Module 3 Update

Inquiry title - Dancers Experiences of Injury and How They Cope

I had a very nice chat today with Paula discussing my inquiry and refining my thoughts and what I need to do next to progress it through this final phase of the course. I am trying to push through as much of the stuff as I can through the next two weeks as I start a contract shortly which will limit the time I can spend working on my inquiry so you will be hearing a lot from me.

What I need to do;

1. Literature Review
I have started my literature review although having spoken with Paula I have a better understanding of what it needs to consist of and I have realised I need to increase the amount of sources included. I have spent a good bit of time over the past few months trying to keep up with reading into my topic of inquiry so this has helped me greatly with putting together the review. As I have a main structure of it and I do have other sources that I have read and can use I just need to tweak the review which shouldn't take too long. 

2. Surveys
I have in my head ideas for my survey and my pilot survey in module 2 will also help me with that but now its just a matter of creating it on survey monkey. I have also realised that I have to ensure that my survey goes out to people who definitely meet the correct criteria so that I get the most honest answers. I want to ensure that it goes out to either currently training or professional dancers that have had an injury that has resulted in them having to stop dance for a length of time (This can range from a few days to a few months).

3. Interviews 
Finally I need to create 3 interviews. Due to my circumstances over this module I have decided that my interviews will have to be held over Skype. I have decided on areas I want covered in my interview however I do not want to make it too structured as I want the interviewee to feel comfortable to openly respond but I still can get the information I am looking for. I am planning on initially interviewing 3 people. Firstly 2 dancers I know who have struggled with serious injuries (the first is still in training and the second is a professional dancer) and the third interview if with a specialist dance psychologist. I hope to get in contact with the dance psychologist who used to work at the college I was at as I know she has experience in my specific topic. Also Paula mentioned that after I gather my information from these interviews I could always interview a few more dancers as I may want to get the opinions from a few other people.

These are the first three things I am going to concentrate on over the next few weeks. I will post more with more structured versions of my surveys and interviews for you to see where I am going with them. As you can see I still have a lot of work to do but I hope to power on with the written stuff over the next few weeks.

I hope you are all getting on well with module 3.

Artefact

During my planning stage in Module 2 I had put a lot of though into what I wanted to get out of my inquiry and how it would be beneficial towards myself and others. By the end I had decided that I wanted to produce a accurate and genuinely helpful Self-Help Guide out of the information I have gathered throughout my inquiry.

From my research and experience I understand that many dancers do not get support for injuries and if they do, they do not receive the psychological support they need to help them cope. The hectic lifestyle and culture of the dance world mean many won't take time to get help especially psychologically so my self-help guide would try to support and advise dancers on coping with injury no matter have severe it is. I want my self-help guide

to be in the form of a small leaflet like booklet (like the kind you might pick up in the doctor about certain illnesses) which I hope will be easy to understand, be written in a way that looks attractive to the eye and easy to read. This way people can quickly and easily read it without feeling that theres a lot of time and effort involved so that it will appeal to a wider range of dancers as I understand people do not want to ready long books or essays on the subject.

This is my initial idea for my Artefact. Obviously it has to be developed into a more solid plan but I would appreciate any comments and ideas that come to mind.

Thank you

x

Module 3

I hope everyone has had a great summer and are ready to get back into the swing of module 3. 

During the summer I have been spending a lot less time on uni work than term time due to a busy work schedule but I made sure I definitely got some time in weekly to keep my topic constantly fresh in my head. I have mainly be concentrating on reading articles and literature that relate to my topic. I am currently trying to put together a literature review and I'll let you know more about it when I have completed it.

Over the 4 months of my job I made a few observations about dance injury and how people cope. 

• Over the 4 months every dancer struggled with some sort of injury ranging from muscle ache to pulled muscles.
• Not once did any of the dancers take any more time off than 1 dance in the show which particularly aggravated the injury.
• None of the dancers sought out any help from a doctor, physiotherapist or psychologists during the length contract.
• Most dancers resorted to ibuprofen gels, tiger balm and massage techniques in order cope with the injury during a show.

Having witnessed and also be part of these observations I feel I am growing a greater understanding of the psychological mind of a dancer and I think I can use my experience over the summer as good examples in my research.

Having observations is all good but now I need to get down to the hard written work so I need to get into my surveys, interviews and reviews. It seems like quite a lot but I am glad I had done so much planning last module as it has set me up well for now.

Good luck everyone for your next term and I look forward to seeing how you all get on.

x

6c - Award Title (part 2)

After talking with Alan, he advised me to simplify my award title. This would make it more relevant to my expertise and more beneficial in the future. So this is my revised award title rationale.

I have chosen, BA (hons) Professional Practice (Dance) as my Award Title for this course. Having already gained a Level 6 National Diploma in Professional Dance I have established a profound knowledge in dance and performance, especially in classical ballet. My understanding of the physical and performance side of dance gives me first hand experience into what a dancer goes through psychologically and how that affects them which has aided my learning and inspired me to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. My training has brought me into contact with many people who have had a career in dance and have undergone injury and I have found it interesting to observe the variety of responses shown by the injured dancers and how it has affected them both in the short and long term.

The biggest factor in choosing my Award Title was ensuring that it would be beneficial to me in the future. Although currently I am a performer I want to able to have the option to have a smooth transition into other aspects of dance and I think this award title will aid that. Having a Degree in Professional Practice (Dance) is something that can be valuable in a variety of different jobs within the dance world and I am interested in one day in transitioning to dance therapy. Therefore having a good understanding of dance and the way dancers think will establish a good base to allow me to progress smoothly into a future career.

Critical Reflection on Professional Practice

Developed Professional Questions

This course helped me to actively reflect on how to personally and professionally develop an area of performance of my choosing. I really enjoyed this freedom that allowed me to look into a lot of aspects of dance and really discover what interested me. By identifying questions I found that these stimulated me to come up with ideas that constructed my final line of inquiry. 

I began by brainstorming a selection of questions which looked into a few possible approaches of my inquiry (Appendix 1). I found that a lot of my themes were based on pressures that dancers have to face and raised questions about how that psychologically affects them, this affirmed that psychology was what I was interested in. I then came across a piece of literature which really inspired me (Appendix 2) and it allowed me to refine my questions down to a specific subject which was the psychological effects of dancers with injuries. My special interest group (SIG) has been an efficient way to share questions and receive advice about all our topics and it allowed me to engage with others, build on ideas and encounter new ways of thinking (Appendix 3).

Ethical Considerations

Having developed a greater ethical awareness as well as acknowledging my own morals has led me to an understanding of my power as a researcher in my studies. I recorded my initial awareness of ethical considerations (Appendix 4). From there I was able to identify the gaps in my knowledge and Reader 5 opened up my eyes to ethics and how concepts such as right and wrong have many overlapping areas which are subjective to an individual (Appendix 5).

My new understanding and being able to discuss these concepts with my SIG group allowed to me engage my knowledge and pin point what ethical considerations were relevant in my inquiry.

Tools of Inquiry

Throughout this module I have been able to refine methods for gathering information for my inquiry. By creating a pilot survey and interview I was able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of these methods (Appendix 6). 

After reflecting on the initial results I decided that I would take a completely different approach to my survey focussing my questions which had been too broad and did not lead to useful results. Also feedback from my interview allowed me to get the participants perspective ensuring that they felt comfortable and the questions were relevant. Contribution and feedback within my SIG group has made a huge impact on this section of the module as it has allowed me an insight into other peoples ideas, adding to my own reflections.

Realising how beneficial this module has been in preparing me for my inquiry has allowed me to feel confident in tackling my topic of inquiry. I have learned that communication is the key element in developing me even further personally and professionally and I feel that I have come a long way from the beginning of module 1.

(Appendix 1) - http://rohannecb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/task-4a-questions.html

(Appendix 2) - http://rohannecb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/task-4b-literature.html

(Appendix 3) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1453841404846242/

(Appendix 4) - http://rohannecb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/task-5a-ethics.html

(Appendix 5) - http://rohannecb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/5c-reader-5.html

(Appendix 6) - http://rohannecb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/6b-reflections-on-inquiry-tools.html

Thoughts on injured dancers in Schools

Something that I remember from when I was in training was that when a dancer was injured, yes they did get support from the physio and the option to use the gym and remedial facilities within the building however there was no regard to their psychological well being. Injured dancers would be required to watch all dance classes (unless excused with a physio appointment or rehabilitation classes). I understand this can be very educational and can keep them up to date with what their classmates are learning but often long days having to sit and watch daily classes left the injured dancer feeling sidelined, bored and dejected. I think this came about due to a lack of understanding for the psychological well being of injured dancers.

Although it is good for the dancer to watch things and learn from their peers I think that classes like daily technique class is not so vital. Often it can be very repetitive (some teachers may teach the same class for up to a week to help dancers feel an improvement every day they do it) and I think watching all your peers up and doing a full day of dancing will make the injured dancer want to dance or cause them to feel depressed that they are unable to. This can lead to dancers pushing through their injury before it has fully recovered or even if they have experienced it before it can prevent someone reporting an injury because they do not want to be taken off dance be the physiotherapist.

This shows that people do not really know how to support an injured dancer and people seem to not know what to do with them so they just make them watch classes. Personally I think there should be other things set up for injured dancers for example, maybe they could spend some time in the costume department or technical department. This would allow the dancer to learn abouts new things that interest them and are still related to dance, it would also keep their minds off their injury and the fact they are currently unable to dance. In my inquiry I want to study this and find ways that dancers can do this for themselves in order to help themselves feel psychologically better.

6b - Reflections on Inquiry Tools

I attempted two pilot methods that I may use when writing my inquiry. I found them both interesting but they both produced very different qualities of information and piloting the techniques have allowed me to learn from the experiences so I can produce better results when doing them for real. I may try other techniques later, but these are the two I have attempted so far.


Pilot Survey

I created a pilot survey in order to test techniques which I may use as part of my research for my inquiry, it allowed me to survey a wide range of people and the responses were kept anonymous. Firstly, one thing I noticed is that I did have minimal responses to my survey. This makes is harder as the statistics produced may not be accurate to a larger scale but barring that some my findings were interesting. Everyone who I surveyed had suffered a dance related however two thirds of these people did not seek medical attention from the first signs of injury which backs up statistics which I had found in my research. I found this method produced a lot of similar answers and not always were the most detailed responses.

Here are some quotes from my survey which were responses to questions regarding dancing with injury, pushing through pain and coping with injury;

• "It feels a failure to be taken off due to injury"
• "Fear of disappointing others"
• "I thought it wasn't worth being off for such a small injury"
• "I just used to grin and bear it"
• "Technique and overall happiness is going to suffer"

I found some of these responses pretty worrying. Although I hope all these dancers have recovered from their injuries it worries that mentalities like this will make dancers dance through injuries or push them until they are worse and this could lead to the injury becoming too severe to continue dancing. Responses like these make me determined to establish ways to help dancers find the right help and support physically and mentally.

Although this tool did help gather some interesting information I am not sure I will use it in my inquiry or I will devise more specific questions that ensure I gather the information I need. I just found that not many people have the time or patients to complete surveys which resulted in a lack of responses and I think I could get in precise responses in an interview. However, it may be more useful is I created very simple multiple choice questions. This would mean that it wouldn't take very long for people to complete and it would allow me to create statistics with the results. 

Pilot Interview

I found this a very useful technique as I could produce a higher quality of information. My plan for my final interviews is that I am going to interview two dancers that have suffered injuries which has stopped them dancing for a certain period of time, with the information gathered I am going to create case studies based on what they went through and then use these case studies to work with a psychologist and discuss how to go about supporting this person and what would be the best ways to help someone cope during a time of injury. 

Due to the nature of my inquiry I am asking a lot of personal questions about the persons emotions and feeling during the times of their injury so firstly I wanted to create a consent form to ensure they were comfortable with me studying their situation and I decided to keep them anonymous when sharing my information. I also decided that I would try to create a comfortable atmosphere where the person was in an environment they knew and felt relaxed. I also created key questions that I wanted to ask during the interview but as the person answered I tried to keep it relaxed so it was like a conversation, so that all the questions are covered but the person is comfortable to reveal their emotions. I also used a voice recorder as I wanted the person to remain anonymous and I also felt that some people might feel a bit uncomfortable in front of a camera. I found this technique very informative and I am definitely going to use it as a tool in my inquiry.

6c - Award Title Rationale

I have written this as my rationale. I have tried to cover all the points I thought were necessary but I am not sure if I have done it quite right. One thing I was slightly concerned about was that my inquiry is more focused on the psychology of dancers specifically with injuries but I thought that would be too much to put in the title so I thought I'd broaden it. Anyway, have a read and see what you think and please comment feedback and any improvements I can make. Thanks you.


I have chosen, BA (hons) Professional Practice (Psychology in Dance) as my Award Title for this course. Having already gained a Level 6 National Diploma in Professional Dance I have established a profound knowledge in dance and performance, especially in classical ballet. Since beginning this course I have focused my research and learning on the psychological aspect of dance as it is something that has always interested me however never had the opportunity or resources to research it in depth. My understanding of the physical and performance side of dance gives me first hand experience into what a dancer goes through psychologically and how that affects them which has aided my learning and inspired me to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. I knew that my title would definitely be based around dance as that is where my knowledge lies but I also decided to add the psychological aspect as that is what I am studying and what I have based my inquiry on. 


The biggest factor in choosing my Award Title was ensuring that it would be beneficial to me in the future. Although currently I am a performer I want to able to have the option to have a smooth transition into other aspects of dance and I think this award title will aid that. Having a knowledge in Psychology is something that can be valuable in a variety of different jobs within the dance world and I am interested in one day in transitioning to dance therapy. Therefore having a good understanding of a dancers psychology will establish a good base to allow me to progress smoothly into a career in dance therapy. Subsequently, the combination of all these aspects resulted in me naming my Award Title Psychology in Dance. 

6a - Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QBC5KYP

Hello, I have done a survey for my topic which is based on the Psychological effects of injury in dancers. I think the majority of people in the dance world have suffered some kind of injury during their training or career whether big or small so I would appreciate if you could fill out my survey. I have posted it to my SIG groups but I think this can apply to any dancer so feel free to go through it even if we are doing very different topics.

Please comment any advice, ways to make it better or bits that don't make sense.

Thank you!!

Click here to take survey

5c - Reader 5

"Religion and law are both closely associated with morals and ethics."

It is interesting going into more detail about ethics and the above quote from reader 5 somes up something that reader 5 has really opened my eyes to. Having thought about personal ethics and my own understanding of ethics, I found it interesting learning more about the theories of ethics and how that can affect moral and ethical decisions. There are two main types of ethics which I understand.

Personal Ethics - Family Values, Conscience, Religions. These ethics help define you as a person. They can be affected by your upbringing and experiences throughout life.
Professional Ethics - Theres are the guidelines which are set in a professional environment which allow you to work in a comfortable and efficient manner.

The word ethics comes from the greek word ethos which means character. This links in a lot with personal ethics and it made me think about how your personal ethics really do affect your character and how come come across to another person. I think having good ethics makes you come across as a nicer person and people are more comfortable to be around you and friends with you.

One thing that really stood out to me in the reader were that there are a variety of overlapping opinions when it comes to ethics. A good way of showing this was shown the the table provided in the reader showing the approaches to lying. 

Action - Lying

Consequentialist:	Deontologist:	Virtue Ethicist:
could be acceptable for a greater good	always wrong	moral behaviour & character as important as action

This table shows 3 opinions on the act of lying and how they differ from one another and I think that they can all apply to certain situations. I think that having these overlaps are good as it allows some variety in ethical codes as long as they are applied in the right situation. For example the reader uses the quote, 'To kill one person in order to save 9' when describing consequentialism, and for me in that this is understandable. But I feel that this is only appropriate in certain situations.

Articles

Here are a couple of articles which I have come across through facebook which I found interesting. I think they touch on things that many dancers will experience and they are worth a read! Enjoy

http://industrydancemagazine.com/2014/03/why-i-will-never-be-quite-good-enough/

http://www.janetlcastillo.com/2014/03/how-to-know-when-its-time-to-give-up-on.html

Task 5a - Ethics

There are a lot of ethics that arise in many social situations. As a nation Britain is particularly known for having a lot of ethics, such as the well known stereotype of how Great Britain "loves" to stand in queues, but in the workplace there are also a lot of ethics that are followed which are often subconsciously.

What is Ethics? My understanding of Ethics is that is a group of moral principles that governs a person's behaviour during an activity, in this case in a professional environment. It is what guides us about what is the right and wrong way to act in situations.

Within the workplace of a dancer there are certain ethics that apply which may differ from ethics in day to day situations or other workplaces. Below I have made a list of a few ethics that come to mind in different situations

In the Studio

• Being quiet and respectful when others are dancing
• Respecting other people space
• Listening and applying corrections given by teacher/peers
• Allowing each person equal time in the space (In a pas de deux class equal time with a partner)
• being aware of health and safety in the classroom
• To be friendly and helpful to other classmates

At a Performance

• Being respectful of someones pre-performance preparations
• Allowing space in the wings for people getting on and off stage
• Being quiet backstage
• Helping someone who may be struggling with a costume or quick change
• Being aware of health and safety in the theatre

These are just a few things which I thought of off the top of my head, some apply in both categories and I am sure there are many more which we apply automatically in situations.

Task 4d - Literature

I have found while researching my inquiry a piece of literature which struck my attention made me interested to look into it more. It is titled "Psychology of Dealing with the Injured Dancer" and can be found if you Click Here. 

It begins with stating a few statistics which is what first interested me into the topic. Some of which are;

• 97% of dancers suffer from injuries
• fewer than 50% of dancers injuries are treated by a physician
• 43% of dancers continued training against their physicians advice

These statistics alone show some of the characteristics which are present amongst dancers which prevent them from seeing a physician. I think it opens up some more questions as to what stops dancers from seeking and applying the help required to prevent and improve injuries and what is the psychological and physical impact of this.

Is having a injury normal in the dance world? 

Honestly, I think it is. Dancers are very determined people and often have little 'niggles' during the long hours and tough training that is required in their profession. Being a dancer myself I am guilty of just brushing off a little ache or pain for nothing and just pushing through it and thinking that as dancers we have to put up with with pain as part of our career. In many cases these pains do just fade away to nothing but in some situations they have the risk of leading to long term or even career-threatening injuries. 

So why as dancers do we allow that risk?

There are many pressures for dancers not to be injured and unless you really can't move sometimes it doesn't feel worth it to take time off for an injury. Being injured or taking time off can mean, falling back on training, missing out on a performance experience and in certain professional situations it can mean not being able to work or losing a job. Knowing myself and most other dancers, we will push through the pain in order not to lose these opportunities. From my experience the social culture of the dance world means we always question what doctors say. Being very in touch with our bodies means we can feel and understand what is going on and I often notice that people who do see someone for an injury questions their physicians judgement as there is maybe a lack of communication or understanding which put dancers off going to the doctor. Also as we push our bodies to the extremes some of the recovery exercises seem trivial in comparison to our regular training which causes a dancer to ignore the advice given.

What are the physical barriers preventing dancers seeking help?

Firstly most dancers may struggle financially and if there current work/training place does not supply medical help it means going out to pursue help for yourself which may be costly. Also dancers require special help and finding doctors with experience and an understanding in dancers and the way they use their bodies can be difficult which can be hard. These specialist doctors are hard to find and are often not found on the nhs therefore they have to be sought out and are often more expensive treatments. As most of dancers injuries are from overuse they are rarely treated as an emergency therefore they can often be on long waiting lists to get treatment which is disagreeable with a dancers schedule.

I think this article really made me think about how myself and people around me thought about injuries and it has really made me think about what I would do if coming across and injury in the future. I think as a group we are a bit stuck in our ways with the way we think about injuries but if we are made more aware of them maybe we could prevent them from becoming more threatening.

I hope this helps people

Pressures

I found this online and I found it quite interesting. It focuses on the pressures that fall upon a young dancer from a few different angles including parents, money, teachers and self pressures. Its a good read and links to a few good articles if you are interested in this for your inquiry.

http://www.shsoutherner.net/a-e/2011/12/01/teenage-dancers-endure-pressure-from-all-angles/

Rohanne x

4b - Special Interest Groups

How are people creating their SIG's? I have been looking through a few peoples blogs and I think a lot of your inquiries will cross in one way or another so it will be good to have some way of chatting! I know that Laura has invited me to a page on fb that we could all use to connect our SIG groups although currently I think so far Laura and I are the only people who like it. Click Here for a link to that page if you are interested. Also if you would like to connect with me on facebook the link to my profile is https://www.facebook.com/rohanne.compsonbradford or search for Rohanne Compson-Bradford and you'll find me.

Thanks x

Task 4a - Questions

So after having a little break from blogging lets get back into the swing of things and dive right into module two. 

It has taken me a lot of time to think about my inquiry and I am not 100% sure of the direction I am going to take it in but hopefully over this module it will become clearer. Reader 4 states that module 2 is designed to "explore a topic that will benefit your work and the work of colleagues and fellow professionals." When thinking about my topic I want to explore new aspects which I am not as familiar with that will hopefully cause me to grow as a professional and benefit me in the future as well as others around me.

I have noticed a lot of people on this course look into teaching as part of their inquiry and although I do teach and am very interested in this subject I have decided to steer my inquiry away from this and try and broaden my knowledge on other aspects of the dance world and look more into the psychology of dancers in different situations and stages in their career.

So to start that learning process I have come up with a few questions on a few different angles of my inquiry.

• What are the main pressures for a dancer?
• What are the psychological and physical effects of long term injury on a dancer?
• How do dancers cope after finishing college and are put into the professional dance world without the securities of training?
• How does being jobless/between jobs effect a dancer?
• What methods can you use in order for a dancer to cope with the strains of the industry?

I understand my questions are not fully refined and but I need peoples help and comments to allow me to expand on these and create new questions and aspects to explore.

Thank you