In my industry organisation is key, whether it comes to being on time for a class at college or on time for an audition or on time for an interview. Across all the literature I have been focusing on the theme of organisation categorises as a transferable skill across all careers and of course organisation is key for daily life.
Gaining the skill of being organised has been an interesting one to talk about with my respondents. There was an even split between the participants I spoke to who had performance background, some saying they were very organised, to others saying they were the complete opposite. As a performer myself I automatically stereotyped all performers to be like me and thought of them as super organised people, HOW WRONG I WAS! I think it is safe to say that although organisation is key for some jobs there is a scale to how organised someone can be and this slides more into a personal trait dependent on the person not dependent on what they do. Again an even split on some people I spoke to who had never taken any performing arts training, some saying they were organised and others saying the opposite.
What I found particularly interesting was the further up in status the people I spoke to were in a job role, the more organised they perceived themselves to be, from interviewing certain individuals this became clear that the amount of responsibility a job entails is the outcome of how organised you have to be.
Literature out there does again stereotype performers as being organised people, and does suggest that this comes from the training they have received, it was interesting to see those in my industry didn't feel they had a skill what I thought was already second nature to my training.
Saturday, 4 November 2017
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Themes - PRESENTABLE
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.
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.
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!!
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