Although when looking at my literature this skill wasn't a large topic that came up, I wanted to blog about my experiences and others close around me. I feel a lot of people on BAPP will be able to relate to this skill. As a performer the way we present ourselves is just as important as our talent. It is the first thing someone will see in an audition. I believe that presentation of the way we dress and look links massively to professionalism. Would you hire somebody who turned up to a job interview in tracksuit bottoms, again this does depend on the job role but most likely not. Unfortunately in careers and everyday life we are a book judged by a cover.
Speaking of my own experience at college we were taught how to correctly do our hair and makeup and this transferred to my professional career as a dancer ensuring costumes were always well presented and I always turned up to work with clean and ironed uniform, a face of make up and I know I always looked presentable. It is in my nature and part of my daily routine to automatically wake up on a morning and look good. As vain as this sounds I wouldn't have achieved half of what I have without having a good appearance.
In interviews when respondents were asked to rank certain skills out of 10, presentation and image for all performers came at a strong 9 and 10, ranking the same level as the importance of their talent. Of Course before I even began the inquiry I knew that presentation would be classed as a transferable skill that would of course benefit in other careers. However not all careers need the focus on how we present ourselves at work so this skill again is career specific.
It is also strange how the way someone presents themselves can sometimes make it very apparent what they do and what status they have within a company. For example we always see managers wearing suits and beauticians always having a full face of make up.
Image could be an inquiry of its own so I am not going to think too hard into evaluating how it can be transferable across other careers but I like to consider it as a personal quality important to performers and a skill that performers get plenty of hands on experience on.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Themes- POSITIVITY
As a performer my positivity grows more and more each day, I put this down to facing so much rejection in the industry and having to brush it off and carry on. Likewise having to be positive on stage even when you might be feeling down. This feeling was shared in the article by Louis Catron - 'What Theatre Majors Learn'
Positivity is something that employers seek in all careers. Learning to accept disappointment is something I think all performers have gone through and speaking to people in interview situations it is apparent to see the performers very briefly speak about something that hasn't worked out for them in their career, there is no dwelling on the situation.
Positivity is massively transferable into other careers, negativity can bring staff within a team down and make them lose their passion for their job or task.
Likewise negativity can link to stress so avoiding this in a workplace is essential. Barbara Fredickson studies the power of positive thinking and quotes "Just as water lilies retract when sunlight fades, so do our minds when positivity fades” (Fredrickson 2009)
So does performing arts give us the skill to be positive, I believe yes because it takes our mind of what is negative and focuses on our passion, in my case to entertain and dance. When I get negative and down about the amount of work I perhaps have for university I can go and do my job and still be positive. All of the performers I spoke to in my interview expressed they were positive people when asked and all could explain why BUT do other careers make us positive people too? I think this skill is career specific, I spoke to a respondent in my interviews who had so many bad comments towards their field that they left their job role, perhaps if they had learnt like we do as performers to deal with this bad feedback and rejection would they have acted the same?
Positivity is an interesting theme that I don't think I have fully explored yet, I would be interested to see how others felt and whether they think positivity is something they gained or did not gain from training in performing arts?
Positivity is something that employers seek in all careers. Learning to accept disappointment is something I think all performers have gone through and speaking to people in interview situations it is apparent to see the performers very briefly speak about something that hasn't worked out for them in their career, there is no dwelling on the situation.
Positivity is massively transferable into other careers, negativity can bring staff within a team down and make them lose their passion for their job or task.
Likewise negativity can link to stress so avoiding this in a workplace is essential. Barbara Fredickson studies the power of positive thinking and quotes "Just as water lilies retract when sunlight fades, so do our minds when positivity fades” (Fredrickson 2009)
So does performing arts give us the skill to be positive, I believe yes because it takes our mind of what is negative and focuses on our passion, in my case to entertain and dance. When I get negative and down about the amount of work I perhaps have for university I can go and do my job and still be positive. All of the performers I spoke to in my interview expressed they were positive people when asked and all could explain why BUT do other careers make us positive people too? I think this skill is career specific, I spoke to a respondent in my interviews who had so many bad comments towards their field that they left their job role, perhaps if they had learnt like we do as performers to deal with this bad feedback and rejection would they have acted the same?
Positivity is an interesting theme that I don't think I have fully explored yet, I would be interested to see how others felt and whether they think positivity is something they gained or did not gain from training in performing arts?
Themes- COMMUNICATION
Communication is a theme that comes up across all literature I have reviewed from module 2
In an article by Louis Catron he expresses that students who study theatre can gain skills in oral communication, something that some people get sent on courses to learn. Performers are often perceived to be good at communicating due to being used to talking in situations like auditions or situations on stage. My own experience of developing my communication skills has definitely come from my work experience rather than my performing arts training, I think communication is something you develop as you mature rather a skill that can be taught in training whether that be performance based or not.
When looking at communication as a life skill and a transferable skill across all careers it is important to consider the act of being a good listener too. This became apparent in my interviews with my respondant's, those that really listened to what I asked and absorbed the information before answering gave good responses in the interview. Body language can really interpret how good of a listener someone is too. Performers as a whole are perceived to be good listeners, especially dancers who express choreography through lyrics and singers who listen to the music etc.
When researching communication in the arts and other careers a book by Michael Lopp called 'Managing Humans' appeared where he simply stated 'A good conversation is a bunch of words elegantly connected with listening'
When working in the school the other week I really noticed that teacher's are some of the best listeners, this is because communication is a huge part of their job role both with staff and pupils.
Therefore when considering communication as a skill I would say that communication isn't due to having performance experience but is developed across all types of occupations.
In an article by Louis Catron he expresses that students who study theatre can gain skills in oral communication, something that some people get sent on courses to learn. Performers are often perceived to be good at communicating due to being used to talking in situations like auditions or situations on stage. My own experience of developing my communication skills has definitely come from my work experience rather than my performing arts training, I think communication is something you develop as you mature rather a skill that can be taught in training whether that be performance based or not.
When looking at communication as a life skill and a transferable skill across all careers it is important to consider the act of being a good listener too. This became apparent in my interviews with my respondant's, those that really listened to what I asked and absorbed the information before answering gave good responses in the interview. Body language can really interpret how good of a listener someone is too. Performers as a whole are perceived to be good listeners, especially dancers who express choreography through lyrics and singers who listen to the music etc.
When researching communication in the arts and other careers a book by Michael Lopp called 'Managing Humans' appeared where he simply stated 'A good conversation is a bunch of words elegantly connected with listening'
When working in the school the other week I really noticed that teacher's are some of the best listeners, this is because communication is a huge part of their job role both with staff and pupils.
Therefore when considering communication as a skill I would say that communication isn't due to having performance experience but is developed across all types of occupations.
Themes - CONFIDENCE
Across all the literature regarding performers and arts in education I have found the theme confidence coming up all the time.
Being a performer myself my own experience of gaining confidence developed the more and more I trained. I put this down to being pushed onto the stage since being young and having to put on a confident front, it is then that I sit down and realise that I am not a confident person at all, I just portray this front of being a confident person. Some performers I spoke to in my interviews felt the same as this, yet when I speak to a few people not having any performance experience they consider themselves very confident, likewise portrayed this act of behaviour in their interview. From my own experiences I can also see that confidence can become arrogance especially in the performing arts industry in the situation of something like an audition.
I found it interesting how some performers shared an experience with me and said they have a confident front yet when the wall is broken down hiding behind it is in fact a shy person. Rather than saying performing arts gives you confidence I would say it gives you the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and become a confident person, it is the individuals choice if they take this opportunity and use it to its full potential.
Do non performers get the chance to step out of their comfort zone as much as performers do? Yes!
A great example of this was an observation I made at work noted in my journal...
A chef was doing a cooking demonstration in the theatre in front of 100 guests. The individual is normally used to hiding in the kitchen yet today put on a head microphone, stepped out of their comfort zone and talked about what they were cooking and how whilst answering questions from guests. Not only did they have to be confident about how they were completing the task of the demo but also the confidence that the food would taste good etc. I thought this was such a good example of showing the way a personal skill like confidence is transferable across all careers.
When searching literature on the life skill what came up was self confidence vs confidence. Self confidence is the act of stepping out of the comfort zone and confidence being the act of doing whatever the task is.
A great read on this topic is a blog by Daniel Fincke that I found online - Daniels Blog
Being a performer myself my own experience of gaining confidence developed the more and more I trained. I put this down to being pushed onto the stage since being young and having to put on a confident front, it is then that I sit down and realise that I am not a confident person at all, I just portray this front of being a confident person. Some performers I spoke to in my interviews felt the same as this, yet when I speak to a few people not having any performance experience they consider themselves very confident, likewise portrayed this act of behaviour in their interview. From my own experiences I can also see that confidence can become arrogance especially in the performing arts industry in the situation of something like an audition.
I found it interesting how some performers shared an experience with me and said they have a confident front yet when the wall is broken down hiding behind it is in fact a shy person. Rather than saying performing arts gives you confidence I would say it gives you the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and become a confident person, it is the individuals choice if they take this opportunity and use it to its full potential.
Do non performers get the chance to step out of their comfort zone as much as performers do? Yes!
A great example of this was an observation I made at work noted in my journal...
A chef was doing a cooking demonstration in the theatre in front of 100 guests. The individual is normally used to hiding in the kitchen yet today put on a head microphone, stepped out of their comfort zone and talked about what they were cooking and how whilst answering questions from guests. Not only did they have to be confident about how they were completing the task of the demo but also the confidence that the food would taste good etc. I thought this was such a good example of showing the way a personal skill like confidence is transferable across all careers.
When searching literature on the life skill what came up was self confidence vs confidence. Self confidence is the act of stepping out of the comfort zone and confidence being the act of doing whatever the task is.
A great read on this topic is a blog by Daniel Fincke that I found online - Daniels Blog
Introduction to Literature reviews
After printing off some articles regarding arts education and performance experience that I briefly encountered in module 2, I wanted to explore them in a deeper meaning, and like in adesolas blogs she tells us to try and find themes within our literature relevant to both our practice and inquiry.
With my title being Do the skills you can gain from performing arts benefit us in other careers and other aspects of our daily lives? I wanted to try and find some skills and themes that come up in the articles that have also come up in my experiences and interviews.
I came across an interesting document online about how we tie different skills into different headings... skills article for example personal skills being like confidence and trustworthiness and work etiquette and transferable skills being organisation and time keeping and communication and finally knowledge based skills being subject relevant, for example a dentist knowing about his field. I thought it interesting how most of the themes that came up in my interviews were all closely related to personal qualities rather than the other types of skill bases.
I have decided to briefly blog on each of the MAIN themes that are slowly being depicted out of my literature and data collection. There are other themes that crop up separately in my interviews and literature but spread across both of these is what I want to focus on. Keep an eye out on further blogs to be published and maybe some themes from your inquiry may be the same as my themes that I am finding, if so I would love to hear about your experiences to further expand on my evidence.
With my title being Do the skills you can gain from performing arts benefit us in other careers and other aspects of our daily lives? I wanted to try and find some skills and themes that come up in the articles that have also come up in my experiences and interviews.
I came across an interesting document online about how we tie different skills into different headings... skills article for example personal skills being like confidence and trustworthiness and work etiquette and transferable skills being organisation and time keeping and communication and finally knowledge based skills being subject relevant, for example a dentist knowing about his field. I thought it interesting how most of the themes that came up in my interviews were all closely related to personal qualities rather than the other types of skill bases.
I have decided to briefly blog on each of the MAIN themes that are slowly being depicted out of my literature and data collection. There are other themes that crop up separately in my interviews and literature but spread across both of these is what I want to focus on. Keep an eye out on further blogs to be published and maybe some themes from your inquiry may be the same as my themes that I am finding, if so I would love to hear about your experiences to further expand on my evidence.
Friday, 27 October 2017
Stressful weeks but productive!
So after it being a month since the academic term started I have to be honest and say these past few weeks have been a struggle and I'm a little behind! I am preparing to go and work for P&O cruise lines but at the same time been working in a school the past two weeks as a holiday club assistant to earn some money before I leave the country to travel the world. Balancing all this as well as uni work and interviews at my previous work has been incredibly hard but slowly and surely I am getting there, throughout this tough time I have kept the odd journal and I want to use this in my inquiry however I am hoping the stresses will ease off a little once I get into the swing of my new job!
I think an important thing to remember for module 3 is to stick to the gant charts we made in our planning and also to not rush the processes into our inquiry.
I enjoyed reading the blogs posted by others about the first chat on Skype for module 3 as it was nice to see the topics discussed were the ones I would have asked about too! Now that I have got stuck in I hope I can feel a little more at ease!
A talk with Adesola my tutor at the start of the term assured me that my new job is only another way to broaden my research and expand on my inquiry so I am looking forward to getting started and doing some obversations in my journal. I will constantly try to keep a weekly blog update on here and likewise I want to be able to comment more on blogs this module so we can all share our thoughts and experiences together.
Hope everyone is getting on well and I'd love to feel that I'm not the only one feeling a little stressed at this point!!
I think an important thing to remember for module 3 is to stick to the gant charts we made in our planning and also to not rush the processes into our inquiry.
I enjoyed reading the blogs posted by others about the first chat on Skype for module 3 as it was nice to see the topics discussed were the ones I would have asked about too! Now that I have got stuck in I hope I can feel a little more at ease!
A talk with Adesola my tutor at the start of the term assured me that my new job is only another way to broaden my research and expand on my inquiry so I am looking forward to getting started and doing some obversations in my journal. I will constantly try to keep a weekly blog update on here and likewise I want to be able to comment more on blogs this module so we can all share our thoughts and experiences together.
Hope everyone is getting on well and I'd love to feel that I'm not the only one feeling a little stressed at this point!!
Tuesday, 22 August 2017
summer is nearly over!
After a long time spent away from blogging and a lot happening in my life i thought it about time to blog an update!
I was pleased with the result of my module 2 work and hope that i can continue working towards the same standard for module 3.
I am INCREDIBLY nervous for the final stages of my degree especially as new opportunities have opened up for me career wise over the summer.... I applied to go and work on cruise ships and am awaiting a final casting day to see if I am successful. This has all come around much faster than I anticipated and is such an exciting prospect but such a worrying one at the same time.... I am scared at the thought of a career change massively affecting my upcoming university work... especially as a contract could begin before the academic term is over, meaning I could be doing the final stages of a degree overseas. I thought the best thing to do would be to wise up and get looking at the copy of the module 3 handbook sent to us by Paula. The last thing I want to be doing is deferring my degree for a later stage so I have decided to begin Module 3 off my own back early and pray that I am doing the right thing work wise. The earlier I start the sooner I finish, and in an ideal world I would love to have completed all written work for submission by the time I was to leave to go on a cruise ship.
Over the summer I have had a bit of time to sit down and study my feedback from module 2 that Adesola sent and have now written my module 2 feedback document to send over. I am aiming by the end of August/beginning of September I will have started my critical review and done the introduction and evaluation of my inquiry... also to start thinking of ideas for an artefact.
The artefact is what i am most worried about, I have had a nosey at some of the previous module 3 ideas and don't feel any of those paths are the way I can go with my inquiry so I am feeling a bit stuck when thinking about what to do. I know it is still early days but I worry I will spend too long thinking of what to do for that, that i wont have enough time to do anything else!
Out of all of Module 3 the thing I am least worried about is the oral presentation, I feel working in the industry I work in that I am already quite a good public speaker and good at socialising, hopefully this will make the process of an oral presentation a bit more relaxed than all the written academic work.
To summarise my feelings at this moment in time I can only say I am petrified, worried and stressed. Hopefully this will change throughout my module 3 experience and I will be able to add these thoughts and feelings from my reflective journal into my critical reflection at the end of the module.
I suppose the most positive outcome of the summer is that I now know, and understand what I am submitting at the end of this module, the task now is to just crack on and do it! easier said than done!
It would be great if there are any module 3 people out there still reading these blogs who can put my mind at rest that it is not all bad to feel the way I do, and that deep down there is nothing to worry about if the preparation is there!
I was pleased with the result of my module 2 work and hope that i can continue working towards the same standard for module 3.
I am INCREDIBLY nervous for the final stages of my degree especially as new opportunities have opened up for me career wise over the summer.... I applied to go and work on cruise ships and am awaiting a final casting day to see if I am successful. This has all come around much faster than I anticipated and is such an exciting prospect but such a worrying one at the same time.... I am scared at the thought of a career change massively affecting my upcoming university work... especially as a contract could begin before the academic term is over, meaning I could be doing the final stages of a degree overseas. I thought the best thing to do would be to wise up and get looking at the copy of the module 3 handbook sent to us by Paula. The last thing I want to be doing is deferring my degree for a later stage so I have decided to begin Module 3 off my own back early and pray that I am doing the right thing work wise. The earlier I start the sooner I finish, and in an ideal world I would love to have completed all written work for submission by the time I was to leave to go on a cruise ship.
Over the summer I have had a bit of time to sit down and study my feedback from module 2 that Adesola sent and have now written my module 2 feedback document to send over. I am aiming by the end of August/beginning of September I will have started my critical review and done the introduction and evaluation of my inquiry... also to start thinking of ideas for an artefact.
The artefact is what i am most worried about, I have had a nosey at some of the previous module 3 ideas and don't feel any of those paths are the way I can go with my inquiry so I am feeling a bit stuck when thinking about what to do. I know it is still early days but I worry I will spend too long thinking of what to do for that, that i wont have enough time to do anything else!
Out of all of Module 3 the thing I am least worried about is the oral presentation, I feel working in the industry I work in that I am already quite a good public speaker and good at socialising, hopefully this will make the process of an oral presentation a bit more relaxed than all the written academic work.
To summarise my feelings at this moment in time I can only say I am petrified, worried and stressed. Hopefully this will change throughout my module 3 experience and I will be able to add these thoughts and feelings from my reflective journal into my critical reflection at the end of the module.
I suppose the most positive outcome of the summer is that I now know, and understand what I am submitting at the end of this module, the task now is to just crack on and do it! easier said than done!
It would be great if there are any module 3 people out there still reading these blogs who can put my mind at rest that it is not all bad to feel the way I do, and that deep down there is nothing to worry about if the preparation is there!
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