Lines of Inquiry - Part 3

With much contemplation and through the receipt of information from many of those who I feel would be contributing substantially, I have chosen to look at “Health and Safety in Amateur Dance Training: Help or Hindrance?” This is for the reason that I am more easily connected to those who I am likely to collate information from, and they are more reliable in responding to my questions.

Whilst those I contacted regarding the other subject, “Vocational Schools: Am I here to use the institution for the betterment of myself, or for the sake of the institution itself?”, were very explosive in what they wrote, however, they tended not to actually answer my questions; yes, this may be good in an explorative sense, it would be nice to actually be able to put some answers to the questions I had asked, and I feel that through direct answers I could further explore.

I also feel very strongly about the latter question and feel that I may somehow skew the information I am given, whereas I am purely inquisitive about the health and safety topic, and am intrigued what people think in this area. Whether teacher’s opinions differ from those of parents, and once again differ from those of students.

From here I plan to discuss further with my SIG in which other ways I can move forward with this, and plan to conduct f=some investigations to find out, in which way is best for me to collect and collate my information.

Lines of Inquiry - Part 2

Having got a small amount of feedback using a social media site, I have once again slimmed down my lines of inquiry and am now able to split them up in to smaller inquiries. These will be more focused on one point and may go deeper into the subject, rather than just being a brief overview:

 

Having asked both professional dancers, and dance teachers: the two realms in which I am currently working, there was a massive response to two of the lines in particular.

The dancers having been through a vocational school and now in employment, very much sided to:

“Schools and Colleges: Am I here because I deserve to be, or to pay for another?”

They felt very strongly about this and had much to say about it, however, not quite following the title of the inquiry. So pulling that together, everybody was talking about statistics and got into quite a heated conversation (I cannot say debate as it was mostly one-sided). And I came up with a hypothetic ‘statement’ that many agreed with:

 

Let's say for the past ten years 1000 students have been through a British, vocational school (that having talked to many people often give the impression that at the end of their 3 year course, you are almost certainly going to get a job in this country). They all paid 30k a year fees (either through parents, sponsors or the taxpayer) and acted as a pawn in the institution for 5 years. The money and the work contributed greatly to the interests of the school, the school benefitted a lot from the paying, working student body. BUT out of the 1000 students who participated, maybe 100 are currently employed in a British company and maybe 200-300 are employed in a company. Maybe 200 more are employed in a profession where their specific education at the school has benefitted them. However, that leaves 40-50% of students who will have benefitted equally (or maybe more) by attending a school other than white lodge, and yet they paid the same amount of money and invested the same amount of time.

Is this 40-50% ‘waste figure’ necessary to be able to find the 100 students who will achieve the goals that the school advertises? Or is the school acting irresponsibly and taking advantage of good-natured, ambitious students?

 

I realise that this is only one part of it and is only hypothetical as it is compiled of made up figures, but it is not the figures that I am particularly looking at as the can actually be obtained, but the unrealistic outcome that many feel that the school had given them. For this reason I decided to change the title of this line of inquiry to:

“Vocational Schools: Am I here to use the institution for the betterment of myself, or for the sake of the institution itself?”

 

 

On the other hand, those in the teaching profession sided very much with the:

“Health and Safety: Help or Hindrance?”

Many of them comparing nowadays to when they learnt to dance, and the lack of disciplinary measures allowed in to workplace. They also went onto talking about how it is detrimental to dance itself as there are times that you are unable to physically touch a child in order to correct them, or you cannot use methods that you may have done before if you had an unresponsive child, or cannot comfort a child if they are upset. Many of them state that there are times that they ignore the health and safety measures put in place as they believe that following such measures would be detrimental to the child! This is a line where I feel I would get more satisfaction from and would be able to look at from a fairer point of view, as I have not taught for very long, and feel like I am surrounded by enough teachers with clear views and enough experience to build up quite a presentation.

However, my previous title did not actually specify where the health and safety is a help or hindrance, so with that in mind, I am going to look solely at those in amateur training, therefore, my title becomes:

“Health and Safety in Amateur Dance Training: Help or Hindrance?”

 

I may in time, break these down a little further, but I think I shall, at current, decide which path I wish to go down.

Professional Ethics - Task 5a

This task is something that I read and seized up. I assumed that there would be so many things that I would miss as there are so many things to be put in place, and the amount needed these days to protect dancers, and especially children, with whom I work, I tried to list things down that I think we have in place (being honest, it is a while since I have seen the policies) and solely going on what I am to list, I cannot say that I have got everything in place.

Our policies are not displayed on the website, however it is stated that anybody is able to see them on request, so for this reason, I am waiting for these policies, as I am not the one that holds them.

As for ways of policies, I believe we have:

 

Safeguarding

Personal Relations

Drugs/Alcohol

Health – Including hydration and Nutrition

 

The others, I cannot be sure on. However, when looking at the other things in place.

Each employee should have a DBS check, and is on the company’s public liability insurance policy. Not everybody in the workplace is a first aider but there will usually be a first aider in the vicinity.

Anybody that holds any information belonging to any of the dancers taught should sign a confidentiality contract, as nobody can share people’s details publicly, following the Data Protection Act.

All dancers in the workplace have to supply emergency contact numbers and are asked for medical information, so that we are aware of any conditions that need monitoring, or that we can prevent anything, for example an allergic reaction.

Our year starts at Easter, and each year forms are sent out to each dancer (or parent if under 18), this include release forms for photographs and video footage to be taken and to be shared publicly. If a parent/dancer does not agree to this then each teacher is made aware of this. Also, we ask whether children are allowed to have physical contact, in the appropriate manner, for ways of correction.

As a teacher, we are warned about our use of social media, and how we present ourselves as faculty member. Although the company cannot actually alter what is displayed on my sectors of the social media sites, but we should be told if there is something that somebody has deemed inappropriate. In the same way, we should be told what is inappropriate in a classroom situation (sending children out of the room unsupervised, use of bad language, missing breaks) and we are to be pulled up on these if we have acted in an inappropriate manner, and I believe, could be removed from our post.

I have not been working where I do for very long, so I cannot say whether all of these things are actually pulled up on and followed through. I believe we could be made more aware of the policies we have in place and the protocols we are to follow, as I am not aware of fire procedures etc. I do not know whether others are aware of all of these either, but I will soon find out what is actually in place, and will let you know how my thoughts differ.

Starting Module 2

Back-dating to the afternoon I had spent on campus, arguing and debating random dance-based lines of inquiry – and those not so- I found myself reflecting on my own ideas given to the topics.

I had previously looked through the handbook, and immediately jumped towards the generic ‘dancers mind-set’; the one that includes eating disorders and the whole ‘perfectionist’ outlook on life, and thought that although it is something that generally interests me, would there actually be any real point of inquiry as it has been done so many times before!

Instead of this I found myself drawn to the rituals in dance – not the literal dance rituals performed in different tribes and cultures all over the planet – but the everyday things that a professional dancer may do; What warm up do they do before class? Do they have to have their hair or make up a certain way? Do they have any ‘good luck charms’? What do they do when side of stage, before a performance? These sort of questions. Still within the mind-set barrier, but a little off the beaten track. However, when at the session, different topics were brought up, clearly more ethical topics, such as: Dancer’s wages. The fact that dancers will work voluntarily: does this make for a more culturally diverse audience or does it decrease the quality of the dance? Vocational schools: whether all student rightfully gained their place or whether they were taken for how deep their pockets were, therefore decreasing the quality of future dancers, and hindering those who share a classroom with them as they are sometimes not to the same calibre.

The last one in these topics brought up more than people expected. Through our discussion it shows that it is not just one person that has this point of view, however, some are not comfortable talking about this, and some have had this opinion kept to themselves as at this time it really was quite a hot topic. So for this reason, I decided to look deeper into my questions, and wanted to find something that many people wanted to express their opinions on.

 

Looking at professional dance contracts, and simply from going on my own, and my friends’ experiences with gaining work, I decided to list some areas that come up when looking for work.

 

Gender

Ethnicity

Sexuality

Protection

Learning

Money

Body Image

 

Now, not all things come under these headings, but it was a place to start.

The areas under gender, ethnicity and sexuality, seemed pretty straight forward to me, and the generic topics of: ‘Is it easier to be a boy in the dance world?’ Or, ‘Is it harder to get a job in a ballet company as a black female?’ Or, ‘Are there a higher percentage of homosexuals in the dance sector than any other?’ seemed all but a little boring to me, and in a way seemed almost ‘tabloid’ areas, and did not evoke excitement, or many ideas stemming from each that really got my brain ticking. Somewhat in the same for body image: Whilst this section itself is enormous, it is not for me at this time as I feel I would put too many of my own opinions into my research.

However, looking at the other three sections I had listed, more things came to mind: Firstly, looking at the protection side of things. This brought a whole different facet to my thinking. Whilst I had looked at everything before with the professional dance community in mind, this brought me round to the other side of things, and to the children I teach, and in turn their protection. It also says the protection of dancers in the professional community, where the issue of wages also comes into perspective. And then to the choreographing of pieces and how can you stop plagiarism in dance, or again how to preserve a piece of choreography? So in some ways, linking the three topics lead me to many more possibilities.

Having said this, and looking at all of the sections again I believe I have made a shortlist for my lines of inquiry:

 

Schools and Colleges: Am I here because I deserve to be, or to pay for another?

Body shapes – Company Specifics?

Dancer: Athlete or Artist?

Health and Safety in the Dance place: Help or hindrance?

Quality vs Availability

 

I know that these are still very vast topics, but they can be broken down into smaller chunks. Any preferences or ideas?