6c Literature Review 2:

What every dancer needs to know to keep up with today's trend and win tomorrow's jobs.

This is an article I found while navigating through the University's databases. It's and extract of the journal Back Stage and has been written by Lisa Jo Sagolla. 

I valued its contents as interesting material of what has been written on self-management skills performers should acquire, in this particular case, for the dancing business. Although it's a peace that has been written a while ago, I believe it isn't far from what the business still requires to be prepared on nowadays.

Sagolla focuses the piece on what is needed nowadays, by a performer, in an audition situation. It's not a matter of 'not being right for the role' anymore but maybe it's a time where we should ask ourselves if we are up with the latest trends and trainings in dance. She explores different dance styles, from Broadway to contemporary, commercial video and ballet communities to discover what are the latest requirements. 

Firstly she explains how Broadway dance is not a typecast style anymore, but includes a wide range of movement approaches. It's not only ballet, jazz and tap previously seen in shows such as Chorus Line, but we are starting seeing athletic and challenging moves in Moving Out, romantic ballet for The Phantom of the Opera, or Fosse's style jazz routines for Chicago, just to mention few.

Choreographer Wayne Cilento, who has choreographed numbers such as Aida and Wicked, believes it's now up to the choreographer who wants to be original and interesting every time with new material, especially if it's a choreographer who works mainly for Broadway on many different shows.

So it's hard to tell what style you can get thrown at at an audition anymore, Cilento advises that being a solid dancer with secure classical technique is always a good start; even for more modern dance styles such as Hip Hop the technique is fundamental as acrobatics are incorporated within the discipline; so he firmly believes in being an all round dancer with a strong technicality, the key to be prepared to whatever style you are asked for in an audition.

The article further investigate how it's, instead, the scenario for a more commercial dance, especially the one used in music videos and in tours for backup dancers of famous pop singers or group.

The choreographer Dreya Weber shares her experience of how ariel work is always more and more in demand and it's sometimes necessary for a dancer to be able to do.

She explains how, for instance, in a tour for the pop singer Pink they couldn't really hire only ariel performers as they were also required to dance; therefore she stressed how she encountered complications as the dancers weren't used to the hard work of ariel and how she had to accomodate the routine and the dancers in order to make the choreography still exciting but not too complicated.

In another case, choreographing for one of Madonna's tour, the person hired to do ariel was a former Olympic gymnast and it came to be so much easier to teach her the routine as she had a wide range of acrobatic movement.

At more and more auditions you may get asked to do ariel work so she suggests that it's in the interest of the dancer to getting trained into that, it will only increase the chances of getting casted. 

For the dancers less into commercial and more into art, the article carries on talking about Contemporary dance. It's Vallejo Gantner, artistic director of Performance Space 122 (the contemporary studio most in vogue in Downtown Manhattan) that explains how who is interested in the lates contemporary style, should get used to the lates trends of experimental work.

This meaning that the focus of the dance is shifting from the performer's experience to the audience's one, giving more importance to the experience rather than the meaning of the piece.

Following the article, Kirk Peterson, artistic director of ABT Studio Company and established former ballet dancer, believes that to be a modern classical dancer you have to be able to acquire all kind of trainings. He states that "now the trend from many different ballet companies is to invite choreographers from many other disciplines to come and set works on their dancers"(2006), so the more versatile the dancer is the better.


He carries on suggesting what he thinks are the most useful dance styles a classical dancer should be trained in nowadays. Folk dance as a style that has unfortunately got lost in time in dance schools, "it taught dancers about rhythm and how to dance when not in point shoes" (2006); also tap, moder and jazz classes are good to take; tap dance teaches you how to be a living percussionist, developing a great understanding of rhythm and musicality within the dancer (Peterson,2006). He strongly advices for a good old-school jazz training, more loosen compared to the rigid ballet, but still in need of a good control. He personally advises against hip-hop as for a ballet dancer is not really a good technique style that can help, he prefers world dance forms such as the Spanish dance, closely related to ballet, classical India dance which emphasizes on isolation and Hula dance as another way to feel gravity and feeling weight, that also uses the arms to tell a story, closely related to the mime of classical ballet.
As a top up to for dancers who really want to keep up with the diverse demands on ballet today, Petterson feels they should try to incorporate some study of music and dance theory.


As an overall, these piece gives a good idea of how the new era for dance started to get shape in all different styles. The author here wants to get across a broad material of information for dancers on what nowadays is demanded by famous dance companies and at auditions situation.
As I said, even if this is an article dated to the end of 2006, it stills is a valuable piece of literature that explores how versatile and multitasking this business requires you to be in order to succeed as a professional dancer.
On a last note, "The more the better" is how I sum up this article and what it's all about.



Reference:


Sagolla, L., Oct 2006, Dance Evolution: What every dancer needs to know to keep in step with today's trend and win tomorrow's job, Back Stage [e-journal] 47 (41) p26. Available through: Proquest database, International Index of Performing Arts Full Text. [accessed 27 Dec 2011]

Pilot Survey

Here is the pilot survey I created on Self-Management Skills as a Performer. Basically what you did and still do since graduating and entering the professional world of performing.

Please take 5 minutes of your time to take it if you are a dancer, singer or actor/actress. It would be of so much value for my studies.

Thanks in advance!! :)

Pilot Focus Group

I here explain how I experienced this tool for analyzing data and information under the form of Focus Group.
At first I have to admit I wasn't sure what exactly it was meant for 'Focus Group', until I fully read the Reader 6 Tools for Professional Inquiry and understood its capabilities.

There may situations where participants prefer to tell their story within a supportive group context, and this atmosphere can open up issues that that individual participants may not think about on their on. (Descombe, 2007, p. 179.) 

This is what really triggered me to try out this tool, which was in the end a very beneficial form to gather a great number of data within a one session experience.

It's probably so far the best way for me to obtain new knowledge for my inquiry development. I found the opportunity of exchanging ideas and opinions within a focus group very useful.

I organized a focus group with 3 professionals friends of mine, that are in 3 very different stages of their career.

We talked freely about certain main topics I had previously set:

• Where at artistically (un-employed/employed)
• Professional experiences
• Ways of maintenance as a performer (when resting and during jobs)
• Differences in cultures
• Differences in trainings

As a way of analyzing the data, I decided to write down notes during the focus group to then analyze them in a second moment, summing up everything that came up that had an impact and importance for my inquiry.

I have firstly met my friends in a central bar in London where I knew there was a cozy and intimate place to ask question and talk freely, then provided refreshments and started my focus group.

I didn't need to have the session monitored by a gatekeeper as this wasn't handle within an organization, therefore I was the only one with the role of moderator. I firstly explained the reason way I was conducting this kind of group interview and then asked verbally if I could have used their names and quotes for my project.

It was of great value for me that the 3 professionals where at very different points of their career/training, and that for me was a great occasion to compare activities and ways of thinking depending on their personal situations.

The participants were Saori Oda, a very well established Japanese dancer, trained at The Urdang Academy, at that time just in the process of ending her second contract in the West End show 'Wicked'.
The second interviewee was Ughetta Pratesi, an Italian actress/dancer trained at Laines Theatre Arts College and at the Guilford School of Acting, with some work experience in London but currently in a resting period as a performer but working as a ballet teacher in a dance school for kids.
Last but not least was another dancer (friend of Ughetta who preferred not to be named) who was living in London for a period of 2 months mainly to get as much training as possible in dance; still in training so in a perfect condition for me to listen to as she is fresh into the field of performing, very passionate about it but still in the making process of forming as a professional. What was interested of her was the fact that as an Italian dancer, she decided to come to London to gain more training skills as a dancer.

Even if probably a little weird for the readers, I classified the professionals with a 'stage number' considering their position as professionals, to get my analysis and my reflection easier when putting it down into words. I gave Saori a Stage N*3, Ughetta a Stage N*2 and the third dancer a Stage N*1.
Mostly the Focus Group went on with me giving topics for discussion and them talking freely about it.

Regarding ways to keep up physically and vocally was very interesting to see how differently the 3 stages worked.

Stage N*1 
She told how little she took dance classes in the past year even though she is a professional dancer. Being in a full time West End show doesn't give you spare time to take classes and also the level of physical stress of dancing 8 shows a week is enough for a dancer body and a great workout.
About singing lessons she explained us that she may have sometimes taken vocal coaching rather than pure singing lessons as her vocal ability was well trained and always on shape because of the show, so only needed coaching on how to use her voice at its best and to help hearing herself while singing during the show. Hitting the same notes and steps for a long period of time can cause the performers to get used to moves and notes and sometimes it's hard to listen and think on stage but instead your body and voice work on their own. That's when she would think about recurring to extra classes outside the show.
On the other end, when previously performing in a show only as a singer, she instead found it hard not to dance and she would personally join the dance troop to warm up as a self-management skill she acquired as a dancer, not to loose shape while in a 6 months contract not as a dancer.
It was of a great value to analyze how different she would behave compared to the other two participants as she didn’t need to take many dance or singing lesson as the show was already keeping her in shape. Also she wasn’t worried about resting after this contract as she was strongly positive she was going to get good auditions by her agent because of her already established CV.

It made me think that it’s a that level that we (performers) have to work up to; but is the job really that easy afterwards? Once you are in the loop, is it really that easy to keep working or you could easily go from top to bottom and having to start over again?

Another good part of our conversation was about injuries; during her 16 months performing she encountered several injuries related to how the stage was inclined and the stress that that causes to her back when dancing. So another valuable issue of being an established performer could be having to focus more on how to prevent yourself from injuring in different work environments. What do you have to do in order to protect yourself while already working?

Stage N*2 stated how hard it is to take dance classes while off work, but still working as a temp to pay the bills. She manages to take at least one class per week of Ballet or Jazz, joining dance classes at Pineapple Studios, Dance Works or Dance Attic, all dance schools that permit you to pay for singular classes and a whatever level you feel more suitable.

When starting the topic of Training Differences, very strongly was pointed out by Stage N* 1&2 how good it is, here in London, to be able to join classes whenever you want following the teachers you prefer to be taught by; this isn't an option in Italy as to be able to train in dance you would have to join a full course at a dance school or join random workshops around the country. It's hard to find valuable teachers anywhere and you have to be lucky enough to end up in a dance school where the teachers are fully trained and experienced. They compared how easy it is here to research on a teacher and follow their classes around different schools, something very unlikely to happen in Italy.
Stage N* 2 explained that back home she couldn't find a balance between good teaching and good assistance and personal help, she also pointed out that she was talking mainly from her experience in Florence, where she comes from, which is probably not one of the biggest cities, like Rome or Milan, where there are better schools.
In Italy, dance (especially ballet) is well established but unless you come form a major city you would probably join the local club and usually the level of teaching is debatable, it may be good when in younger age but when it comes to professional dancing you would have to move to bigger cities where you have more opportunities to find good teaching levels.
At this point I found myself strongly agreeing with the 2 Italians participants as that is also my experience back home, but at that point I realize I was probably being bias and slightly letting out of the conversation Stage N*3. It was my first ethical issue I encountered within the Focus Group; I straight away stepped out of the conversation trying as much as possible not to lead the participants towards my believes or let them out of the discussion.
Stage N*1's testimony was excellent as she gave comparison between Italian and UK’s ways of teaching dance. She believed here in London was extremely useful for her to be able to join dance classes at different organizations and schools having the opportunity to decide what level to join and to try out different teacher’s and dance styles. In Italy, she explained, she doesn’t find this type of possibilities as dance colleges are strictly closed to a certain number of teachers and that you would have to join the entire course with the fees that occur. Here, she was able to participate to several different dance classes, finding the ones that worked best for her needs, building a consistency of dance classes at a daily bases without having to be stuck to only one organisation. For here this was an unbelievable possibility for a dancer and she is probably consider moving here full time.

Further talking about Differences in Cultures the thing that Stage N*2 said that mostly interested me during the focus group, was how the Musical Theatre culture is still not embraced in Italy and how reality shows such as “Amici” (the Italian version of the Tv show Fame) inculcate the wrong idea of how a professional college in Musical Theatre should be and how auditions process work.
She explained how frustrated she was when she would go back home while still in training in London, and would follow the show; she explained that most of the participants would get angry and rude to the panel when an audition was held. That, she kept going, "is not how a professional audition would work, that was just a reality show to gain more audience figures; you just don’t argue about a decision that the panel takes"(Pratesi, 2011). That show was very popular in the country; therefore many performers that try out a career in MT in Italy had a really bad example to follow.
Stage N*3 told us she found Uk's productions and professionals much more easy to approach and to work with, a funnier and happier environment compared to the Japanese one. In the past she performed in the Japanese musical version of 'The Phantom of The Opera' and explained how everybody took rehearsals and the show very seriously but taking out of the experience what's actually fun and enjoyable for performers when at work. She compared the show she recently starred in as much more fun to do, where everyone, from the ensemble dancers to the principals roles, had a good relationship among them and where all at the same level of human relations.
Probably that has to do with the fact that Musical is part of the British culture and therefore it's felt more by the audience and their makers.
Stage N*2 expressed "... how we don't understand MT in Italy because of the strong tradition we have of opera and straight theatre. Therefore the explanation why we don't really have a mixed training but we focus on one particular discipline. You either are a good singer or a good dancer..." (Pratesi, 2011). To promote Musical Theatre productions that are slightly taking stage in Italy, they still have to hire famous TV personalities or reality show's talents to attract audiences, reconnecting to what she said about the poor quality of talents come out of reality shows.

These are the most valuable information I gathered for my Inquiry plan; the Focus Group lasted around a couple of hours but without feeling the tiredness or the situation being too formal; with cafes in front of us and sat at a nice bar, the whole experience felt really confortable for the participants and for myself to moderate.
I although did find it hard to write down everything said, so next time I would probably consider trying a recording device, but I do believe this tool for inquiry is very useful for the type of research I'm heading towards. It can collect a great number of valuable data with the possibilities of heading towards a something maybe not previously considered by me, the researcher. It can develop itself on a greater level of knowledge.

6c Literature Review 1:

 Anorexia and Bulimia in Ballet World

While looking out for some piece of literature that could relate to my inquiry I hadn't really taken on board one thing: I was concentrating on finding something that would follow my thinking process and my ideological line of inquiry. I realized I was wrong, or at least in part I was.

I hadn't considered fully what Rosemary and Paula had told us during the last campus session when covered "The tools for inquiry", the evidence of work done by others could be going totally in the opposite direction of what we think at this early stage.

It was only when I fully understood this, that I came across a piece of Literature that could cover my interest. It's an article written by Tom Kington I found today while reading The Observer, and talks about ballerina's eating disorders, in this article in particular, focusing on Milan's La Scala Theatre. Of course I couldn't hide my interest being a news about Italian dance culture.

What I was focusing my inquiry on is what, as a performer, I need to do in order to succeed and survive within this business; but what I wasn't concentrating on is on what I shouldn't be following as example in order to achieve that.

I thought this was a great example of unhealthy behavior and life style that unfortunately exists in the performing art business and it's definitely something we have to acknowledge and despise.

The key point of this piece of literature that the journalist wanted to deliver, was to let Mariafrancesca Garitano's point of view (former ballerina at La Scala) come out to make the public fully aware of this serious problem, and also to promote the book she wrote about anorexia and bulimia deseases among young ballerina's that today is still a big problem for the world famous discipline.

Reference:

·         Kington, T., 2011, One in five ballerinas at La Scala is anorexic, leading dancer claims, The Observer [online]. Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/04/ballerinas-la-scala-anorexic-claim> [accessed 20 Dec 2011].

Equity

I finally managed to re-sign up for Equity after almost a 2 years of absence!
Equity is the UK independent trade union for professional performers and creative practitioners (Equity, 2011).

Definitely one of the first management skill for a performer to consider do once entering the professional world.

Among some of the futures that Equity offers you can have career advices, safeguard of name and stage name, job advertisements, protection on equity contracts, public liability, advice on legal support, agent and insurance, pensions, digs and discounts for members, tax and welfare and council’s reports documents.

References:

Equity, 2011. About Us. [online] Available at: <http://www.equity.org.uk/about-us/> [Accessed 22 December 2011].

Re-Evaluation of my Pilot Interview

After talking with Stephanie via comments on my blog I realized I hadn't really focused my pilot interview post on the outcomes of the experience but I instead only concentrated on the data collected; maybe I should have explained more what I considered of this tool of practice, so I'm going to do that now.

As I mentioned in my previous post I overall found that the tool of interviewing was proficient and I will definitely use it for my plan of inquiry, what I should have said also is that the email interview is probably not the best way to interview someone for several reasons I will explain.

First of all you can't really interact in real time with the person interviewed so the answers are most likely going to be topic related to the the questions without the freedom for the interviewee of exploring further what has been asked with a great opportunity to change path completely finding new interesting information.

What an interview by email can't do compared to interviewing someone over the phone/Skype or in person, is that it gives you the opportunity to observe the body language and listen to the voice tone of who you are talking to ( also linked to the interesting discoveries I found in my previous post ), this can give you a better analysis and understanding of the answers given, giving you the opportunity to interpret more what has been said.

Here I summed up the pros and cons of an interview undertaken via email and the evaluations I made.

Pros:

-Via email I can express in words what’s the project about and therefore the interviewee can re-read the presentation as many time as they need to fully understand the purpose of it all.

-It’s a quick way to get a response. The interviewee may not have time to travel and spend part of the day with me in person.

-It’s also less stressful for me. Having to listen to everything said trying not to loose any important statements along the way can be a hard task for the researcher. 

-In person an interview requires an enormous focus by the interviewer as everything said and everything seen can be source for analysis. I consider video typing an helpful tool to use when interviewing but not always you are in the appropriate environment or are allowed to set a camera and record. With an email this isn't an issue.

Cons:

-It’s not very productive when you don’t actually get a response back. It has to be considered that the person interviewed may not find the time or the importance to write back, and not having to respond in person he/she can take the decision of not replaying at all. I experienced not getting a response back or simply a replay for only part of my set questions. That is half of the information needed and can cause complication to complete a good analysis.

-In my case one of the people I interviewed was Japanese and she encountered some difficulties on understanding the questions. That put me in a delicate situation as I wasn’t sure I was crossing an ethical issue or if I wasn't expressing myself properly and I had to re-consider writing the questions simplifying them specifically for her. Turned out that in this particular case it was more beneficial for me interviewing her in person (Pilot Focus Group post).

-Body language and personality are two of the main things important to focus on when interviewing, this obviously combined with the actual data received. Therefore another down side of interviewing when emailing. 

Hope this give a better explanation of how useful I considered this interview experience and also the difficulties that it can generate. Any thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome!!!

Pilot Interview

I've decided to finally word down a bit better what I intend to research with this inquiry, I guess I'd been having some hard time finding the right path, but this could be a good start.

What Business & Self-Management skills are required to survive and succeed as an emerging performer and to what extent is it possible for a freelance performer to control their career development? 

I finalized this question after analyzing small interviews (simply talking to people or via web tools) and exchange of ideas I had within my community of practice (BAPP blogs, Facebook SIG's).
I originally wanted to focus more my inquiry on the difficulties and cultural differences between diverse ethnic groups, but then I figured that this could have been integrated within this inquiry as a sub-question or themed related to the main body of interest.

I decided to send out an interview under the form of email to a professional friend.
I set up 5 simple question (didn't want to make it to long as I know how busy lives can be and didn't want to lose the opportunity of a response if the email would have been too scary and long to replay!) and I addressed them to few friends of mine that are currently in performing arts but with different background and lives style.

A privacy consent form has also been sent out by myself to make sure that my interviewers were safeguarded.
I here would like to analyze what came out from the first interviewee Giancarlo Capito, an Italian performer currently in the Italian production of Happy Days, the Musical.

1.How would you describe the training you received and what kind of colleges/courses have you attended?


He trained in Musical Theatre in Milan, at a 2 years course private college. He described himself as a born musician and singer so didn't have much experience at all on dance so that was the first time he started taking dance classes; he also pointed out that because of that he can't really explain and compare the level of dance training he has received, but surely he noticed they didn't offer much dance classes taught by men. Another lack he felt was the little attention paid to solo singing but was more focused on choral singing technique.
Nonetheless the course wasn't extremely intense (8 hours of singing a week, 7 of acting, 5 classical ballet, 3 jazz and tap, 1.5 music theory and 2 of Musical Theatre history) he admitted the training must have done its job as he hasn't stopped working since leaving college.


2.Describe yourself as what kind of artist.
He described himself as a Musical Theatre performer with his strengths in Singing.

3. Do you get trained in the history of Musical Theatre?
They received a general training in the history of MT and where it first started, so he believes to have an average knowledge about it.

4.How woud you describes the development of MT in Italy? Do you have any experiences of working in Musicals in other countries ?
He explained to me that musicals in Italy are starting to grow and get noticed by the public, even if sometimes,unfortunately, not at a great level. Particulars are often overestimated to leave space to anything to gain cheap laughs from the audience...and then he carries on telling me how VIPS and TV characters are asked to perform to attract the public, without having any idea of what a stage is. This puts the quality of the show in a position of a final poor product.
He continues saying that he had some experience with UK production and he can see the enormous difference between the cultures. Everything in the UK was looked up with much more accuracy, choreographies and movements set to reach perfection among the dancers, on the other hand he personally experienced that for such preciseness, the dancers weren't warming up property and therefore injuring themselves quite often.

5. How and where do you see yourself in 10 years? Have you got any project for the future still related with performing?
He sees himself still on a stage but in the meantime he's starting different jobs such as working in TV and teaching singing lesson at the school where he graduated.
He then wanted to precise how difficult this world is for an Italian performer. We (as I speak as an Italian citizen ) don't have union such as Equity to safeguard ourselves, our colleges are private and the qualification you gain don't have any value in the working world, we will probably never obtain a pension and worst off all, Italians in general still don't consider what we do a real job, but instead only a hobby.

Maybe it's from here that Italian culture should look up to other countries regulations and how they value the work of an artist/performer. Countries such as the UK, Germany and I believe Spain are well developed within Musical Theatre and their performers are protected and helped with their careers.
I'm not talking about financials as I don;t know enough for comparison and surely there are gaps and difficulties in these countries too, but as a matter of consideration and awareness of the disciplines of dancing or singing professionally we still are far away from our fellow european countries.

Wicked!

Tonight I had the fortune to get to see the musical 'Wicked' where one of my friend and ex school mate stars in.
She was able to reserve great seats for a discount prize so I took advantage of it and went to see her :).

http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/cast/wickedCast_SAORIODA.asp 

I thought the show was absolutely amazing (even if I'd seen it years ago I still enjoyed it) and reminded me what I am here for and what this is all about (it had been a while without seeing a show for me).
I couldn't help myself from starting to watch the show with a "studying thought" at the back of my mind and I started Observing. 


Of course during this observation process any kind of recording (video or audio) was prohibited as any professional shows are, and the possibility of taking notes was none as there was no light and the noise of my scribbling would have probably disturbed the people watching next to me, so I had to take on board for this observation only my concentration on recording any data and thoughts that went through my mind during the performance.
I observed how much intensity of work I could notice behind each performer on stage..I was trying to focus not only on the principle roles but also on the ensamble and all of them were 100% always into character even when it was hardly possible to see them.
I then observe how Saori, my friend in the show, grew as a performer since we graduated together. 
She is Japanese and we together started college as the ones with serious difficulties with the language and really struggled through the 1st year...she was amazing since day one so everyone could see her great potentials but being in a MT college, acting in English was a good part of the course.
She was now confident and she could blend with the others perfectly and being an amazing singer and in such an important show, she must have overcome those pronunciations difficulties we both had at the beginning of our training, especially for her as Japanese is a completely different language in phonetic, alphabet and sound compared to the more similar Latin languages Italian and English, so well done Saori!!!


Of course part of my observation needed to get analyzed more... How she got there? What took her to achieve this improvement? So I also talked to her bout my course project and how I'd love to interview her to collect her experiences as evidence of what it takes for a performer to succeed...especially for a non-English one! 
She is now at the end of her contract that meaning she is back in the audition system and that would be even more interesting for my research; she was happy to help and I will be soon posting about it.

'Creative Choices for Actors'

It couldn't have been a better day today for my studying!

I can't remember what internet path got me to this website but certainly it was a lucky discovery.

I found this AMAZING website called Creative Choices on Developing your career in the creative and cultural industries... 

The description say is it all!!! Perfect font of material for my research.

The article I chose to analyze it's more of a 'linking artcles' kind of literature that connects one article to another into sub-articles that get more into depth about the topic of Being an actor and what being one covers.

http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/template/actor

The main article is divided into:

• Main "duties" as an actor
• What being an actor consist of in your everyday life.
• Income for actors ( getting more information regarding this I 'bumped' into this other very useful website about the actors minimum wage. )
• Training as a professional and ways to achieve it ( National Council for Drama Training (NCDT).
• And the career skills required to be an actor.

This last one is the section of the article that links you to other 3 very interesting articles that are devided in skills needed and knowledge and understanding needed required to become an actor that I valued for a further understing of management skills for an artist and to consider what is already known and said about this topic of inquiry I chose to investigate on.

These are guide units to improve or maintain skills for your own career that can also be applied to several similar arts jobs related( Dancer, Singer, Dj, Costumer Designer, Comedian, Technician, Writer and so on...)

First Link:

Set up to work as a freelancer in creative and cultural industries

This guide (likewise the next ones) are here to explain how to improve or maintain skills for your own career that can also be applied to several similar arts jobs related ( Dancer, Singer, Dj, Costumer Designer, Comedian, Technician, Writer and so on...)

What I discovered I didn't know, or I hadn't fully considered before, was how to Set up your work space and Research the ways in which you can legally operate as a self employed individual.

Let's say I new this aspect of the business was 'there' but I hadn't really done anything yet to develop that skill nor to get more knowledge on it. I should explore points such as:

• Tax position
• Insurances available and useful (where to research them)
• National and local laws

Second Link:

Manage your time as a freelancer in creative and cultural industries

Again the article is divided in skills needed to manage time and knowledge expected to manage your time.

Through the list I was more drawn to the point 'Prioritize work according to its importance, considering how it meets your business objectives' to reflect further on how to joggle with several jobs at the same time and also to understand more the importance of when giving more energy into your performing job compared to an everyday job if justified and what consequences it may implies... ( e.g. Is it fair to call in sick and not going to work when an extra rehearsal has been put outside of schedule? Can this jeopardize your 'normal' job putting the risk of loosing it and ending up jobless when the show ends?)

Among the points made on the knowledge and understanding needed to successfully manage your time

as a freelance I underlined the Methods of time and diary management, How to identify the resources available to you, Why it is important to keep records of your work and Why it is important to be flexible and adapt work plans to reflect change.

These are valuables points for further investigate I should (an will) pin down for my inquiry plan.

Third Link:

Plan innovation for your freelance work in creative and cultural industries

These unit describes the skills and knowledge required to plan innovation. To better explain that, how to improve you work and way of working, it can take the form of new products, services and technologies within your work environment. 

Tips such as Brainstorming and other techniques to develop your ideas, Work collaboratively with others to develop your ideas, Include innovation plans in your business plan are points I could consider to have already the knowledge of and that confirmed therefore what I DO KNOW at this stage about what is needed for a performer to self-manage his own career/business.

Overall this piece(pieces) of literature I found is going to integrate heavily into my inquiry, I kept navigating further more on the website and found other very interesting forms of information about knowledge required for your career, job advertising, news, case studies, advices and tips, and an EXCELLENT page for tools and resources...I just can't get enough from how full of interesting material this website is, so I would definitely advice anyone on the course to have a look at it as it covers multitude topics and I'm pretty sure many can benefit from it.

:)

Inquiry Question Final!

What Business & Self-Management skills are required to survive and succeed as an emerging performer and to what extent is it possible for a freelance performer to control their career development? 

I know it's a bit wordy and I eventually will narrow it down to a more concrete titlwe but this is what I will be focusing on for my Inquiry plan, maybe a little bit late on finding the final decision and to  properly word down what I want to inquiry on...but hey! This is it!!!

Any thoughts and shared ideas that could give me some inputs on my topic?

Please let's interact again...after the "meltdown" of the Facebook SIG I feel we've lost communication a little bit among us peers.

Where is everybody at with their conclusions for the Inquiry plan? 

:)

Linkedin Eureka!.

Recently I've been engaging more with the Linkedin website and I've discovered many of the poeple I've worked, studyed with or simply I know are on it.
It would be interesting to link more with peers in my course to see where they stand at in their professional lives...so this is my link for anyone interested....altough I'm starting to think I should have 2 different profile, one as a performing arts professional and one for my "normal" job links.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/laura-sinigaglia/16/147/10

While I was navigating on the website I discovered there are discussion boards just like the ones on Facebook that have been recently removed from the web. So I got engaged with the Entertainment Industry discussion and found it very interesting.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Entertainment-Industry-93013?mostPopular=&gid=93013&trk=eml-anet_dig-h_gn-gl-cn&ut=3Y2euyheCEgB01

Does anyone would like to start a conversation there? I've started out my discussion....Get in touch!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Interested-in-sharing-ideas-thoughts-93013.S.82081311

5c:Further reflection and analyzation on Ethics

Ethics: From the Greek work Ethos that means: Character.

The right or good way of carrying an action. (Middlesex University, 2011)


Getting a further bite into the Reader 5 Professional Ethics I got a better understanding on the very delicate topic of ethics in a work environment and moral ethics as a professional and human being.
I here sum up what I gathered reading through the Ethics's reader.

• Consequentialism:

When an act is morally right only when the act maximizes the good.

"Greater happiness for greatest number"= Heart of consequentialism

• Deontology:

In contrast with the Consequentialism dictated by JS Mill.

The motive behind the action determines if it's morally right or not.

Deontology is rule based ( Middlesex University 2010 ).

"The only absolutely good thing is a good will" ( Kant )

• Virtue Ethics:

Greater emphasis on being rather than doing.


Very interesting for me was an induction I recently had for my "pay the bills" job (as I like to call it) I have in a hospitality company.
We had a 2 days induction regarding different areas of the business and today's one was all about Up selling and Ethos of the group.
It was  double the interest for me to participate as not only I was obviously learning about the company I'm part of but also putting an extra attention thinking at an extra study benefit.

This is how the company described their Ethos: The belief, customs, or practice of a society .
And these are some of the points that build their code of ethics.

• Yes, Yes, Yes, 'Can do' mentality
• No problems
• Go the extra mile
• Exceed expectations
• Make a difference
• 100% member/guest/customer satisfaction

Now of course these are purely examples of professional conduct in a hospitality environment, but it was quite realizing what the trainer revealed us; he believed that to succeed on ANY type of business, either owned or the business of ourselves, using these points and having them in mind will always lead to a successful career. 

I totally agreed with what he said as I started to put these points on the prospective of being the employer of myself and applying them them on my career development all of them certainly worked.

Something else that came up quite interesting I thought, was about communication, a fundamental for our job, life and training.

We consider the 3 main ways of communications:

~Verbal

~Vocal/tone

~Body Language

We discussed in which order we believed they are used the most and it was interesting to see how our ideas differed.

In the end this pie chart showed us the actual percentage of how we communicate:

Communicating with the body is the most important and significant way we use to communicate; I found interesting the link to it with dance and performing as it's a very significant part of my profession and to see how much impact and importance what we say with our bodies can have on others.

Fascinating how we CAN control the verbal part of communication, how we CAN control the vocal/tone but it's harder as we tend to control our words instead (an example: if we are tired and angry at work with our boss we tend to control WHAT we say not to come across rude or tired as compared to HOW we say it), and finally how we NEVER have control on our body language when we communicate, that always come across.

The reason that we have two ears and one mouth, is that you may listen more and talk less"

(Zeno, Greek Philosopher)