Roanne Cox BAPP ACI Blog

  I'm really not at all sure how I'm now in Module Three and about to start my research inquiry. But here we are.  It's been quite the ride to get to this point and I have a distinct feeling it's going to be that way right to the end. Armed with coffee, a laptop, and a few hopes and prayers, it's time to commence the final chapter. As usual, it's all looking a bit foggy and misty at this end of the path, but if I've learnt anything up to now, it's that you have to keep the faith and keep moving. I have just had a relatively nice induction back into the course however, in the form of the 'Meet Your Programme Team' meeting with Helen, Sam, Pedro, and a handful of the students. This was an opportunity to get to know the story of each staff member a little more and have an insight into their own practice, something we haven't had much of so far. With Helen in the world of dance, Sam in the world of music, and Pedro in the theatre world, it was i...

  "WE DO NOT LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE... WE LEARN FROM REFLECTING ON EXPERIENCE." - John Dewey I almost cannot believe we are at the end of another term already! I don't know about anyone else, but I never completely feel like I know what I'm doing and th en somehow I find myself uploading work and wondering how exactly I got here. Maybe you have it all under control and know precisely what you're doing. Can't relate. It's been a challenging term... I think we will agree. And module two has definitely been a big step up from module one but I will admit that I have enjoyed learning about all the different ways academic research is conducted and how new knowledge and thinking is brought about. The mass of philosophical and practical approaches is amazing and I have certainly learnt to appreciate the level of skill that goes into conducting an inquiry. Research really is a discipline in its own right.  At the start of term I didn't really know what area I wa...

Last night we had a cross module zoom meeting led by Sam, with a guest in the form of his song writing partner and producer James Grunwell.  The discussion focused on three main topics: Collaboration, Communication & Language, and Risk Taking. Hearing about Sam and James' experiences as musicians with these three topics was interesting and seemed to draw a lot of parallels with the dance world. Some of the main points that stood out to me across the topics were reflection, being willing to adapt, and being willing to forget your ego for the sake of the bigger picture.  Below I will summarise the notes I took from the three themes and open discussion. COLLABORATION COMPOSITION ::: singer has seed idea and bring it to the room (or the zoom!) each musician works on their individual part parts are brought together to flesh out a structure a process of cutting and pasting shapes and refines the piece the piece changes continuously over time Improvisation - working as a group an...

"MY ADVICE TO ALL INTERVIEWEES IS: SHUT UP AND LISTEN. IT'S HARDER THAN IT SOUNDS." -Errol Morris  Last Friday we had a Module Two call with Sam that centred on using interviews in qualitative research.  This was a really helpful meeting as we were given pointers and advice as well as guidance on approach and conduct, and later on the meeting was opened up for questions and discussion. It was especially interesting listening to Sam's own previous experiences with interviews in music research. I have noted some of they key points raised for future reference and anyone who wants them! APPROACH The interviewee is not answering your questions but bringing ideas and opening the topic Go in with an open mind Subjective Distanciation stepping back to put space between the researcher and topic being a 'data collecting computer' having a sole purpose of gathering data Don't have fixed ideas on what you want from the data and how you will analyse it - go with the fl...

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.  - Friedrich Nietzsche Exploring the topic of artistry has thus far been three things: Intriguing   Enlightening Mildly terrifying I didn't expect it to be a walk in the park, but I also didn't expect to be wandering fields and fields of related topics, issues, and dimensions. Not to mention disciplines. Needless to say, I was starting to feel a little bit lost and overwhelmed by the depth and expanse of it all. Thankfully, an extremely interesting supervision with Sam has brought some new direction and ideas (adding more ideas sounds slightly counter-intuitive but has actually been a small miracle). Within this infinite landscape, there appear to be two fundamental groundings - creativity and communication. We discussed both of these and their interpersonal skill sets - problem solving, storytelling, choreographing and teaching among...

The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers. - Brian Greene I feel like I haven't blogged in forever and this is mainly because my research has taken me here, there and everywhere. I'd be looking at research methods, then dip into my topic, a bit of philosophical methodology, back to dancing around my topic... For the last couple of weeks I seem to have read a lot and made lots of notes but it's taken me this long to have things finally start to come together and connect just a tiny bit. I was hoping to book a 1-2-1 this week to talk through my ideas but my uni email is currently not working... so all I have is my blog and here I am! In exploring different areas of artistry, a great deal of questions have surfaced. As a little point of reference and reflection for myself, I'll cover some of these below. ARTISTRY AND THE ARTS What do the Arts consider artistry as? What distinguishes an artist from a professiona...

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...