Award Rationale

My Rationale for my award title

The award title I would like to receive is a BA Honours in

Professional Practice (Human Movement & Education)

The study of Human Movement traditionally incorporates areas of Physiology (living systems), Psychology, Biomechanics (analysis of athletes) but also includes other topics such as Diet, Nutrition and Performance analysis.

There are a number of influences that have helped me to determine my choice of award title. I have thought about all my previous qualifications, knowledge and work experience. I have considered my highest previous qualification which is a Trinity National Diploma in Musical Theatre. I obtained this award after I studied at the Northern Ballet School for three years and gained this rewarding qualification when graduating in July 2004.

I then went onto Preston College where I studied my Foundation in Dance Instruction award and my Certificate in Dance Education in Modern Dance and Ballet qualification. To complete these I had extensive learning of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance syllabus, I was required to demonstrate understanding and learning of Health & Safety and Lifespan Development. I had to demonstrate my capability of teaching my chosen genres (Ballet & Modern Dance) considering different abilities and conduct a class in front of an examiner. Upon completion this now means I am qualified to teach people how to dance and educate them about the dance environment whilst entering people for exams.

Upon completion of my dance qualifications I teach children/students and adults how to dance, I have choreographed many dances for performances using my experience from the Ballet school, I have educated A-Level Dance students from a Grammar School about the dance environment and entered many children and students for exams where they have all gained extremely good results because of my dance knowledge. I have also been working for Monarch education recruitment for four months where I am a teaching assistant, I educate children and assist teachers in primary schools all over Manchester.

Whilst studying these dance qualifications I also completed an A-Level in Physical Education, I have always loved sport from an early age and played for all the sports teams at school, however it was whilst studying the A-Level where I became really interested in sport history, diet and nutrition. During the two years I learned about sport promotion, sport performance, sports science and sport psychology all of which I use my knowledge and experience when teaching.

My proposed project title is another influence for my chosen award title. I wish to study “The public’s perceptions on Pole Dancing as a Sport”. I will be using my work experience, knowledge and previous qualifications to help me to study this. I feel that my project and previous experience and qualifications are related to Human Movement. Human Movement is a related scientific discipline that studies human movement in all contexts including that of sport.

I have strongly considered my title award as after my degree I wish to do my Postgraduate Certificate in Education. I feel that my award title is justified by my past experiences, my present professional work and research and my future aspirations, goals and qualifications.

My Example of Kolbs Learning Cycle

Subsequent to reading several papers on Kolb’s learning cycle and analysing the four stages of learning, Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, Active Experimentation, which he states may happen in a flash, or over days, weeks or months, depending on the topic, I correlated this to taking a photograph.

Concrete Experience (direct practical) - take the digital image
Reflective Observation (look back) - scrutinise
Abstract Conceptualization (think about changes) - alter the lenses
Active Experimentation (make the changes) - increase the lenses speed Perpetuating to
Concrete Experience - take another photograph.

Using this hypothesise I was able to look back at how this theory relates to my past experiences. I presented with a task while training and more recently I embarked upon a similar task and how learning from my previous experience and how that fits with Kolb theory.

Concrete Experience
While I was studying at the Northern Ballet School, I chose choreography as an area of interest as part of my final module towards my Dance diploma. The reason being, choreography had never been offered before and it was something that stimulated my ideas and captivated my imagination. I feel that I am very good with ideas and I am able to imagine the final product.
The choreography was to be performed on the stage to a large audience that consisted of the dance faculty and dancers in the lower years.
The music was to be composed and performed by the Royal Northern College of Music. This meant I had to listen to what they had composed and link this to a theme and my ideas for the choreography. Part of the process was to select the dancers’ design the costumes and the lighting.
The marking criteria was based on overall choreography, costumes and lighting. This is my concrete experience because it’s something that I have physically and mentally experienced.

Reflective Observation
The music created several problems, in different ways, because more often than not I listen to a piece of music, which stimulates my ideas which in turn inspires me to dance, and create a final product before I have even put the steps together. However I didn’t have a choice or any say in the composure of the music and to make matters worse I never heard the final piece of music until the week of choreography. This was due to lack of communication between the musicians and the Ballet school.
Research and planning for my choreography was virtually none existent as time was limited and the dancers were getting involved in other projects and I was totally in the dark as to what the music would sound like let alone how long it would last.
Nevertheless I choreographed a piece that I thought revealed my ideas and enhanced the music. However watching my choreography live, I was extremely disappointed. It demonstrated little empathy for the music and the choreography unproductive in evoking passion or energy. While producing it I hadn’t realised that I had rarely watched it and what I had imagined in my head was not actually being portrayed.
The feedback from my tutor supported my own observations, that the lack of communication, research and the development of ideas had reduced the potential of my choreography. I was able to scrutinise my work and this exposes my reflective observation about my experience.

Abstract Conceptualisation
As a choreographer and reflecting back on my experience I needed to understand fully why my choreography failed to reach its potential. This is abstract conceptualisation and as I conclude what I have learnt from my observations is that planning is essential, and clear aims need to be set so that they could be used as a constant form of reference throughout, informing decisions. Research is also a beneficial tool as it can help in the discovery of what inspires you and scrutinizing other choreography can trigger your ideas.
Most importantly choreography is an on going piece of work and can happen over days, weeks or months, because to allow it to evolve it lends itself several modifications and can develop into a process of trail and elimination until the desired effect is accomplished. Therefore it is imperative to manage what time you have to the maximum.
In addition when choreographing you can often get carried along with the moment and the atmosphere, therefore it is vital to step back frequently to observe and see if it’s working and developing into what you perceive it to be, hence leading to informed changes. Another important aspect is getting other people to watch and enlighten you with what they think is being portrayed. Furthermore communication is also fundamental when working as a team, if everyone knows what is going on, the better the team work.

Active Experimentation
My active experimentation is solving the problems I had when reflecting back on an experience. Since graduating from the Ballet School and working for The Glenda Ann School of Dancing I have frequently had to choreograph and experiment with ideas.
Recently I choreographed several dances for a performance at the Middleton Arena http://www.link4life.org/ a showcase for a few select students. It was important to choreograph dances to reflect the student’s potentials but also to consider the nature of the audience and what genres to use to keep it entertaining. I had to think of the costumes for the best effect, the running order so that they could recover from one dance to the next leaving room for costume changes, and the overall performance to make sure it was the best that it could be.
Consequently I put Kolb’s theory into practice and made use of my reflective observations so that I did not repeat my previous experience. Therefore I utilized my abstract conceptualisation to put my active experimentation into place.

For the show, at the Arena I thoroughly planned all of my choreography setting myself achievable aims. I made comprehensive notes when I listened to the music and captured my initial inspirations which I reflected upon repeatedly throughout my choreographing. I also researched dances from www.youtube.com to deepen my understanding of what I like and others interpretations of themes. I made notes and sketched diagrams so I could incorporate sections into my own choreography. I used many genres to demonstrate to the audience that both the dancers myself and are diverse.
The running order I constructed to give the performers maximum time for costume changes but I also worked out that the dancers could wear tracksuits that were loose fitting for their first dance so they could layer their costumes underneath for subsequent dances, hence saving time hence fluid running.
Communication was evident this time. I communicated with my dancer’s in depth as I had discovered it was vital. We shared our ideas and discussed our opinions and this made me feel they were secure with the choreography and happy with what they were doing which increased my confidence in what I was producing. They shared ideas on costumes and discussed what they felt comfortable wearing, which is essential if the performance is to look professional.
To Summarise
Learning using Kolb’s theory is a continuous loop; I received lots of praise and positive feedback about my choreography and can now reflect and use the knowledge and repeat the process. I can now correlate this to choreography.

Concrete Experience Choreograph a dance
Reflective Observation Scrutinise the dance
Abstract Conceptualization Plan the adjust and amend the dance
Active Experimentation Implement the changes
Concrete Experience Choreograph a dance etc……

People I Admire-Liz Cartledge

Liz Cartledge

I met Liz at Northern Ballet School, she was technically brilliant, worked herself hard and she was friends with everyone. At the Ballet school she did all her associates and then followed me to Preston where she turned them into Certificates in Dance as her dream was to set-up her own Dance School.

Whilst she was studying her parents moved to Knoxville Tennessee and her partner moved to Birmingham leaving her alone with a handful of friends that were still in the country. This was a tough time for Liz as she had a very close relationship with her parents and her friends. After some time she weighed up her options and chose to leave her home town to be with her partner. In Birmingham Liz had to find her way around a new town, find a new job, make new friends and deal with her friends and family being so far away. As an adult this is much harder than it sounds as your personality tells you to be very aware of new people and environments.
I admire Liz because it took some time for her to find her feet again, she had to start from scratch and develop new relationships and most importantly find a dance school where she could teach and be happy.

The best thing is after Liz found a dance school that she liked she met a girl that has become a good friend and they are now starting their own dance school called Silhouette Dance Academy; she is on the RAD Course and also doing a DTLLS course so she will be able to teach A-level and BTEC Dance.
I am so pleased for her after everything she went through. Her dedication to make her dream real finally came true even when she was going through the most stressful, emotional time of her life.
I am confident that Liz will be successful, and her Dance school will be the best it can be because she won’t settle for anything less.