A change in thoughts

So over the past few weeks I have been busy trying to discover a topic I would like to further explore for my module two MAPP Programme. I began by re-reading my module one reflective essay looking at what I had learnt previously and where I would like to go that would benefit and progress my professional development.

One of the reasons why I took on this course was to gain a greater understanding of dance technique and its importance, so thats how I started. I began researching into what 'inspired' meant, how we inspire students, what technique was, and its benefits. Then I began to device a working title for what is was I was looking to enquire about. The following was what I arrived at:

'An enquiry into how teachers inspire the importance of technique to their students'

I understood that through this project I was not necessarily looking for an answer but a better understanding. But through my research I found a quote which began to get my mind thinking about some recent experiences i had participated in.

‘The distinctions between ballet, modern dance and jazz are becoming increasingly blurred as choreographer of one discipline create works for companies associated with another discipline.’ (Franklin 2014:109)

 Recently I have been taking students from my private dance school, KS Dance to festivals to compete with dance works for the past few months. As a teacher and a audience member watching students compete within dance stylised sections I began to notice that although there were different sections for different styles I noticed that some of these began to merge. This merging of styles I found difficult to differentiate between for example a large amount of dances involved a lot of acrobatics in lyrical and jazz sections. But the biggest idea I began to question was when we began to watch the contemporary sections. There did not seem to be many distinguishing features between the two. Hence causing me to ask what is the difference between the styles and how do teachers view the styles differently. Hence me turning to the question:

'How do teachers distinguish between dance styles when choreographing work when lines between the disciplines are becoming blurred'

 I am hoping that this enquiry will help for me to further my knowledge on dance styles and what people expect to see when seeing students perform these styles. Dance styles such as ballet and tap have such a specific dance vocabulary that it is easy to see the stylistic features of the dance style but as you step away from the classical styles lines become blurred and distinguishing features seem to become lost. This is something I am hoping to find out.

I would love to hear what your view is on this subject so please let me know with your view