Award Title

I have been thinking about my award title, and whilst I haven’t got a definite question for my line of enquiry I have a good idea of the areas in which it will lie and what I want to achieve in the future with my degree.

The award title I would like to propose is:

BA Hons in Professional Practice (Dance Development and Education)

When contemplating my award title I wanted it to encompass everything that has led me to where I am now, but also to look to where I want to go in the future.

Dance

I was certain that I had to include the word dance. I have been dancing since a young age, and then went on to train at a professional level at The Northern Ballet School gaining my National Diploma in Professional Dance, which without I would not be doing the current BAPP course. Since then I have enjoyed a varied performance career as a professional dancer. Dance is the foundation of my professional practice.

Development

Developing dance within the areas I teach, be it in primary and secondary schools, community groups or stage schools. Developing dance with students that I teach to increase their knowledge and awareness in an environment suitable to their needs, wants and abilities.

My own personal development; I feel I have already learnt so much from my experiences of performing and teaching but there is always so much more that can be learnt! I think it’s important to keep developing as an artist, to be continually improving yourself and your practice; Taking on board new ideas, trying out different approaches, keeping things fresh.

Education

I wasn’t sure about this word at first as I felt it was almost too formal. I think this is because when i thought of the word education it automatically made me think of school education and whilst I do teach dance within schools it’s not the only area I work in. However after being prompted by a comment from Mark on Joannas blog I realised that education is by no means confined to a school setting but is relevant in any learning task that we do.

I am educating my students no matter what environment I teach them in, they are learning about dance but also other important life skills that go hand in hand with taking part in dance. Dance and education (i.e. learning through dance/ the benefits of dance within an education system) is also an area I would like to look into further in the future, as part of my inquiry and hopefully beyond.