Alys May-James BA Professional Practice Blog

It was lovely getting to see everyone on the group meeting, people who are new and people who are returning, like me. Can’t believe I am at the start of module 3- where has the time gone! It was great to refresh myself with some of the key points for this course. For those of you starting module 1 and 2 these points below really helped me through the modules. Handbooks- re-read these as many times as you need and mark certain pages that have important information on, so you can find them easily. Highlight and make notes on them as you need. You can also use the bibliography on the back to help guide you to more literature to read. Google Scholar is an amazing place to find literature- there is a link on the Unihub page to it. Blogs- use these in a way that is useful to you personally. Write about what resonates with you from the course. For instance, you could write about things you have found, or things that you have questions about. Also, go and check other people blogs who hav...

On Wednesday 1 st April we had our second skype for all modules. We covered a range of topics in the meeting, including- finding your own voice, interviewing and integration. Below I have bullet pointed some of the main points we covered in each topic. Finding our own voice  How can we write in a way that isn’t too casual but without losing yourself? How writing on social media is different to writing an essay- How do we write blogs in comparison to essays? Keeping core intensions clear Having different documents open to write down different ideas. Write all your ideas down and then go about moving it around and breaking bits up. The process is messy; things don’t always go in a straight line. Interviewing Why do we interview? What is the point? What are we trying to achieve/gain? How interviewing in person is different from over the phone/ skype Silences are ok- what do the silences tell you Its not all about what people say, how do they say it, what do...

Earlier on in the week I joined my second module one focused skype. It was nice to have some stability and familiarity with the uncertainty of the world right now. We discussed 3 main topics- Diagrams, Ethics and Literature. Diagrams We spoke about how some of us were struggling to come to terms with the idea of what a diagram actually was. It’s not clear cut, like an essay that we could have had plenty of practice doing from time at school. At first, I was really confused about it, but actually its ambiguity is what I’ve really enjoyed. I have been able to create what I want that reflects me. It’s personal to me and my own practice. It’s very rare to have opportunities like that.  We also spoke about how it’s visual. We already have our essay where we use words and theories to explain and explore our practice. The diagram is a visual representation that goes along side our essay. The two should work together. Something that one person mentioned that I hadn’t thought about...

What is my Professional Practice? The past few weeks I have been looking into how to describe what my practice actually is. I have been finding it hard to describe because there are so many factors to it. I have done this word cloud below to help me pin point my specific practice. By just using one or two words, rather than a sentence, it has helped me see what is important and given me some clarity. As you can see in my word cloud, not all the words necessarily connect to dance or the performing arts. This is because as I was creating it, I found that there were words I really wanted to include as they are part of my identity and they felt important to me. It made me realise that my practice is unique to me because I am unique, and all these factors that may not seem relevant, are relevant because they have shaped me to be who I am today. Therefore, it affects how I approach my professional practice. The knowledge I have gained from all my experiences in differen...

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 profe...