Roanne Cox BAPP ACI Blog

Can you even say you're on this course without at some point going down a rabbit hole? I think not. Allow me to introduce you to the warren I've fallen into.  Following my blog debating whether dance is a sport, how the two are similar/different, and if its place in the Olympics is valid, something kept cropping up: Dancers are artists Dancers are artists. Dance is art. Dance goes beyond just the physical skill to artistry. Dance unites athleticism and artistry. Dance is not a sport because it is an art form. To be a successful dancer you must be an artist. Sport needs skill but dance needs skill and artistry. To be a better dancer is to be a better artist. This seems to be the main theme involved in dancers distancing themselves from sport and is frequently adopted in favour of encouraging any similarities. Arguably one of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century, Rudolph Nureyev, cited in Kleinman (1992), in response to a comment about his superb athletic ability from a repor...

Our meeting last night was a lovely way to reconnect with everyone and share some thoughts on the processes and peculiarities of Module 2. We initially focused on the point that module two is not about doing the research for your inquiry, it's about finding out what you want to investigate and mapping the field it is situated in - what different aspects there are to it; who else has discussed this topic and what they've said; what political, social, historical, and economic factors might be involved; what perspectives there are and how they view the topic differently; what experiences people may have had. In essence, we established, it's about throwing a stone into a topical (not tropical...we wish...) pool and observing the ripples. Understanding the different aspects of research design and inquiry - HOW to do the research - is of particular importance because, again, at this stage it is not about delving into your inquiry, but instead working out what your inquiry might l...

 Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. - Einstein As it would appear, in Module 3 we will be doing a qualitative research inquiry, which is what Module 2 is preparation for, so it's probably a good idea to look at what one of those actually is.  Qualitative Research is a strategy for systematic collection, organisation, and interpretation of textual information. Essentially, qualitative research (QR) is looking into phenomena that you can't put a number on, make into a graph, or colour into a pie chart (i.e. you can't use quantitative research to investigate). It's not about numbers, it's about things . QR is thoughtful, deliberate, pays attention to broader context, and pays attention to the strengths/limitations of the methods used to collect the data. It approaches from the perspective and experiences of participants to find recurrent themes, generate hypotheses, identify properties of constructs, ...

 ....hmmm. A questionable title. Quite literally. Is dance a sport? The age old question. A question that has appeared many times in my life in many places. And full disclosure, I haven't really cared. At all. I'd be more annoyed that I was being asked the question than at anyone's actual answer to it. Maybe it's odd that as a dancer I never really cared about the answer, but I suppose that stems from the fact that in my view, dance is whatever it is to me and it is whatever it is to you. Because really, you could define it as a whole plethora of things... Performance makes dance art Classes make dance education Exams make dance a discipline   Theatre makes dance entertainment Therapy makes dance medicine Choreography makes dance creativity Recreation makes dance a hobby Kitchen boogieing makes dance a pastime   Clubbing makes dance...a bit awkward...let's call it a release Competitions make dance a sport ?? How are we really defining this? Sticking to the sport, ...

  It's hard to believe we are already into the new term and Module Two is now underway!! It was lovely to see new and familiar faces on our Zoom call the other day and it was a nice way to ease us in... ...Because Module 2 appears to be a LOT more work. Which I suppose is to be expected. I've already come across all sorts of language and concepts that I have no comprehension of but let's be honest, that's exactly why we're here. If you've nothing to learn, you've nowhere to grow. 🌷 As preparation for Module 3, I'm expecting M2 to involve a lot of exploration and a lot of discovery. There are so, SO many different topics, areas, issues and themes that you could investigate and use for the inquiry, so I'm hoping in the next few weeks I will be able to refine my thoughts on which route to go down and what I want to look into. Although at this point both planning and actually carrying out an inquiry seems a bit daunting, I'm looking forward to being...