Module 1 skype 1

Recently, I have taken part in my third skype session, but it was my first module one focus skype. It was lovely meeting new people and hearing all the different points they had to make. We started by introducing ourselves and how we describe our practice.  It led onto an interesting thought of ‘How do we define ourselves?’ and ‘What are our identities?’


This went on to talking about our ‘profession.’ Whilst introducing ourselves it became clear that we all had a variety of jobs, including but not limited to, actors, dancers and teachers of the arts. From the introductions it seemed that many of us classed our ‘profession’ as being something in the arts. However, through later discussions, it was revealed many of us have other jobs too, for instance, I cat and dog sit too. Even though many of us have multiple job roles, (maybe due to the nature of the arts industry) some of us still defined our practice as, for instance, a dancer. This got us thinking on the definition of profession and professional. Here are the definitions below from Lexico powered by Oxford.

Professional: ‘Engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.’

Profession: ‘a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification.’

These definitions then beg the question, are we being ethical by calling ourselves dancers, actors, etc, if actually our main income comes from another job, like cat sitting or waitressing? Or are we misleading potential employers and the people around us?

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An idea then arose that although these other jobs may not be technically classed as ‘the arts’, it was ‘the arts’ that helped us get these jobs and be successful at them. Through working in the arts, we have learnt the importance of appearance, being well presented, confident, polite, being strong physically and emotionally, being able to lead and take charge when needed, being able to express ourselves clearly…. the list could go on. So, although the jobs we may have to take to pay the bills aren’t in the ‘performing arts’, the skills we learnt through our work in the arts are transferable to many types of job. We have many transferable skills that we can choose to keep with us through our life. This could then be argued that we are not being unethical when we call ourselves dancers, actors, teachers because we are transferring all the skills we learnt and refined in one type of job to another, thus making us more employable, more successful and better workers than before.

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Bibliography
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/profession
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/professional
https://www.quotemaster.org/People+Skills  Image 1
https://missanablog.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/leadership-and-ethics/  Image 2