This blog is created to support conversation generated from and about the learning process for MA Professional Practice (MAPP) in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries (ACI) at Middlesex University.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Getting down and dirty!!


I just finished a rant blog on community for my BAPP blog (have a look and see what you think!!) and now while I’m in a telling-people-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do kinda mood …

This blog post is about checking you are getting on with it.

Firstly I must say that as an advisor on the course I try to keep my eye on the ball of you getting the most out of the study and I try to filter out admin and anything else that might stop you but you need to keep a breast of it I understand. That being said make sure you are clear that in January RoL students (which the all the module Ones are this year) have to give in about 7 – 10 essays each claiming credits in different areas of your life and Module twos have to have a whole research plan worked out along with reflective reason for why it is constructed the way it is. So make a bucket list of the steps you have to take to do this and start doing it! Don’t wait for admin to work out to start doing X. Don’t get caught-up with setting up your blog set one up already and move on… don’t ponder too long on blog posts or paw over your CV  or try to work out what is best: doing it will tell you. You might ‘go wrong’ but you can’t know until you do it. And we are interested in your learning so if you ‘go wrong’ and can explain why and what you think, what you learnt you will probably have a stronger final paper than if you were perfect all term.
Module Ones: List so RoL and send them out – to your advisor and to your blog get feedback.
Comment on someone else’s RoL and give them feedback.

Module Twos: dive into a question and explore where it goes as you look into the literature on it, the ethics around it and the issues it resonates with on a day-to-day basis.

Courage
What do you think?
Adesola

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Conferences can be interesting to go to!!





Re:Generations Conference
November 1st – 3rd, 2012


Re:Generations is the UK’s largest gathering of dance artists, researchers, choreographers, teachers and students intending to shape future practice in dance from Africa and its Diaspora. After an exceptional inaugural event in 2010, this year’s conference, The Next Generation – Mapping New Futures, will explore how young people and emerging artists engage with African-influenced dance. The conference includes talks, film screenings, workshops and performances by contributors from the Caribbean, the UK and the U.S.A.

This year’s featured international guests are Germaine Acogny, ‘the mother of contemporary African dance’ and founder of L’école des Sables, Senegal; Kariamu Welsh-Asante, Professor of Dance at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA; and Chris Walker, dancer and choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Assistant Professor of Dance/ Artistic Director of the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble at University of Wisconin-Madison, USA.

There will be evening performances in the Robin Howard Theatre on November 1st and 2nd featuring Chris Walker’s Urban Fissure, specially remounted for the conference and performed by UK-based young emerging artists. Walker’s work has been presented in the Caribbean, North and South America, South East Asia and Europe.

Runs 9am – 6pm daily.

Full Conference £100
Concessions £70

Friday 19 October 2012

No matter how far you go, you turn around and there You are!


I have been saying to people this week to be sensitive to observing. The things you write about yourself in passing like “I’ve always been a late starter” or  “I think he’ll be proud of me” or “those at the top of the ladder”, these are all comments that kind of lighten the posts or are sort of thrown away. But I am saying think of them as doorways into you. For you that are just ways to be friendly but that’s because you are used to you. I wouldn’t say them!! - that’s what makes them doorways  that are part of ways you think that you don’t notice but it is these deeper assumptions and practices that you need to explore to be really able to give a critical reflection on what you have done and your skills in your RoLs. For example read
and the comments between Janet and myself.

I think the hardest part of RoL is getting away from yourself! That is pretty hard in making CV’s let alone a deeper look at your experiences that we are asking for. I recently worked on my CV and I got help from a Professor in a completely different discipline from me who I did not know. I had to explain why I had put things in the CV, the order, the importance of things because he was not familiar with the culture of the work I do. But what he saw was the experiences with a lot less me in them than I do. He pointed out things that I took for granted everyone would value or that I had thought nobody would be interested in. And to make sense of what I was saying he linked things in his own narratives of what I was and what I was doing. This is really helpful for seeing things from a different angle and subsequently seeing things in the multidimensional way you need to develop at MA level of work. So comment on each others blog post and try to help by saying what you see, what you understand in the post. That is what our little community on-line is for.

I am trying to share more of what I am thinking. I wrote quite a long blog on BAPP please have a look. Here is a bit of that
“And now for a new section of my post called – what is Adesola doing!!!! Well, I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about some of my experiences this week and see if they resonate with ideas you are having. I have been writing a paper with a friend to present at Re:Generations  in a couple of weeks. We are looking at the interconnectedness of dancer, environment and cultural discourse. We are looking at how cultural and personal identity (which manifests physically through belief systems see some of the references to Dewey in the module handbooks) is affected by the aesthetic of particular dance techniques. How do we as choreographers encourage the dancer to move within the personal nuances of them Selves and also draw of established techniques that do not originate from the cultural indicators the dancer identifies with. This is particularly interesting to me in terms of Contemporary Dance which despite all the world influences at it’s inception (Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham, and Katherine Dunham drawing on North African - Egyptian, Asian - Indian, African, Native American) seems to be Europeanised in terms of ownership. This is a question about ownership of and voice in modernity when one is of the western world but from non-european heritage. Contemporary work that comes from Non-European artists working in Europe seems to be distinct in that it is seen as work that is contemporary with a XXX influence as if XXX (Nigerian, Indian whatever) was fixed in the past and did not have a contemporary manifestation. This second point is the topic for another paper I am presenting in New Mexico at a Dance Conference (CORD) in November. I will be talking about the Jingle Dress, a piece I made and toured UK in 2010 which draws on Native American discourses particularly the Jingle Dress dance.  Here is the New Mexico blurb:

“The paper explores how Contemporary dance’s physicalised inquiry into meaning and principles of being impacts on embodied and cultural identity when it draws on traditional dances as a source. The research takes an ethnographic / case study approach drawing on the experience of creating the performance piece ‘The Jingle Dress’ a 45 minute work for 3-5 year old audiences. Ethnographic data is drawn from having been a part of traditional dances and ceremonies on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota for over 20 years, as well as the creative process of making the work- the Jingle Dress- and responses to the work. For the purposes of this presentation there will be a discussion of how dance shapes cultural identities and personal philosophy. As well as exploration as to whether within a contemporary context shared philosophical principles (such as Pragmatism) and shared embodied approaches (such as dance) can create communities of understanding across cultures or strips cultural identities.”

I will talk more about these two papers (questions) over the next few weeks. I have cited a number of books in the New Mexico paper, here are three you might find interesting:
Johnson, E. P. (2003) Appropriating blackness : performance and the politics of authenticity, Durham, N.C. ; London: Duke University Press.
Seigfried, C. H. (1996) Pragmatism and feminism : reweaving the social fabric, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nikolais, A. and Louis, M. (2005) The Nikolais/Louis dance technique : a philosophy and method of modern dance, New York ; London: Routledge.

These papers are about dance and identity. Identity is something that I think manifests in the activity of Module One – as I imply above the activity of RoL is almost made harder by the assumptions, values and general familiarity of our Selves. It also resonates with the way we go about the research methods study in Module Two.  Since a large part of developing a research project /module is thinking about where the ‘I’ is in the process. The first module that asks you to look so closely at yourself prepares you for the second module which asks you to create a research methodology that is developed out of, and addresses the interests of the professional Self you see yourself as.

Where are you? And how did you get there?
Adesola

Friday 12 October 2012

Week two!!


Wow, we are into the second week hopefully you are starting to organise your thinking in terms of what you need to do through the process of this module.

Module One’s: I think it might be a good idea to read the introductory handbook and highlight the ideas that jump out at you at this stage. This is just so you can look back at where you began later in the year. This whole course is a process and it is being aware of the process itself that will be most helpful to you. That means allowing yourself to change your mind, or develop an idea or notice something new. By noting what first resonates with you, you will be able to mark a kind of beginning point. Getting your blog started and a beginning a reflective diary are two activities that almost need to become habits so it is good to get on top of these as soon as possible. Next for RoL students (which all the September 2012 students are) you need to be really clear about what you are required to hand-in for assessment. This is a document that presents critical discussion about areas of learning you are claiming as prior learning gathered through your experience. You are also writing about them at MA level which is beyond a list of activities or events. MA level is a critical discussion about what these events mean, using events to present themes, and being able to look at your role in the learning process. You kind of need a list of things you’ve done to work from. See my blog post



Module Two’s: this module covers a lot of new things. I think getting the reading of the handbook under your belt as soon as possible is really important.  Then it might be useful to blog about the different types of research models you have experienced before. Also look at a book such as Bell (list in the bibliography in the handbook) might be useful. Look at some of the other literature mentioned in the handbook might also be useful as you construct a new working relationship with research Methods.

What do you think, feel, notice?

Adesola

Friday 5 October 2012

Induction campus session


MAPP (DTP) Welcome back Module Twos, and welcome Module Ones. This is blog to go over some induction points.

The professional practice team includes Helen (Programme Leader) and Adesola – who will be advisors to MAPP students. You will be given an advisor (either Helen or Adesola) your advisor will work with you closely on your process and give you feedback on the work you are submitting. But we see ourselves as a community of learners, we connecting through the blogs and Linked-in discussions. We believe that it is valuable to get a variety of ideas so you are not trapped only talking to your advisor!!

We are so connected via the internet to our BA students and the BA Professional Practice Alan, Paula and Rosemary. Check out their blogs and ideas too. We hope you will explore and communicate the blog world of BAPP too.

Module One-ers -This module has a number of routes through it. All students begin with the Introductory Handbook (found on lib-guides), which has tasks to help you set-up (such as setting-up your blog). This handbook is also intended to start you in the direction you are going as you start. Then according to your prior learning you need to undertake a route (APEL, APL, CPD, RAL) to present to the university for what is required for you to claim that learning. You might want to talk to your advisor to clarify exactly what you need to present for assessment.

Module Two-ers – this module is different from the first one because rather than reflect on your past learning this module asks you to add to your present knowledge by developing research methods and use this new knowledge to plan a research project that will be carried out in Module three. There is a lot to do.

Key points: The hand-in date for this Module is January 7th 2013. The tasks are suggestions for activities that we think will help you with the learning process but they are NOT a part of the assessment. Make sure you are clear about what you need to produce for assessment purposes and what the criteria is for that work. – Read the Handbooks carefully and refer back to them for guidance, and talk to your advisor.

Middlesex University: Please check your enrollment situation: you should have been offer a place by the university and responded to accept the place. You should have a Middlesex student ID card.  Even through you are spending very little physical time on the University Campus you are a University student. You have access to all the support the University offers include the library, and writing services. There is a student welfare team to support you in a range of issues. You can also join places like the British Library. Start to create the world that will support you in this new role of MA student. Start to witness how you work best, where you work best as you find a relationship with this role. Have fun being a student!!!

The Blogs:
As implied above the blogs are a way for us all to connect and still balance our busy family, work and study lives. You do this through two ways: posting blogs and also commenting on other peoples blogs. Try to set-up your blog as soon as possible. Once you have it set-up send the address to your advisor and we will put it on lib-guides so everyone can visit it. Try to blog and check others blogs at least once a week. Remembering your blog is a professional artefact and anyone in the world has access to it. We want to encourage conversation, feel free to have fun with your blog; add films, and links to interesting ideas.

Campus session Oct 5th
The campus sessions are designed to send momentum across the blogs. You do not have to go to a campus session but they should generate ideas to send out across the blogs as people write about the experience of the session. The induction campus session covered the points in this blog but they also made films to send a message out to those who did not attend. If you were someone who attended please comment and add something you found useful to share on the blogs or just tell us a bit about how you are feeling as you start this term. If you were someone who did not go please comment on how you are feeling about the start information. Is there something important you would add to this blog?

Once again welcome to the whole MAPP (DTP) community. We are so excited to be working with you and so excited about the wealth of experience each individual brings to the group.

 Adesola

Conference of interest



Re:Generations Conference
November 1st – 3rd, 2012

Re:Generations is the UK’s largest gathering of dance artists, researchers, choreographers, teachers and students intending to shape future practice in dance from Africa and its Diaspora. After an exceptional inaugural event in 2010, this year’s conference, The Next Generation – Mapping New Futures, will explore how young people and emerging artists engage with African-influenced dance. The conference includes talks, film screenings, workshops and performances by contributors from the Caribbean, the UK and the U.S.A.

This year’s featured international guests are Germaine Acogny, ‘the mother of contemporary African dance’ and founder of L’école des Sables, Senegal; Kariamu Welsh-Asante, Professor of Dance at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA; and Chris Walker, dancer and choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Assistant Professor of Dance/ Artistic Director of the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble at University of Wisconin-Madison, USA.

There will be evening performances in the Robin Howard Theatre on November 1st and 2nd featuring Chris Walker’s Urban Fissure, specially remounted for the conference and performed by UK-based young emerging artists. Walker’s work has been presented in the Caribbean, North and South America, South East Asia and Europe.

Runs 9am – 6pm daily.

Full Conference £100
Concessions £70