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

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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.

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