Award Title Rationale

I wish to propose my award title: BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance Professionalism: Ethics and Development)

As my Blog is essentially a survival guide for being a professional dancer I thought this title may be fitting for what I have explored and learned.

My title was originally going to be: BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance Professionalism: Ethics and Personal Development). However as I have progressed in this course I have managed to learn views of different kinds of professionals, all with different methods of improvement and criticism in aid to growth, thus my re-think of title to just “Development” in general; aimed to show that my studies have taught me to embrace different methods of teaching and criticism.

The reason I took the course in the first place was not only to take the opportunity to gain another qualification in my field, but to reap the benefits of those qualifications in the future (primarily in the field of teaching or ballet mistress jobs). As we know a dancers’ career can be short and the future after dance is always on my mind, I always wanted to teach as I recognise the importance of the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next to ensure the survival and improvement of our art; and the more educated I am in people’s ways of working the more effective I can be as a teacher.

The other section of my title states “Ethics”, I wanted to include this to show my studies into company ethics; the dos and don’ts of company/work life which are also vital to be passed on so that young professionals can have a smooth start to their careers when fresh out of a college environment. This also ties in with my blog turning into a makeshift survival guide to being a professional dancer both in and out of the rehearsal studio!

My final point is a more selfish one; I want any employers who see this qualification to recognise that I, first and foremost, have a BA in “Professionalism”. I would like them to know that before seeing me in action I am a person who is well versed in company politics and would be an easy person to work with (nobody hires difficult artists, there’s too many of us out there to afford to be a diva!)