6B

Interview- I found the Interview actually to be the most effective of the 4 as it is the most personal and probing. The interviewee can often feel very liberated and will just be truthful, open and blunt with you as it’s a one on one conversation with no-one else to butt in, oppose them or be hurt by what they say. However it is not without its limitations, because the most effective way to interview is one on one, then it takes a lot of time and effort to gather enough data and opinions from multiple interviewees.

Survey- Strangely the survey is almost the opposite of what the Interview is but is pretty much just as effective. Its strength is that you can have many people gain access to it at one time with minimal effort, especially with the free internet site “surveymonkey.com”. It’s weakness is that it’s too simple sometimes and people can jump through it without really paying attention to what their saying, also with only limited choices to what people can choose as their answers then data can be incomplete or inaccurate. Another weakness it has is that often on survey sites you can have the option to see what other people have said and this encourages people to just go with the trend and not say what they really feel.

Focus Group- I found the focus group to be the least effective of the 4 tools. I conducted my pilot focus group with four dancers I am working with in my current production of Sleeping Beauty. I thought that it was good idea because they were people I knew and could be very easy going with. I told them what I was studying into and they discussed the topic and experiences they have had with teaching. The positive side to the focus group was that the participants could inspire new thoughts and points in each other making the discussion full and in depth without skirting around the issue, but I found that sometimes two of the participants seemed too afraid to say what they really felt or just backed down under the scrutiny of the other two so I didn’t always get a balanced argument for some of the issues raised.

Observation- The observation was a very useful tool but it had one massive flaw, because I was silently observing I couldn’t enquire as to why the teacher acted a certain way, I just had to assume with my own judgement; obviously there must have been times when I was wrong as I’m not a mind reader so I think the observation tool could lead to inaccurate assumptions in my inquiry. It’s major strength for my personal focus was that I could be on the other side for a change seeing what a rehearsal is like for the choreographer/ballet master/ artistic director etc.

6A Link to Pilot Survey

This is the link to my Pilot Survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C7CSLNL

I got some fantastic data from my survey all the people who took it had been taught by Ex-dancers, and all seemed to say the same things, the teachers were good because you could respect their experience, they could teach you more than just technique but the extra things that come with being a professional dancer as well and that they could sympathise with you and understand the way you want to work and where you want to get to.

6A Pilot Interview

Alex Frei is an international artist who has danced all over the world, and taught most recently at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. He is now in the German touring production of Cats as Alonzo and previous companies, to name just one, include Ballet Jazz in Montreal.

I decided to do this in a mildly short hand note form but then I edited my notes to be more understandable.

1.     What Qualities did you learn from being a professional that helped you to be an effective teacher?

-         First-hand experience of actually being on stage, includes dealing with body condition, injuries, accidents, mishaps on stage, slips etc etc.

-         Improvisation in a performance situation in case of choreography blank, or someone else’s mistakes

-         Dealing with Environment ( touring)

-         Support and sympathise

-         Supporting artistic growth and development

-         Support the responsibility that the performers have towards the artistic achievement

-         Teach them about company and theatre ethic and etiquette

 

 

2.     If you had to teach full time and leave dance behind forever what would be the thing/s you would miss the most?

-         Partnering

-         Because nature of our profession requires intense physical but Mental strength, the personal connection you feel with the company (family) is what supports you even though it’s difficult

-         You miss the personal experience. You then have to accept that it’s about the pupils

 

3.     What challenges face young dance teachers these days?

-         Bitter older colleagues

-         Respect and Authority

-         Learning how to assert authority, without having a dictatorship. Have an easy going relationship with the students but there should always be a feeling of respect that you are the teacher so they have a leader to follow

 

4.     Do you think that having a qualification in teaching/professional practice is more, less, or equally important to having practical experience as a dancer and as a teacher? Why?

-         Equally, because an RAD course, for example, teaches structure but having said that there’s some issues where no book or structure beats experience like how to deal with difficult colleagues!

 

5.     What do you think are the good points of British Training and the things that other areas of the world do better?

-         Good- syllabus, and structure, hands on experience with young students. Safe practice and wellbeing. Emphasis on being rounded artists

-         Overseas- They don’t molly coddle, less patronising. Too soft now and Children’s rights can get in the way of the bigger picture.

Alex’s answers stayed true to the trends that I picked up from other tools such as the survey, this suggested that my data is accurate and true to the feelings of the individuals that have taken part.

6A Observation

I decided to do my observation on a rehearsal of a professional dance school’s senior dance show. This is because the teacher taking it was a great role model for me, and I would like to eventually move into the territory in which choreographing numbers for dance shows is included.

 It was a great experience for me, like all of her classes and rehearsals; it was a master class in respect discipline, knowledge, control and skill.

The first thing I noticed was how the students all revered her as a teacher, I think this was due to her extensive professional experience as a First soloist of London Festival Ballet, now English National Ballet. The reason I think this is because the assistant teacher was someone without any professional experience at all, and she seemed to just chime in unnecessarily and the students, rudely, ignored all of her corrections and notes; admittedly to my amusement so did the main choreographer. Unfortunately for the assistant choreographer this must have been a tactic to overcome her inexperience by being forceful and dominant…it fell on deaf ears… I took note!

The next thing I noted was the discipline with which she worked, never straying in thought to another issue. The choreography just kept being put on the dancers and then going back to refresh and dance through right up until the last minute. I believe this is because she wanted to simulate a company environment, to educate the young dancers on the reality of a rehearsal.

The teacher displayed great control over the room instructing multiple groups of dancers at once, one’s she wanted to go to another studio and practice, one’s she wanted to sit and be quiet, one’s she was finished with and one’s she was choreographing on currently. I found this to be a fantastic skill in time saving and people management. Vital to keep people busy enough to keep them occupied, rested enough and to ultimately reach the goal of the rehearsal.

Her knowledge of styles and techniques of classical ballet was vast; she had ample knowledge of the genre to give artistic intention to the dancers typical to the movement type and corresponding technique whether it was Bournonville from Denmark or the English adopted Italian style Cecchetti.

I discovered that observations are great for the area I am inquiring into, Teaching and Education, as it happens in a very hands on practical way so what better way to learn about it (other than to be hands on personally) than to watch, unbiased, like a performance and take note of all the things that worked and things that didn’t (again much like a performance) both for the show and for the students.