What a week!

Fantastic week catching up with Matthew Bourne and the cast of Lord of the Flies!
We took the boys to watch Edward Scissorhands at the Wales Millennium Centre and caught up over pizza beforehand! I'm so proud of the boys, some have been offered places at top dance schools across the country after taking part in LOTF including; The Hammond School, Elmhurst school of Ballet, Rambert and the Place. One of the youngest boys from the Manchester cast has been offered a place at the Royal Ballet who had never danced before taking part in LOTF! This project has really changed these boys lives! "From Lord of the Flies to The Royal Ballet School"

Originally in my inquiry plan I had planned to interview 3 of the unprofessional boys from the LOTF cast. I've decided to change this as some of my feedback from module 2 was to possibly interview Matthew Bourne. I didn't know if this would be possible but managed to organise this last week, we spoke for over an hour and I personally feel very inspired after interviewing him.
I also decided to interview 1 of the professional dancers from Matthew Bournes company Danny and one of the unprofessional cast members from LOTF Callum. I feel having the response from 3 different males that dance would be interesting to compare for my inquiry.

Keep in touch day

Now that the Lord of the Flies project is over I am keen to keep in contact with the local boys who were part of the cast. Me and my colleagues have arranged to meet with the boys for pizza and catch up next week, then take them to watch Matthew Bournes latest production of Edward Scissorhands at the Wales Millennium Centre. I cant wait to hear how everyones doing and this will be a good chance to do my interviews for my inquiry.

Feedback and applying it to Module 3

Adviser Paula's feedback from module 2 advised that I needed to include more literature for my critical review “Choose from the literature you have already gathered and identify areas where you could use more knowledge to ground your inquiry. I would suggest at least 10-20 sources including ones like Buckroyd, that represent expertise in your area”. 

To address this point I had a Skype session with fellow student Amy D’Arcy in which we discussed ways we could find relevant literature. She mentioned her difficulty finding conflicting viewpoints on her topic. We discussed current political debates regarding the arts. I think reviewing news articles and reports would be a good way to progress further for my inquiry.

Also from the group Skype session last week Paula discussed using "Sconul" to access local libraries. I am in the process of applying for student access to this facility.

Ethical issues: Paula also mentioned that as the Lord of the Flies project is now over, I need to make sure any data previously collected is approved by my employer for use in my inquiry. I will compile a letter for signature by my employer explaining the purpose of this request. 

A topic discussed during the Skype session was how to display data.  An earlier meeting with fellow student Lucy Jennings for coffee, we discussed ways in which to display data. She mentioned “Survey Monkey”, a free online website which can be used to compile my questionnaire and analyse the findings using graphs and charts, I will investigate this further.

I have decided to use 3 male case studies from the LOTF project.

Participant 1: Abergavenny (Welsh valleys) White British, aged 12,with very little dance experience.

Participant 2: Cardiff City, African heritage, aged 13, with street dance experience. 

Participant 3: Pontypridd (Welsh valleys) White British, aged 16, Sports background (Rugby), with no dance experience. 

I feel these 3 boys are all different and it should prove interesting to consider their responses. This will also help me with one of my goals “To gather evidence to further explore some aspects of the ‘Bourne’ work through an emphasis on how boys are experiencing dance and possible prejudice surrounding this art form for male performers”.

Professional Artefact: My initial idea is to create a video demonstrating learning and teaching styles I have developed throughout my inquiry. This will include my own learning experience.

In my own experience I sometimes find it difficult to remember the detailed contents of group Skype sessions.  I miss things as the conversations flow quite quickly. I feel recording the sessions may help and will ask permission to do this in future.  This will enable me to have time to listen and process the conversation and make sure I have fully understood advice given by my adviser. I would recommend this technique to anyone that might have difficulty note taking.