From Rhizome to Writing

Hello everyone, I just thought I'd share this, you may well be further along your journey than I am as I feel as if I'm a bit behind, but maybe it could be useful anyway? 

I had been struggling to start writing my paper and in an attempt to get me out of my stress funk yesterday Adesola suggested I get everything out in front of me in the form of a rhizome (I didn't know what this was either until a couple of weeks ago, it's a growing plant that has shoots that are all connected, it creates a good image for an essay evolving.) I was a little apprehensive, as for a dancer I certainly don't consider myself amongst the most creative people and usually approach things in a far more boring and methodical way. As I got stuck into this though I really began to get a sense of how all my thoughts and ideas could be connected and fit together. I’ve attached the image (you can laugh, I know it looks like a 5 year old did it.) 

Each shoot represents an idea or theme that has emerged through my inquiry. As I continued to work on it I began to think more in depth about these ideas, add some new thoughts and realise which areas seemed most prominent. I made new links and got a sense of my journey so far in a more wholesome way.

After doing this I had a chat with a friend about this process, with a view to me picking three important ideas to focus on. I now at least have a starting point to start writing around these themes...It's something about the technique and repertoire of Graham and Graham based practitioners being a way of doing history (rhizome shoot 3) Expectations of a technique class in an educational setting (shoots 2 and 8) and links in dialogue between dance languages in technique class (shoot 9.) This will all hopeful be tied together through my phenomenological data using ethnographic methodology.

Who knows maybe some bits will change when I get going but at least I can begin....!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah

Skype – Sunday 1st November – Making Connections

Thank you so much to everyone else that was at the 10am Skype on Sunday, it was lovely to talk with you!

We spoke about analysis and how across all modules on the MAPP we are required to engage with this process and explore themes that have emerged through our experiences. We spoke a lot about making connections with others and within different areas of our practice. I found talking with others about this really useful as I continue to analyse my data, observations and literature in module three. Thank you Sam, Julie and Anna, as speaking with you was so helpful. Through trying to articulate my learning processes in module one, I was able to identify the ways in which my current stage of analysis is something I already have experience of and in a way just a further development of this. We also spoke a lot about needing confidence to get things done and I think making this comparison contributed to my own self-confidence as I continue with my research.

As Adesola mentioned in her recent post, I have recently made a stronger connection between writing and my other practice, I wrote about this on 28th October below. Through our Skype sessions I really see how discussing our thoughts and ideas enables us to articulate some of the common themes many of us encounter whilst engaging with our study and professional practice on the MAPP. I can now see how my blog has the potential to be another outlet to serve a similar purpose and can contribute be the ‘voice’ to which Adesola referred. I have noticed a heightened awareness of the relationships between the many voices I have: dancing, teaching, learning, writing etc. and how these are really all one voice, my voice.

Over the last week or so I have been continuously mulling over the data collected from interviews, questionnaires and my reflective diary. I have tried to look at where knowledge has been acquired and how I make connections across emerging themes. I have begun to see ways in which these have the potential to be woven into the fabric of my professional practice. I am more aware of other voices from within dance, how they view their world and in which ways alternate perspectives offer more angles and textures to my own understanding.

More specifically I am making connections between the work of Martha Graham throughout history, my teaching of the technique in the UK today and other dance artists' experience of the work and technique of Graham in a UK context. In doing this I am deepening my understanding of my own lived history in dance and how that relates to, and is different to that of others. I am starting to see many similarities in approaches to contemporary technique teaching in 21^st century UK dance as well as how more ‘codified’ vocabularies with a legacy such as Graham, Cunningham, Horton can be used as vessels for transporting and doing history. Throughout this process I am viewing history from a number of angles and as an active means of communicating physical knowledge from the past (see my previous post on 30th Oct.)  In doing this I am also noticing the different ways in which we view our individual personal histories and how these inter-relate and evolve in relation to our physical situation in space, our chronology and our unique day-to-day experiences.

In our Skype Helen spoke about the process of analysis as a journey with many possible doors that could be opened along the way. At the moment I am looking at all of these doors as possibilities, noticing the doors I choose to open or close. The doors others present to me or choose to open or close. These choices provide other options and decisions along the journey. It’s like anything I guess, the more angles you see something from, the more you explore it, the more complex it becomes but also the more clarity you have of some things. When we dance we make connections with our own bodies in time and space and explore the available possibilities. We make connections with other bodies, with the music, with our surroundings and make links, changes, edit our movement processes.

Through analysis we are making connections between one idea and another and between others, and ourselves. Through our Skype sessions and blogs we are opening more doors as we share our experiences and make links between our learning experiences and those of others. At the moment many things seem meaningful and connected yet I still find it difficult to make sense of it all. Hopefully things will come together as I continue to explore, read, write, and share my thoughts and I will begin to understand my journey more thoroughly.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah :)