Task 2d - Inquiry

Looking through my journal and reflecting on my blog posts and daily professional practice, I have given a lot of thought to the following questions in order to answer them with complete honesty...

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic?
As a teacher I do quite a bit of preparation, and whilst doing this it can be any number of things that get me enthusiastic, for example; a piece of music I plan to use, new choreography I'm excited to teach, etc... However when I am actually teaching my dance lessons, it is undoubtedly the children that keep my enthusiasm alive. It gives me so much joy when I see the children progressing and improving. Especially with some very young children (aged 3 or 4), to engage and start to enjoy a whole lesson is such a big achievement - not only for them as a pupil, but for me as a teacher. I recently choreographed a solo dance for a pupil at my previous dance school; and to see the work she had put into improving it from session to session, really made me even more enthusiastic to choreograph a really well thought out routine and share with her my knowledge and passion. One line of inquiry in relation to this would be - How can I continue to improve on my teaching skills, to ensure the children stay motivated and enthusiastic? The reflection I have started to do in my journal writing had been a good start - Am I challenging them enough? Are the tasks and targets I set attainable? Is my style of teaching varied enough?
Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

One person I really admire when it comes to teaching dance to children is my former dance teacher Miss Michelle. I was taught by her from the age of 4 - 18, until I left to continue to train professionally. Owning my own dance school is a future ambition of mine, and I feel being part of such a successful dance school, is what first made me enthusiastic about the idea. When Miss Michelle gave me the oppotunity to become a teacher at the school (before I left for college) I watched her teach and observed how she gained so much respect from the children; how she passed on her love and enthusiasm; how she cared about each individual; and the amount of hardwork she put into running a successful school. As I was gradually given more responsablity and greater oppotunities to teach, my confidence and enthusiasm in teaching grew. A line of inquiry that really interests me and one which I will have to pursue when I come to creating my own school is - What are the key aspects to running a successful dance school? How would I go about starting up a my own school from stratch? 

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings    

or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?
I have come to find that audtions can often be frustrating, and leave me feeling sad, angry and defeated. This isn't always true, as I have had many really enjoyable auditions where I feel I have gained a wealth of experience, however; only being able to sing 8 bars; not being seen because of the amount of people dancing in a tiny room; seeing people with little talent or skill being recalled purely through connections with the audition panel; are just some of the situations which sometimes leave me questioning my chosen career. Fortunatly the passion I have for my art outweighs these negatives completely, and along with my group of college friends I find ways to work around my sadness and anger. Having a close group of friends with whom I trained, who know my capabilities and talents, and who regularly go through the same audition process, is really important to me. We offer each other support and advice and remind eachother that we must perservere to achieve what we have worked so hard for. A line of enquiry that would be really worthwhile would be - How can I use my audition experinces, good or bad, to improve my future professional practice?

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this

or is an example of what you love?
I suppose with any type of performer, the thing they love most is getting out on the stage and performing. This is certainly true in my case! After all the hard work and rehearsals we put in to perfecting a song, dance routine, scene, etc... getting out infront of an audience, recieving a great reaction and feeling that rush or adrenaline; is what I love most. There are so many professionals in the dance and musical theatre industry who I admire; but Sutton Foster and Kristin Chenoweth, are two of my favourite and most inspirational performers. On their websites (links above) there are a number of videos of both of them performing. 
Sutton Foster was my main inspiration for creating a solo piece at college based around 'Thoroughly Modern Millie', and this performance from the 2002 Tony Awards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GVVpzTNEpA is why. Foster is such a polished performer and all her performances have such conviction. Sometimes I take for granted how amazing her voice is when I am watching videos of her, because her ability to play a character and portray story and emotions through a song is so overwhelming. I feel that is the sign of a brilliant musical theatre perfomer! 
Kristin Chenoweth is also a performer I admire and aspire to. She is now most commonly know for her appearance on 'Glee', however I started following her work when I was lucky enough to see her perform as 'Glinda' in the musical 'Wicked'. Chenoweth is such a versatile performer, being able to play a wide variety of roles, but it is her comic timing and ablity that I admire most about her. Comedy within musical theatre is something I very much enjoy and have been told is something which I am quite talented in. I could watch videos of Kristin Chenowth performing comic songs for hours; as her mannrisms, conviction, timing and use of light and shade is second to none. 
These two performers remind me of why I love doing what I do - after watching clips of them on YouTube I often rush up to my room to put of a backing track and start singing! A line of inquiry that interests me would be - How can I analyse their peformances in more detail? How do I emmulate their conviction of performance, without impersonating them? I intend to look  into attending an'Acting through Song' intensive workshop as this is something I feel would be really beneficial.

Looking inwardly at how the ideas of Reflection relate to me and my professional practice, it has helped me to consider emerging lines of inquiry for me from my training and practice. Hopefully exploring these lines of inquiry will not only aid my work on the BAPP course, but also help me answer I lot of questions I have about my daily professional practice and future amibtions.