Task 2d: Inquiry

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

As a choreographer, choreographing is part of my daily practice and that makes me enthusiastic, being creative and putting what I think or feel into movement. Sometimes I’m more limited when working with younger children, but that merely presents more of a brain challenge to convey my message with fewer steps to choose from. Using movement to share an idea or an opinion or even just to make the audience feel a certain way is great fun, sometimes hard work but a great achievement when it works. One of my favourite choreographers is Mia Michaels, every piece she choreographs has a different message or feeling, she has a distinct style but that doesn’t get in the way of the story. Her choreography gives a dancer room to interpret the emotions and messages for themselves, which gives the piece a greater depth and more realistic.

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger? 

I get angry or sad as a teacher, when I see students who are being pushed by their parents, either to be the best or even into classes they don’t want to do. Pushy parents can be found in many competitive environments from sport to theatre to academia, but “Dance Mums” are by far some of the worst. There has even been a television show in America based around the lives of several pushy theatre mums and their children and whilst it may be amusing to watch on tv, it is not so amusing to witness it first hand. I used to teach a contemporary class on a Saturday morning, a specialist class of only a few specific students capable of the work required. All but one of the children present had earned the right to attend that class, the other had been allowed to attend due to the persistence of her mother. This is inefficient for everyone involved! The capable children are stalled in their learning because they are being dragged back by one struggling student, the struggling student is learning nothing because everything being taught is out of their capabilities, this can also demoralise the less capable student and finally it makes planning and structuring a class difficult as a teacher as you have to compensate for the other student. The only person winning in this situation is the pushy parent who can feel good and brag about their child’s success. Sadly this is often the case for many classes, it is not easy to hear your child hasn’t reached the required standard and therefore many children are pushed into classes they are not read for. Learning more, earlier will not improve a dancer, it will give them too much to learn at once and thus everything will be a little bit worse due to the load. I admire the many teachers that I see who struggle with this daily, though I do wish it was a little more acceptable to tell a parent that their child is not great at something, surely this is saving them less pain in the long run, if they invest many years and money into their dreams for their child only to find out later that they were never capable?

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love teaching, the sense of achievement and pride when a child finally gets a step they struggle with or gets a brilliant exam result, it is a very rewarding profession. You get to engage with young people, to learn about what they like and what sort of people they are, you even get to have an impact on their growth as a person which is an important role. You have the opportunity to pass on morals or passions or quirks and even friendship. And as a dancer who worked all of their lives to get into the theatre, although I later realised I wanted to teach, there is no greater job satisfaction than sharing your love for the theatre. I see many teacher particularly in the theatre world who really strive to get everything out of their kids whilst keeping their classes fun and inspiring, which is not easy I can tell you, because of this I wouldn’t say there is anyone who stands out as someone I admire. I admire anyone who goes into the teaching profession, it is not easy, there is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and a hell of a lot of pressure to achieve great results, it can often be a thankless job, rife with criticism and yet we teachers continue to push through all that because when that one child who really struggles finally achieves what they thought they never could, it is worth it!

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I don’t understand people who don’t see the importance of education. I find more and more nowadays, especially when teaching in academic schools rather than performing arts schools, that very few people have a real enthusiasm for learning. I loved going to school, I loved learning and taking part and it saddens me to see so many young people throw away such an opportunity. I fear however that it stems from our view on education as a whole nation, in Japan teachers are revered and held up with doctors and lawyers, they are respected and heralded, and this does not happen in the UK. Teachers are given grief and impossible tasks, asked for more than they can give and given no respect in return. It is not quite the same for dance teachers as most of our students have chosen to come to our classes and as such the standard of behaviour and enthusiasm is higher, but it is not without its challenges. I admire the students who still care and battle everyday to get the education they want in deprived situations. I have vivid memories of one particular class I taught, whilst working as a supply teacher. It was a year 8 English class first thing on a Monday morning, there was one boy who finished all his work on time and with great aplomb, he was also a member of the student council. He was constantly subject to jokes, jeers and general bullying, all because he worked hard and wanted to achieve, he had aspirations to study at Oxford University which I thought was wonderful and all he received from his peers was distain. I cannot understand how we have fallen into a society where wanting academic success is laughable or shameful, I will forever admire that young boy, for not being afraid to strive for what he wanted no matter what anyone said or did. I think a lot of us could apply that to our professional lives and probably don’t think about it often enough, imagine how much we could all achieve if we didn’t care what people thought?

How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

Deciding on an appropriate response to a given situation requires experience and a little “reflection-in-action” it is interesting that we use this method without even thinking about it. Unfortunately there are no black and whites with ethics so the correct response is dependent on many different factors such as environment, age, sex an so on. If someone punches you in the face the correct response is different if the person in question is a child than if they were an adult. The same for physical contact in teaching, as a dance teacher it is considered acceptable to move a child’s arm or foot to aid their learning as it is a physical subject and sometimes just saying or showing isn’t enough, feeling is the only way to improve, however, this is far less appropriate in an academic class such as English or maths, in this case the environment changes the ethical code. As a teacher I am regularly required to make tough decisions and discipline children, finding the correct response and most appropriate course of action can be challenging, it also difficult to keep the balance between friend and teacher. You want to have the right amount of fun and enjoyment as this is key to learning but enough discipline that you are still in charge and respected, this is a hard balance to strike especially with the added complication of ethic responses.