Task 2D Inquiry

Task 2D asks us to look inward at different ideas of reflection that relate to me and what goes on generally in my professional practise. I am going to approach this task by answering the questions suggested to us.

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

• What gets me enthusiastic in my daily practise are my weekly dance lessons and singing lessons.  I love continuously learning, progressing and improving my professional practise. I think it is so important to never stop and become complacent but always push yourself  to get better and go further. I really look forward to going to my evening dance lessons knowing at the end of a hard ballet or contemporary class for example I will come out feeling positive, stronger and better in my practise. I love choosing a song that at the time is hard and out of my reach and working on these in my singing lessons. Taking frequent lessons and feel the song getting easier and easier until I have finally nailed it! Working hard at my lessons to then See feel and hear improvements in my professional practise, that is what gets me really enthusiastic  and pushes me to want to learn more!

I really admire my dance and singing teachers For this. I believe having a good teacher is very important to learning and progression. My teachers are always so enthusiastic, energetic and encouraging in class. They know what I'm capable of and what my limits are and they push me to constantly get the best out of me in the correct way. They are encouraging yet honest. They criticise and correct in a positive encouraging manner. I really admire the patience and time teachers have and the genuine want in them to see you improve. I am very grateful for all the dance,singing and drama  teachers I have had over my years of professional training as they are the people who have encouraged and nurtured my passion for musical theatre.

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?

• What gets me really upset and angry in my professional practise is the pressure for dancers and performers to be "perfect". The vanity of my industry sometimes disgusts me especially the pressure to b "skinny". I see more and more at every audition very skinny unhealthy looking girls. They look so frail and lack energy. I have been surrounded by it on every contract I have worked on so far. There is always one or two girls in the team body image obsessed. Every moment of the day checking how many calories are in their cereal bar, counting everything   they eat and panicking when they eat 'too much' they must rush to the gym and do 1000 sit ups   or even worse throw up.  It is so upsetting to watch these girls live this way when they are perfect just the way they are. It is such a horrible body image obsessed industry, we are starting to forget why we actually do what we do. Performing is about passion,performance, talent, not about size zero perfect and pretty! 

The people I admire who share my feelings on this situation are the celebrities who promote embracing yourself for who you are, no to size zero campaigns and are happy to be photographed with no makeup on. I admire them as they have the power to influence young girls who look up to them and admire them in magazines and they are promoting the right message! An example of this is beyonce, she is constantly discussing embracing your curves and also discusses air brushing and how no one is perfect. Here is a link to a small clip I read with beyonce's views 

Bootylicious us better than size zero!
I feel this could be a very interesting line of enquiry I would like to peruse in the future!

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? 

What I love about my job is the fact it is my passion,my hobby,it's what makes me happy,it's what I'm good at and I get payed to do it!! Not many people can say they truly love their job and its their passion. Not many people get up in the morning excited about going to perform two shows in a day and getting payed for it! Every time I have a successful audition and gain a new contract I am so thankfully and think myself so lucky to be able to call it my job. I admire everyone in the same industry as me as although we are very lucky to be able to do what we do it is not easy at all as we face a lot of rejects and criticism. Daily you go through the process of looking up auditions, attending auditions with hundreds of other girls all fighting for only 4 jobs available, then facing the rejection when you are simply told "your not what we are looking for,sorry!". 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 question as you? Following on from my previous paragraph when I talked of rejection at auditions, what I don't understand in my profession is the question you always leave asking yourself..."why did she get the job and not me" and what exactly do they mean when they say "sorry your just not what we are looking for!" Then what exactly are you looking for?! If only we could see into the casting directors heads or they had time to explain to you exactly why, after getting to the final you are not what they are looking for but the other girl with brown hair is. These things we just have to smile and accept and try and find ways to understand ourselves by reflection and self analyses. In these situations I admire my agent. When I call her after being cut at an audition, or I am not called in for an audition I really wanted she provides me with feedback or just a reassurance that something else will come up. She assures me of others going through the same situation and that things will definitely get better and I have to keep fighting.