Wednesday 21st April - The ways ideas can be communicated: Module Three focus

Wednesday 21st April 

Online session with DAN4760 Module Three focus, the ways ideas can be communicated

1pm (time in London) 

Discussion groups with Module focus are informal but important because these discussion groups are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. You can join the group through the Zoom link on Unihub 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

Sunday 28th March Discussion group - communicating ideas

Sunday is our Discussion group we will be looking at different practices for communicating ideas. We are asked to be prepared to talk about this together. Use the module handbook and links along with your own research into these ideas to start to explore the topic ready for Sunday. Discussion groups are informal but important because these discussion groups are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. You can join the group through the Zoom link on Unihub 

Sunday 28th March 8pm (time in London) 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

Communication and language

 On Sunday we had a robust discussion about communication. There were many ideas that people have suggested they will write about on their own blogs to continue the conversation. I have written about communication in a couple of articles. Helen and I also wrote a chapter together about communication in the creative process called 'In-the-Between-ness: Decolonising and re-inhabiting our dancing.'  I love the following quote from John dewey which sums up my perspective - 

'The Heart of language is not "expression" of something antecedent, much less expression "of antecedent thought". It is communication; the establishment of cooperation in an activity in which there are partners' - John Dewey Experience and Nature p. 179 

Looking forward to seeing your thoughts, in the comments below. 

Wednesday 18th Nov - The ways ideas can be communicated: Module Three focus -Time Change

Wednesday Nov 18th 2020

Online session with DAN4760 Module Three focus ,The ways ideas can be communicated

1pm (time in London)   8pm (time in London)  

Short lecture conversation with Helen Kindred  followed by discussion with Module 3 focus. Skypes are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM 1PM TO 8PM 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

Sunday 15th November Discussion group (communicating ideas)

Sunday is our Discussion group we will be looking at different practices for communicating ideas. We are asked to be prepared to talk about this together. Use the module handbook and links along with your own research into these ideas to start to explore the topic ready for Sunday. Discussion groups are informal but important because these discussion group Skypes are a time to talk across the MAPP learning community and practice speaking to others about your work. Please write below to indicate which group time you will attend and what you would like to share/talk about. 

Sunday 15th November 8pm (time in London) 

*Please note if you have any specific questions about the course that you need to discuss with your Supervisor you can email them or Skype call your Supervisor (quick questions can just be called in via Skype there is no need for an appointment - we ask you to try to call during your Supervisor's Office Hours if possible - see UniHub for times).

In my language - Amanda Baggs

I was in a discussion about improvisation this week and this video was shared.

Knowledges ... (AM discussion group conversation)

AM conversation journey:

We made statements about communication of ideas (the topic of the discussion for today): 

• Ideas build a community – the responses back 
• There is a ‘Code’ used that is built up between the people communicating
• You have to reflect on and find the best ways to communicate your ideas to the ‘communicated’ 

We talked a bit ….

 ..And a bit more…. Cultures have particular ways to communicate and particular values in the languages they use…

We touched on things …

…We came to the University is a culture. Therefore,

• There is a community the university expects you to engage with (one of the members of that community is the literature). Understanding that community is part of having an MA.  

• There is a particular ‘code’ (format lexicon) the university expects you to use 

• You have to work at the best way to communicate your ideas within the relationship of the being ‘in the university’. In a way you are responding to the culture of the university.

The 'Professional Artefact' in Module Three throws the doors open on this an allows you to communicate using your professional community as the starting point.

But regardless of what community of people all looking at dance that you are communicating with you need to balance their needs and expectation with your own values. You need to question how you communicate what is being looked for buy the community with what you can’t leave out of the communication because of your own values and come to some justification for the route you take in your communication (essay, plan etc…) 

At MA level you are not doing something just because you are being told to do it. In writing your essay to hand-in it has to be more than doing it because you were told to do it that way. The essay has to involve an understanding of the community you are communicating to (the university). The understanding has to happen in order for you to negotiate what values and codes you use in the essay. Therefore the essay itself displays an understanding of University MA level culture. The ability to communicate something (anything) displays an understanding and a negotiation between yourself and the community of the ‘academic’.  There is an art to this. 

…the above suggests that the content is only part – showing you understand something is not just the context  it is embedded in being able to choose the appropriate modes for communicating it to the community you are in conversation with. 

We ended re-igniting our inner  ‘question-everything-flames 

Maria suggested if dance is a shape (like the picture) then there are groups of people looking at it through different facets (sides) of the shape. Just because you are not used to looking at dance through a particular side doesn’t mean part of the construction of dance isn’t also that facet. You might have looked at dance through one facet for a long time and now looking at it (for instance) through a dance-scholar facet is not what you are used to but in doing this you come to know the whole stone (dance) better. What makes it beautiful is there is more than facet to it. 

Please comment below ...

See below to for links to other peoples posts on the conversation too

Noticing to Wondering : passive to proactive

Today in the morning MAPP DTP discussion group we got to talk about different experiences teaching particularly the relevance of teacher training when teaching dance. We were talking about how dance teaching is respected/considered/valued and were able to draw on the groups experiences of teaching across five different countries (UK, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland and Greece).

After considering issues within this topic Helen and I encouraged everyone to take the next step in the discussion which is to start to theorize about the topic. To move from just noticing to wondering.

Wonder how this fits with existing literature and discourse on dance pedagogy. Wonder how it can relate to what you are doing NOW in the course. Wonder about the deeper implications behind each other’s comments. Wonder what your own assumptions are. This is moving from face value to the layers MA level work expects you to engage in.

Those in the discussion will be posting their thoughts on their blogs have a look at where the conversation took them.

We also talked about analysis – Barbara said about her interviews ‘I got different answers than I expected’. This is the heart of starting the analysis in Module Three. But across all the modules, focus on where things are unexpected and make you think differently.  In Barbara’s case analysis is about why what she had expected to hear was not what she heard in the interviews? What assumptions does she now notice she went into the inquiry with? Why were the answers different? What does the literature say on the topics that differed….?

Barbara is going to post further on how asking yourself questions or being asked questions by peers helps you clarify your thinking. https://barbarabesque.blogspot.co.uk

Michelle is going to post on how she had not thought about Barbara’s practice in terms of the types of movement techniques there are being taught in the UK. So, hearing Barbra’s work helped her to think differently about her own. http://chelleymapp.blogspot.co.uk

Sam is going to post reflections on her own practice in terms of approaches to teaching different movement styles. https://dixieogivar.blogspot.co.uk

Agata is going to post on the thinking about the connection between how difficult many professionals within dance find talking and wondering if this adds to the low status of dance as a field of study in many people’s eyes. Agata can you post your blog address in the comment below.

Maria has posted about learning and how as discussed above we almost have to witness ourselves in process to theorize and analyse and contextualise our learning at MA level. http://marianikoldance.blogspot.co.uk

What do you feel?

Adesola

As we move further into December!!

Happy Holidays

Rest: My computer needs a healing !!  so it will be out of action for a couple of days.

Feedback: if you are waiting for me to respond to an email - write to me again, because I don't realize you are waiting. I feel like I have double checked everyone and have answered everyone. So I may have missed the email.

Talk: if you have quick question or want to have a quick de-freak-out feel free to skype me.

Adesola

AM chat...

AM Skype chat

We talked about the reflective essays and about research topics. It emerged that it is really useful to just explain what you are doing to other people. We took the challenge of not first contextualising our own research project/ideas in what someone else has said but jumping in at the deep-end and explaining them from scratch.

We explained our ideas, either the idea of the research inquiry you are proposing in Module Two or the Research process and knowing in Module Three, (we did not have any Module Ones in the conversation). Then we took in turns to feedback what we had heard the person saying and what we wondered. I think just talking to people about what you are doing is really useful. While explaining it to people informally you hear yourself saying things that you maybe had not realised you thought. Or things you don’t agree with and had not realised you did not yet know how to articulate so they slipped back into language that you don’t really agree with.

Alanna  http://sustainablerisktaking.blogspot.com  also suggested as you blog about ideas this too is a way to look at what you are thinking. She suggested blogging at this point in the term to look at your own positioning. As you have been working across the Module your positioning may well have shifted and you may not have articulated the change. Your blog and your preparation for your reflective essay might be places where you can visit this.

April (April please write you Blog address in comments below)  talked about the Module Three inquiry and in talking we discussed letting go of binaries / polar structures. Even though the theory you encounter might be clear and resonate, that does not mean you have to adopt the articulation of that theory as the only way to engage with the ideas within it. Of course the articulation of the theory is the idea since communication of thought is held prisoner in the language used to express it. (At times you would loose the ‘meaningful’ or sound as if you were cherry-picking with the idea if you loose the structures and articulation of the theory from the theorised who introduced it to you). But it is important as you work with a theory that you notice how it is positioned and how that communication might be imposing a shift on your articulation of the idea. April is posting about remembering transformation can be an alternative articulate for many ideas that when presented imply binaries.

(Note: that witnessing of moving away from your own Professional articulation/structure for communication is what the artefact is addressing.)

Helen  http://www.helenkindred.blogspot.com/2016/05/plurality-of-meaning.html  is posting on remembering pluralities of meaning. This is so important in our work as dance scholars because we are forging the ideas and language of the somatic and have check we do not loose ourselves in the pinning down, measuring, hunt for one certainty that is so counter to fluidity of movement.