November 7th in London

I am presenting work- Light Steps at Stratford Circus on November 7th, 11:30am & 3pm performances. Come along if are in London (!).
Please pass on information to people who you think might be interested.
Here is a link too: https://stratford-circus.com/event/light-steps/

Passing on MDX info!!

"I would be extremely grateful if you could pass the information and attachments below to your 1st, 2nd, 3rd year and MA students or alumni you may still be in touch with. Please encourage them to contact myself at bhybriddance@gmail.com with any questions.

Creation Box London have set up a 5 hour intensive workshop where a limited number of participants will have the opportunity to join B-Hybrid Dance in an intimate and exclusive environment. Participants will be given unrestricted access to the company's creative process, exchange with company members, delve into company repertoire and explore new ideas with artistic director Brian Gillespie.

Since we no longer run regular classes in London, we wanted to let our contacts and friends know about this opportunity first hand. 

When? Saturday 31st of October 11am-4pm.

Where? Creation Box London, Make Space Studios, Newham Terrace, SE1 7DR. (Closest station; Lambeth North / Waterloo)

How much? £20

Spaces are limited and must be reserved by emailing rachel@creationboxlondon.com asap. "

Writing for Dance Professional Practice Summer Intensive

Hi,

Just a note / dates for your diary - We're holding our a Summer Intensive this August!  Some info for now, with more to follow;

The Dance and Writing Professional Practice Summer Intensive will take place August 17th-21st 2015 and will be held at Middlesex University's Hendon Campus, London.

The programme has been designed in response to feedback from students on both the  BA Professional Practice (arts) and MAPP DTP programmes concerning the transition from vocational training, performance work, independent practice, studio teaching into studying within a university environment and being able to confidently share rich bodies of experiential knowledge through academic writing.

The programme intends to address these transitions through a mix of studio (practical) dance classes and classroom sessions;  accessing and developing literature reviews, citation methods, academic writing structures and written expression of physical experiences, engaging with social media and web 2.0 online developing confidence in online learning and sharing.

Each day will begin with a movement class followed by sessions looking at text, research skills and writing to help students develop confidence in what they have to offer as academic students and to encourage students to draw on their somatic knowing of movement to inform their ideas and writing.

The Summer Intensive will be open for booking and a full programme available through the MDX online store by the end of the month, we just wanted to flag up the dates to you now appreciating that you're probably in the process of planning your summers!


Provisional Details:
Dates: August 17-21, 2015
Costs: £350 (Full) £250 (concessions/unwaged)
Venue: Middlesex University London NW4 4BT
Facilitators: Adesola Akinleye and Helen Kindred
Bookings and Payment online: www.mdx.ac.uk/onlinestore
The programme is open to all current students, alumni and enrolling students for the coming academic year, and would be a great opportunity to come together and learn more whatever stage you are at.  

We look forward to seeing some of you there!
Let me know if you are interested, or have any questions.

Adesola

Up-coming events

It is great to go to conferences and other dance/arts events. You can meet other people inquiring into their practice share ideas.

Check out this at MDX in December

http://transmissionperformancesymposium.wordpress.com

Saturday morning

Today is another day full of activity. I am really looking forward to the performance tonight. Of yesterday I have been thinking most about the Dancing Earth company and the papers presented in the first panel I went to yesterday. My presentation was about the ethics of the work I created in 2010 (the Jingle Dress) and this company works within the same issues. I am hoping I can do some kind of collaboration with them because it is so exciting to find other people exploring the same ideas you have. Overall the conference so far has been really stimulating hearing all the interesting work people are doing in dance. Today I am planning to go to some panels that explore more pedagogical issues.

My presentation went well (I think), like a performance, I can never really remember what happened once I start going!!! I had done so much work on identity issues in preparation (and in the paper itself) and I did not feel I talked about that but then I hope that this work on identity was thread through the whole presentation. When I get back after the conference, I will work toward having a definitive version of the paper. Two useful answers to my ethical questions from the audience were:

The need to keep returning to the community (audience) from which the work is contextualised to hear how they are reading the work and get feedback. This resonates with my artistic principle of community in my work.  

The other was to more clearly see the work I create as a response to the experience I have. It is personal response and not trying to be the end-all to any issues but is a product of my own reflective processes.

Adesola

Dance education

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8707656/A-level-results-tough-subjects-should-carry-more-Ucas-points-says-David-Willetts.html

A comment I wrote in response to the Daily Telegraph article. What do you think?

The implications of David Willetts comments in the Daily Telegraph values a system that privileges a form of study that is no longer viable in a globalised world. The internet has happened!! And this has changed the shape of knowledge by calling for a differentiation between information and application. Knowledge is no longer about an access to information that the Academy offered because ‘you can Google it’ now. Knowledge is about how that information is contextualise in terms of application – what does it mean, what action does it initiate.  It is here that the globalisation of the internet has spawned a most interesting dichotomy because the disembodied realm of cyber-space has entered us into a 21^st century where value is no longer in knowing the theory – the information - it is in the practical, embodied action of application – what you do with it. We can no longer justify the divide between theory and practice. 

We live in a Western world that has the experience of modernism, and post-modernism and yet the sum of Willett’s comments seems to reveal a reversion to ‘I think therefore, I am’ as if the body were an unnecessary adornment to the brain muscle. If this was so the internet would be all we needed in order to be educated, we wouldn’t need to go to University, anyway, just sit at our computer screens but we know that in order to understand we need to experience. We are embodied beings not thoughts. Knowledge is derived from information that is made meaningful through experiences.

At the very least we must not fertilize the misconception of a divide between mind and body by sentencing the mind to an education that is experienceless because it is bodiless. By privileging a static theoretical approach we could make it impossible to have a fully rounded education. At a basic level Willets comments indicate an education that will disadvantage UK students by locking them into a system that is not fit for the purpose of being productive in a 21^st century globalised world but instead hangs to the simplification of ideals and languages that were current hundreds of years ago.

But there is a further point here that the potential for knowledgeable understanding is actually denied when it is channelled into one way of perceiving the academic experience. There is no argument that dance at ‘A’ level needs to prove its worth within the context of theoretical math ‘A’ level. Any more than theoretical Math should have to prove itself within the context of the embodied understanding of dance. The point is the place these two have in the development of higher understanding. Dance ‘A’ level is the beginning of the road to physical literacy (Whitehead) and embodied cognition that are as vital to knowledge as a basic level of understanding the concept of calculus because ultimately we are in a lived world where knowledge will be acted upon, performed by us. The mind is the reflective action of the body, a knowledge across these is vital.

To condemn UK students to a hierarchy of subjects, as is suggested, is to impose limited access to whole swaths of well established academic themes, theories, literature, embodied practise and ‘knowledge’, that almost becomes a form of censorship and certainly will isolate UK educated students within the wider academic arena of the world.

- Adesola Akinley

Respect

Respect

I don’t know what you all think of us – making you do tasks and then making you write 750 words or 3000 words telling us you did it. It is such a power, control thing to do. Especially when most of the words just tell us, we were right to make you do it. It’s like having your own set of groupies. Do you really think that’s what we want?  Because I can stare at my own navel in the mirror. And what do you think of us if that is what you think I spend my time getting people to do?

The internet is a good example that knowledge is out there it does not belong to someone – there was a time when you did have to rub your ‘teachers’ the right way to get them to share their pearls of wisdom but now you can Google it!

What do you do with it then? All that information: how can it be useful to you? What value is it? What relevance is it? We are saying that in your Professional Practise there is knowledge ‘out there’ both in the day-to-day activities you undertake and in the literature and conversations and in the networks of people and we want to help you find a way to value it. We don’t know what it is you tell us!!! It is not my value of it, it is yours, your voice.

A respectful voice, no body is asking you to critic Dewey or Kolb and decide they are wrong! Just respectfully find a starting place for yourself because what you do has an effect. You are part of the community of people you work and live and internet with.

What has it meant? How do you see it and who else sees it like that? What do you know you don’t know? Can you surprise yourself and completely change your mind?  What do you love to learn about and do? Dare your self to step beyond your schooling, class, culture, gender, time!!

Respect for your work: As always PLEASE put your name on things, page numbers, name documents with your name plus what they are.  See my past blogs.

What do you think?

Adesola

Q & A

The 750 words and what is to actually go into it? (3002)
This what you will be assessed on NOT the tasks themselves. It is a summary of your learning, your experience over this module. You should be able to talk about your learning in terms of your reflections on your experiences and in terms of the theories we have introduced in the readers and be able to link these two. You should cite or refer to blogs and things that have happened around the tasks. And you should cite published work by others. It is a very short amount of text (750 words) because we want you to spend time distilling the experience of the whole term. Does that make sense?   


Also when I've completed it am I able to send it you to have a look at? (3002)
Yes, I think you should aim to send your advisor a draft for comments by mid-April (or whenever they have indicated). Then You will have time to work on feedback. You do not have to do this but I think it helps.


I'm back in England on May 7th, although I don't know what stage of the course that'll be at? (All)
Important point: May 6th is the hand-in date for your assessed work.



I'm a little stuck for idea's on what my award title could be. (3835)
You should try to make your title about what you've done rather than what you plan to do. It is meant to reflect the knowledge you have gained in your experiences. Experiences are not always recognised as legitimate knowledge and the title is a way for you to show that you learnt something even though it may not have been through formal education. (i.e. it was through formal education but also through work based learning.) The title will be awarded because you prove you have the knowledge not as something to point you into a direction for the future.


What do you think? By now you should be feeling some ownership of the module you are on. Leaps of faith are great but you also need to fight to make things work for you. Trust that the modules have something to say and take the time to find the questions you need to ask to help you better understand. The right questions are often more valuable than answers, the art is in asking them and making sure they are not just ways you handover ownership of your process to someone else. If you do not trust that the course has something of value then either find a way to get your advisor to explain it or consider if it is for you BUT do not do nothing and find excuses for why you are not getting on with things. 


....comments?
Adesola

Lines-of-enquiry

I have been watching a DVD of the Rockford Files. I used to watch it when I was really young! It was on in 1977-78. The interesting thing is that the story-lines cover: identity theft and a person hacking computer systems. I would never have noticed these topics back in 1970's but these stories raise questions that are still valid today even with so much development in those areas.

What it made me think was that lines of inquiry are often quite hidden until they are given meaning by your experience.

The identity theft is recognisable to me as something interesting now because I understand it but back in 1977 it was not contextualised by my experience, so I missed the idea. When I learnt about identity theft maybe ten years ago, I did not refer back to Jim Rockford. I felt as if I was learning about it for the first time! I did not remember the Rockford Files story-line because I did not have a way to give it meaning at that time. In this way you can feel you have discovered something new when actually you have noticed something that was already out there.

When I watched the episode about computer hacking (the computer fills a whole room) I thought wow that's so forward thinking of them. This is because I am fixing the idea of computer hacking in the future at the time I finally became aware of it. It is only "forward thinking of them" if I place it as an idea that happened when I became aware of it myself, rather than an idea in itself.

This can happen in dance class too. You are told a correction again and again and then one day it makes sense, has meaning and it appears to be a new idea, often one you want to share, spread the word about.

I am talking about being aware of your own ability to see. We see what we value.
1) So look at your experience and the things you value as a doorway to finding MEANING in a line of inquiry.
2) If we are so limited by our own value systems then it makes sense why ethics is a part of this picture here. We need structures to check we look beyond our own values and practical ways to measure or be aware of the impact we are having on others.
3) Its good to laugh a little at our own conceit at 'discovering' things!! This allows us to let go of ideas as our experience changes our perspective.
4) You can see how looking at what other people have written about it, the Literature, can help you avoid telling everyone you have just discovered the wheel!
What are you finding?
Adesola

What's going on / what was 3002?

Think of the blogs like a campus. If we were all on campus we would meet and chat. You might listen to a lecture or chat to a friend to learn more about the course. But we are all around the world so we have the blogs instead. When you put things on your blog people will visit and chat about what you said, likewise you should go to other peoples blogs and comment. At first all we are doing is taking stock of how the Web 2.0 works and what role it plays in our lives already. We (the tutors) feel Web 2.0 is an important tool in Professional practise today. 

Follow the tasks in the module handbook. Each one is an activity that will give you an experience. We want you to think about (reflect on) the experiences. Think about them in terms of your normal working week too. See if any of the task activities affect, help resonate with your normal professional practises. At the end of the module we will be asking you to summarise what you have learnt from doing the task activities. We will ask you to point us to the places and conversations (blogs) where you learnt something. The biggest thing is to get going with the blog and visiting other people. 

Hey, old 3002ers can you make any comments. Does that sound like what you did last session or is it more complicated, or easier that I make it sound? How are you all doing new 3002ers?

Adesola

Twitter

In January I am going to try to tweet more often. I was thinking of sending useful ideas (!) and reflections. If you want to follow I am  adesolaa

Rhizome

Hi
I don't want to confuse things but I read about a really interesting idea this week. It is in a book about Deleuze & Guattari (Post-modern): Rhizome structures. That is like grass lots of shoots that are connected running along them as a posed to the tree model where things develop and branch off from one thing. The Rhizome (grass) has an interesting implication on the connectivity we have all talked about. Also makes you think more about all the odds and ends that may be sticking out in your mind as you start to write the assessed work. Things may not connect in a linear straight way. Ideas (blades of grass) from one end of the field may connect to ideas (grass) at the other end but you just need to look carefully at the structure through which you are looking for connections.

Poem (4)

Call in times

I met an old friend in the mirror

And promised her I would not let her disappear.

Then looked at my diary and tried to fit her in again sometime soon…

Our loving meeting: where she moved across the floor timid and still quite hurt

Left me with promises of salads and time

I wonder how good a friend I am to all the work she did when she was younger.

I met old friends who appeared out of the crowd

And hugged me

“Oh my god 16 years, where did it go!”

Then we sat together and I felt the joy of just being with someone who knows me

All the things I think at times I must have imagined: they talk about memories Tripping off the tongue

They are so beautiful and alive

I promise I will email

Left me with a feeling I do belong to the person in the mirror.

Playing with ways to reflect

Hi Guys
Some people have said they haven't got much to reflect on or put in their journal and they are waiting for rehearsal or something scheduled to happen to start (and feel there is something to write about). But this is about teasing out from the every day. In research it is making the familiar unfamiliar (looking at 'everyday' things in new ways) and / or making the unfamiliar familiar (exploring new things and ideas). Here is an idea....
Ten minute poem each night. Take ten minutes to write a poem about anything from your day. These will be good starting points for realising what has effected you or what resonates with you. I am going to try it. Anyone want to join me. I am going to take ten minutes each night for a week to write a poem about my day. Lets see what comes out!!!

Another thing you could do if the poem doesn't sound like something you want to do. Choose a random time at the beginning of the day and when it gets to that time wherever you are or whatever you are doing stop and reflect on where you are. Write something as part of the reflection and then carry on. Again this might help to start to find things in everyday. There is Learning, Live, Love in every minute reflection is about finding meaning.

Can action be reflection?

Melissa wrote an interesting blog about reflection and the reader

More research on Reflective Practice

I commented on her blog as below. I  putting it on my blog because I think it would be interesting to get others peoples take too

The first part of your blog about Kolb is really interesting. I too, find it hard to understand each part when I think of them out context of the cycle. That is as a lone activity. I think it helps to remember thinks can be focus on a larger whole. The whole is the cycle the entry points are just ways to understand the movement of the cycle. BUT if you really want to see where you enter I think it helps to think of ... if you have a plat-pack cupboard kit in front of you what do you do. 1) Just start making it, 2) read all the instructions first, 3) check-out one that's already made or someone else making it, 4) plan out all the stages by putting the parts in order of use. I have trained myself to look at all the parts. BUT the 'real' me would sooner just start and learn as aI do it even if it takes longer than reading the instruction or I end up making something else and have bits left over!!!!!
Anyway the flat-pack question helps me think about the points of the cycle more easily.

Then I want to say a quick word about what you say about reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, Schon and Kottcamp. It is important to check-out what you consider thinking and what you think with. These are not a 'facts'. There are many arguments that define thinking. Your blog implies that thinking and learning are mental / mind activities. I think That the brush strokes of the painter. They are meaningful movements. When I go to look at Van Goth's paintings at the National Gallery I see his brush stroke and they talk to me as deeply as him talking to me would. The movement of the brush strokes have emotion, knowledge, sensitivity, understanding of the flower or chair they create in my eye. I believe reflection-in-action or on-action  is also to do with what you value as reflection. Remember not everything, thoughts or ideas has to have words to it. In dance think of contact improv. there is a physical conversation without words but you know and you exchange ideas.

In answer to the question I pose "Can action be reflection?" I passionately believe that action is reflection. Dewey points out its all very well working out the best way (theory) to do something but to be part of a community (network) it is only useful if you actually do something about it. This is also important to me as a woman because so many western women philosophers did rather than wrote about it and the importance put on words rather than action have led us to loose much of the meaning behind their work. But I am sure I also feel like this because I am dyslexic and constantly justifying my bad relationship with words!!! What do you think?
Adesola

Communities, how we voice 'together' in the Arts can impact on a wider society

Reasons for why the Arts and Education are important