's dancers but they are on tour together. The video just is filled with laughter and love and you can see just how tight they have become through that experience. This is one of the main reasons I love dance, you find yourself with a new family when rehearsing and performing a show and you realise after you have made friends for life.

The interview asks the positives and negatives about tour life. I think the postives are just as important as the negatives as this makes them who they are as a person and a performer. This is something I am going to take away and put into my interviews as I feel like a lot people focus too much on the negatives in life.

Module 3

So I'm currently sat at my desk at work realizing I haven't blogged since I started back on Module 3. I feel like I have been so worked up and worried about the work load and my focus has been on interviewing and literature equaling in blogging going out the window.

I moved out again over the summer meaning I have had to take on more hours at work and overtime in the evenings at teaching. This situation plus the fact I'm in doing module 3 where I feel like it is the most challenging module has meant I feel like my life is crazy busy. With this in mind, I have had to be extra organised and do this I have to create myself a schedule for myself each week, planning in when I can get my work done.

If I'm totally honest, I was dreading come back for the final term as I was disappointed with my work in module 2 and felt completely lost in what I was actually doing for my inquiry. After a call with Adesola - we stripped my inquiry idea right back to the most simple form, had a discussion about my practice and what I do and we went from there to come up with my new inquiry title 'What does dance mean to different types of people in the industry?' 

Feeling more confident after this I came up with my interview questions and got on with them now I am onto my literature review which again, in Jess Boswell style, I feel confused and lost. After an hours session with Paula on skype, again I felt like I was back onto the right path. The skype session made it clear to me that I was mixing up my literature review and my analysis of findings. 

I ordered a book last week which arrived last night which I'm excited to read! Blog to follow about the literature I have found :) 

Happy blogging!

Task 6b

Hello bloggers :)

Before deciding what tool I needed to use, first I learnt the difference between quantitative and qualitative research: 

"Quantitative researchers collect facts and study relationship of one set of facts to another." (Bell, J and Waters 2005)

"Qualitative research not only uses non-numerical and unstructured data but also, typically, has research questions and methods which are general at the start, and become more focused as the study progresses" (Punch 2005)

Comparing these two quotations taught that qualitative research is the style I need to use. I am not looking for facts and figures, I want to find out about peoples views and opinions and how they feel about different topics. 

Interviews

I think that doing some interviews with dance therapists would be a good idea as I can leave my questions as open ended so it would be more like a discussion. I can find out the methods they use and find out their own personal opinions and views on Dance Movement Therapy. I can also talk about their side of the argument relating to the surrounding topic of whether or not it is just the music which helps the patient or whether the movement helps as well. I would also record the in interview if they allow me so I can concentrate on getting the correct information which I need rather than trying to scribble all the info down. I would then transcribe it later. I would try to get a face-to-face interview if they are local as you can watch body language too however if not, over the phone or skype will work just as well.

Observations

Watching a dance therapy session would be very useful as I could see the methods they use first hand and I could watch how they bond with the patient to become 'their friend' before starting therapy. However I think this would be extremely hard to get involved with because patients with depression, anxiety or eating disorders will have low self esteem/confidence and I feel like may presence may interrupt the therapy. I could ask in the interview if they have anyone who wouldn't mind and if they allow me, I think it would be extremely useful to watch.

Questionnaires

I think the main negative about questionnaires is that it is restricting for the Dance therapists. I would be asking open ended questions and it will be harder for them to write down in small blank box than discussing it with me. However the positives of a questionnaire are that my opinions don't influence their answers as everyone is asked exactly the same questions and have to answer in the same way so it would be very standardized. 

I do feel like interviews are the way for me to go at the moment because I can go follow up on their answers and ask more questions about the answer they have given me. 

A few ideas for my inquiry ...

Hello bloggers :)

So I have known for a while I have wanted to do my inquiry about dance therapy but I didn't know what specifically I wanted to write about. I have been doing some research on dance therapy in general in search to find some inspiration which will help to lead me to my final question in which I would answer in my inquiry.

I have come across two topics which I think may be interesting .. 

1.) I personally find history quite an interesting topic and I had a sudden thought while I was reading an article that I could talk about how therapy for mental health patients has evolved since the 1930's when they used Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) (basically sending electric shocks through the brain) to contemporary therapy like DMT (dance movement therapy). I can question many different things like:

Did ECT actually work?

What were the long term effects it had? Was this the reason why they have stopped doing?

Does DMT actually work?

What exactly is DMT?

2.) My second chain of thought is 'what are the effects of dance therapy in comparison to people how just have standard care/therapy.' I could look at different case studies for both and compare the results and see if DMT does actually have a positive effect on people with mental health. 

Please comment your opinions which you would think would make a better inquiry. Maybe I could combine the two questions? 

Thankyou :) 

Task 5c

Hello Bloggers :)

After reading Reader 5 several times, my mind still feels slightly boggled if I'm totally honest. Ethics is a much bigger topic than I ever realized covering from law to religion - two major roles which effect different peoples ethics.

Case study 2: Ethics in photography - I found this small section endearing leaving me questioning a few things. If you were in his shoes, what would you do? I find it very difficult to understand that someone could just walk away from the poor child struggling for their life but do you put your own life at risk (in this case, the photographer feared the contagious disease which was going around at the time)? But also, on top on that, he knows as a photographer his ethical role is to observe and not interfere - 2 major facts as to why he left her. As a dancer, not a photographer, I would of have to of helped this poor girl but I have to put this situation into something I can understand ... If I knew someone was dancing on an injury and I was concerned about their health and the show, I would probably talk to them first but still after that I was concerned, should I tell the choreographer? If I think it will effect the show (might not be able to go on stage ect) or should I keep out of it? The dance world is a very small and I wouldn't want to be standing on peoples toes and making a bad name for myself. I think ethical wise, I probably share my concerns to someone. So going back to the photographer, I think there are many different opinions and it's hard to please everyone. If he had saved that girl and he died from the disease, who knows what the press would of said. You can never win!

The quote above is targeting a different aspect of ethics. I feel like it talking more about passion and attitude. It's implying that if you don't work hard, if your not reliable, not trustworthy (low work ethics) then your not going to be successful which I fully agree with.  

Everyone has their own personal ethics as well - each individual has different ideas as to what is right and what is wrong - people can be very opinionated which I think has an effect in any situation like the photographers for example. Some people may think he did the right thing by walking away, other will think he did the wrong thing.


My next step is to start planning my own ethics release form using the guidelines in the Reader but I'm also still struggling to find the question I want to answer for my inquiry .. suggestions welcome! I want to write about dance therapy and how/why it helps people with mental illness.

Thankyou x  

Task 5b: Dance therapy code of Ethics and Professional Practice

Hellooooooo :)

http://www.admt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Code-of-Ethics-and-Professional-Practice-PDF.pdf

The link above will take you to a contract for ADMPUK which is a company which supplies DMT's in many different areas in the UK.

From my 'educated guesses' I think I managed to cover some of main points like 'Best interests for the clients' 'Data protection' 'Professional Relations' 'Confidentiality' and 'Use of Touch' however I didn't have a clue about how much detail it went into.


- "5.1 Referral and assessment 5.1.1 Dance movement psychotherapists offer treatment after a formal referral/self-referral and assessment procedure (including contract, consent and risk assessment) has been completed."
This is a good point which I completely missed out! I had a feeling the person would have to be referred first so it's good to know for definite.

-"4.12 Dance movement psychotherapists are guided to keep clinical records for eight years after the termination of therapy and stay aware of relevant current legislation and organizational policies."
8 YEARS?! WOW! hahaha .. I never really gave this point a thought but my initial assumption probably would be that you would have to keep in on record for 3-5years after, 5 years at a push. How wrong was I?! haha ... very surprising.

-"2.5.2 Dance movement psychotherapists have a duty to refer concerns of suspected abuse or risk of abuse to their supervisor, child protection/safeguarding officer or line manager within their organisation and, if necessary, to their local child protection organisation, Children’s Social Care or the police."
This also surprised me as I thought if a child tells you something like this but tells you confidentially, you can't tell anyone but you can urge the child to tell someone else who can help them. However, in this contract it uses the words 'concerns of suspected' so this makes me think that this means if I have noticed something like brusies/marks then I can tell someone that I am worried that something might be going on at home. However, later on in the contract in states "4.2 Dance movement psychotherapists are aware of and comply with national laws regarding confidentiality and data protection" ... this makes me think that my first point about the child telling me something might be written in the national law contract.


Overall, DMT have a lot to bare in mind when taking on a session as I have gathered today :) !