BAPP Task 2d Inquiry

The task 2d of the Module 1 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of considering the most important questions that are emerging from me from my training to date to initiate ideas about bigger lines of inquiry that I might want to explore later in the programme.

In my case I have been always passionate mainly about Dance & Ballet and the relation between Art & Science. Therefore my answers will be through those lines to explore them further through this BAPP course, especially I want to keep exploring the Art & Science relationship because I don´t get as much opportunities to explore it as a dancer because it is not related with anything within the job at my company.

In order to help us to create our lines of inquiry we need to consider and answer the following questions:

- What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

There are many things in my daily basis that get me enthusiastic, like learn new repertoire or try new tricks and jumps on out daily ballet class, for example today I learn a full length ballet for children in less than 40 minutes, including a semi solo role, that I will premiere on Sunday. Also when I ´m writing a new article or an interview to someone, I´m really enthusiastic about it, which point of view I will use or what do I want to transmit to the reader. In my life I admire many people, such as ballet dancers, friends or family members, they give me inspiration to pursue my dreams, they give “imaginary power” to keep going, to keep pushing myself every day.

- What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

Especially for me: Failure, it makes me sad and very angry to myself, especially when I have put a goal to myself and I didn´t achieved it, when I was younger I had difficulties to get over them and it made me really sad, however after years have passed I learnt how to deal with it and how to turn failure into success, therefore I am always happy with what I have achieved, it was the best that I could do. Definitely my family, they have worked against sadness and anger many times and I admire them a lot for that and many other things, they are my biggest inspiration.

- What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love what I do because of many different reasons, of course because it makes me happy, but also and this is the most important, to bring happiness, joy and hope to other people, I dance for the audience to bring them feelings, to make them think or just to enjoy to forget about the issues, same when I do other projects, all of them is for the people, I believe that all in a certain way, small or big, we can change the world. Definitely the people that I admire have those qualities, they don´t succeed and make a career in a selfish way, they use their career and success in order to have a voice and change the world in their possibilities.

- What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I don´t understand many things in my life, such as daily things: Why this pirouette didn´t work or how is it better to use my arms to dance in this specific dance, but also in more general and worldwide issues, such as why don´t we finish all the wars and poverty? Or why are we so selfish between each other? In my opinion we cannot understand everything, therefore we have to accept reality as it is and try to make it better with our possibilities, and again the people that I admire have those qualities, they accept reality as it, they are not always complaining about issues without make any effort to change it, they try to make the world a better place.

- How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

For me I decide the appropriate ethical response in a situation according to common sense, and about what it is fair for everyone (not only for me), “Don´t do to others what you wouldn´t like to be done to you” Therefore I try to follow that path, and always try to be fair with other (Not putting myself first and then the rest of the world).

In terms of physical contact, it is a very important and different issue to treat, because in every profession is different, for example in dance, your teacher is allowed and expected to touch different parts of your body in order to correct your positions, but this wouldn´t be see strange in any other profession that doesn´t require that much physical contact. Therefore I think that it really depends on the profession in order to find what it is acceptable and what not.

ENBS Dissertation Cover, June 2014

Answering those questions has been quite a fascinating process for myself, questioning myself all of those questions and discovering what the answers were. I will use them in order the lines of inquiry that I want to explore further through this BAPP course, especially the relation between Art & Science, due to I would love to continue to study and develop what my Dissertation Topic was in ENBS 2 years ago for my final project in Module 3 of this course: “How has Wayne McGregor used Science to develop his choreography in the 21^st century dance?” You can above a photo of the cover of the dissertation, and if you go to my Academia.edu Profile you will find my whole dissertation.

Finally I would like to recommend you to try and answer all of the questions above and discover your answers you will find them fascinating and you will learn so much about yourself!

Gonzalo