Melissa Brown

" I’m talking about the equal importance of dance with the other arts, languages, mathematics, sciences and the humanities in the general education of every child."  (Ken Robinson) The above quote is taken from Sir Ken Robinson. A man who I have only recently been educated on, but nevertheless, someone who I now consider to be a leader in the way of understanding the importance of creativity in a child's development, but maybe more so, the role of which creativity plays within education. Robinson was a strong believer that the arts and humanities were well deserving of a place within education and that schools often have too strong a focus on STEM subjects, consequently undervaluing the creativity a child receives from studying the arts. However what I found crucial to discover was that Robinson certainly didn't appear to be claiming that the frequency and intensity of subjects such as English and Maths should be classified as unimportant, but rather just that subject...

The focus of my research study will be based on exploring the value of dance within education. When first discussing our 'little wonders' with Helen, this immediately jumped out at me as being one of my little wonders for various reasons:  a. I was lucky enough to attend a secondary school which had a large focus on vocational subjects, one of which being dance, which I studied as a BTEC within my GCSE options. I had already studied dance outside of a school setting for many years, but I guess at the time I took it for granted that I was able to study dance within an educational setting and explore other genres such as contemporary dance which I wasn't so familiar with. It was only when I spoke to my younger sister about her school experience at a grammar school that I released subjects such as dance weren't offered as part of the national curriculum at all schools. This got me wondering why? or why not?  b. I have had some experience working as a dance coach within pri...

As we come to the end of the first term in Module 1, I have spent some time tweaking my assignment and really trying to pin point my areas of learning within my practice. I assumed I would be struggling to have enough content, but it seems the opposite and I have been scouring through word by word trying to erase 500 words in order to adhere to the word count guidelines. Once I started utilising sources I found it opened a whole new chapter of thoughts within my mind and before I knew it I was once again unravelling new ideas and contemplating other points of views to my initial beliefs.  It has not been an easy process, I have felt out of touch within Academia and have questioned if I am conforming to the technicalities of a 'correct essay structure', however Sam reminded me it is a reflective essay and therefore I am able to express my opinion, as it is based on my own experiences. This definitely helped to shape my essay and led me in the direction of which my thoughts wante...

 The past two sessions we have had on Academic Writing have been a great learning curve for me. I have always enjoyed English Literature and getting lost in a book and I am happy to sit and write blogs and stories in almost a poetic manner, however there is something slightly daunting about writing an essay to a tick box academic format, when coming from a creative industry where we express our words through movement.  Free writing was something which resonated with me as I feel this is something I do naturally when writing. I am not a 'planner' and much prefer to sit with a blank page and see where my mind takes me rather than to bullet point and notate beforehand. I realise this isn't always the best method as it can be crucial to plan, but I think that free writing would be a great tool for me to use as a form of planning, to see where my essay will start to take me.  The SQ3R method Peter talked us through was also very insightful. For example, I realised when scannin...

 Following on from our last discussion, I have been thinking a lot about my areas of learning I wish to discuss in my essay. I am yet to finalise my three areas, though our discussion has opened up a lot more room for thought for me.  The term vulnerability was mentioned a few times times during the dicussion and this is something I thought deeper about and it led me to think about the ethics of the arts based on my own life experiences. I have danced around the idea (excuse the pun) of pressure within our industry, which leads to vunerability. I would like to explore whether the pressure I have felt throughout my career has been self pressure or external pressure. I don't know if this is something anyone else has come across? I would like to identify if this is dependable on personal experiences and our own personalities, or if it is part and parcel of the job and the performing world we sign up to.  I have a couple of other thoughts to where my areas of learning may tak...

Hello all fellow BAPPS. I am sat here writing this blog the morning after our first real study session and if I'm honest, I'm probably more confused about what direction this module will take me, than I was before yesterday. After having my first supervision zoom, I thought I had quite a strong idea of what my analysis would be within my essay, however now I realise, just like the classic onion metaphor, there are many layers to peel before I get to the core of what my essay structure will be. There's a part of me (albeit small) that wants to sit here and write my essay right now, put pen to paper and fill it with everything I thought I should be including, before I get too deep and loose my sanity over it all!  However the more sensible part of me knows I need to get a bit deep, I need to really delve in to the nitty gritty of my practice and understand what skills it has taught me and why.  Whenever I have been to a 'muggle' interview, I have always felt the need ...