Module 3

I can't believe Module 3 has started already! The past two modules have come and gone so quickly and I'm look forward to gathering further information and having discussions with others, regarding my line of inquiry during this module.

I feel that this module is going to be the most challenging with plenty of juggling between university work and full time working life but i'm sure it's manageable. 

I'm currently investigated and reading more literature surrounding my topic of body image in order to further my references for my final portfolio and gather more knowledge surrounding the topic. I am beginning my interviews this week and have begun writing in order to allow myself more time to refine my portfolio.

Module 2, Task 4a Ideas For My Line Of Inquiry

Upon beginning module two I must admit I have had a major panic! Due to work commitments I have found viewing the other blogs quite stressful, I found everyone seemed to have their line of enquiry in mind or at least had a few topics they were interested in when I hadn't blogged about anything yet.

I find I work at a slower pace, as I need to give myself enough time to fully understand the module and what I am supposed to do before I am able to commit and write a blog post about anything.

After reading through the module and the reader (many times) I have now got a wider outlook and a better understanding on the term 'professional inquiry'.

As I did study dance from the age of three and went onto to train at a musical theatre college for three years, I have found my interests for my line of enquiry so far are based around two questions in particular. I have found I can relate certain experiences both of the questions I am interested in.

Is body weight and imaged addressed and managed appropriately for young dancers or dancers who study at a professional level?

What effect does being told you're "too big" at a young age have on a performer?

Can this lead to potential mental heath issues surrounding body image and food?

Does the performing arts industry promote an unhealthy body image to aspiring young performers?

Can rejection in an audition situation have a long lasting negative effect on performers and the potential to effect them in future professional situations?

Can too much rejection effect self confidence long term for performers in future professional roles?

Should they're be restrictions in place at (theatre college) educational establishments to have certain guidelines to follow in regards to critique with performance students?

Does rejection make you more determined or lower your self esteem when going in to your next audition?

Post Christmas + New Year

I hope everyone had a very merry christmas! I can't believe it's over for another year, it comes and goes so fast. I have spent the festive season busy at work, working on my portfolio and doing festive things such as visiting the christmas markets in Manchester with my family and friends. We celebrated my nan's 80th birthday on the 13th of December which was really special, and had all the family around to our house for her birthday celebrations.

So relieved that the portfolio for the Jan 7th hand in has now all been done and boxed off, just got to wait to receive the results. So fingers crossed that the handwork pays off for everyone!

Task 1d- 2D Images

I was really excited to get started with this task as I'm a big fan of anything to do with photography. I love it as an art form and I also love it for sentimental value. There's nothing greater than sitting down and going onto my Facebook or Instagram account and scrolling through old photos and reminiscing with family or friends about that specific moment in time. It's a great way to capture a memory and to look back on years later.

I use Instagram and Facebook to upload photos regularly, it ranges from dance pictures of performances when I was studying at Bird College to my pet pug Phoenix who seems to make a regular occurance on my photos! I have never used Flickr before this task and I have been playing around with it trying to figure it out so I can share my photos with you on my blog.

I have included a variety of different pictures on the Flickr account and will list the photos below along with the link to the photos.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136900648@N02/albums/72157660174522988

Top Row of Photos from left to right-

*My Family December 2014

*My boyfriend and I when we visited Paris in June 2015

*When I went to the Lakes in September 2015

* My best friend Gaby and I

Second Row of Photos from left to right-

*My pug Phoenix 

*Afternoon Tea for a 21st surprise

*My boyfriend on his Graduation day

*Phoenix's first birthday with cake!

*My nan and my mum on mothers day 2015

Third Row of Photos from left to right-

*A photo I took in Paris 2015

*My 3rd Year agent showcase at Bird College

*My 2nd Year musical at Bird College (Pyjama Game)

*A trip to the Lakes 2015 

Fourth Row of photos from left to right-

*My boyfriend Luke's graduation day

*A photo I took in Paris 2015

*My graduation day from Bird College July 2013

*Phoenix as a puppy

*Rowing a boat on the Lakes 2015

Using social media to display my images is something I do often, however every type of Web 2.0 site that I use I do have privacy settings in place.  It can be very easy for an unwanted picture to appear sometimes even if you haven't been the person to upload it. You can tag others now on most sites in photos, videos or posts without any consent from the other person and sometimes you have to assess what you've been tagged in and untag yourself for professional reasons. 

Companies are becoming far more technical these days when hiring and some will go to the extent of checking a Facebook profile to see what the candidate is like in their daily life. It can be a very positive thing to share imagery on social media, it's a great way to create memories or share things with friends and family that you don't get to see often. I do think however as long as you are cautious in what you post onto the web and put the required privacy settings in place to prevent anything unwanted being seen, it is a great aspect of using social media. I personally only use Facebook to upload pictures and share things with friends that I don't see as often anymore.

Task 1c- Audio Visual

On beginning this task I was rather apprehensive and slightly worried about posting something online. I have never posted a video online before of just solely myself talking about my experiences or anything to do with my life. I looked at the different ways to approach the task and found that for me personally I should probably go with the type of video that would challenge me the most! Which for me, is sitting in front of the camera on my own, talking to the world about my view on the course and trying not say "erm" all the time and fidget with my hair (which is harder than it sounds for me). After many takes, lots of forgetting what I was going to say and fidgeting with my hair constantly for a good few minutes, I finally managed to make a short video of my experience on the BAPP course so far. I tried to make it a bit more personal  and wanted to speak out to all the other students as I know we're all working through the same tasks at the moment and I've gained a lot of help personally from watching other BAPP students videos from this task. 

Here I have included a link to my video which is on youtube. 
Feel free to comment on the video and my blog and I look forward to hearing everyones feedback! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRtvBHZxueY

Task 1b - Professional Communications Technologies

Discussing Web 2.0

A very large proportion of today's society uses the web on a daily basis for many different reasons. It has become, and will continue to be a huge part of modern day life. On starting the module I was unaware of what the term "Web 2.0" actually meant, however after reading through the reading documents and looking at fellow students' blog posts, I feel that I have gathered enough information and now have a clearer understanding of what the terminology of the word actually means.

'Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online.'

Web 2.0 has fundamentally changed the way we interact on a daily basis with others and the rest of the world. There are so many different varieties and ways we can now communication with others through many web 2.0 sites. We take it for granted that at just a click of a button we can share something we may feel very strongly about on our own page. Things we post on the web now have the potential to become viral and can send out a message to the entire world. Many good charitable causes of late have done this, for example the ALS ice bucket challenge is one I saw daily on my Facebook newsfeed. It simply started with one person posting a video onto Facebook which then had a dominoe affect on others all over the globe. The online videos had such a positive outcome, not only raising money but raising awareness about the cause to such a wide audience with one simple click of a button.

With so much choice between all the different web 2.0 sites everything is so accessible. You can find your first friend from primary school, or keep in touch with relatives half way across the world and it's so simple to do. It is also now being used as a tool you can use promote not only just yourself but you as a business. It is becoming ever more popular with the younger generation to set up an account on Instagram or Facebook to use as a form of promotion and to create interest amongst a large audience. If you get a large enough following and a wide audience showing some interest in what you are posting it can work extremely well.

It is also used widely used for networking, I know from personal experience when studying at college we were encouraged to join the Facebook page "The Hustle" which is an online community of performers. The page is used to post auditions, jobs or house shares for other performers and it is also a great way to speak to new people from different areas in the same profession. Web 2.0 sites are such an easy and accessible way to share pretty much anything you want to. There are many pros to having the internet at the click of a button but there are also a lot of cons. I am thinking about going into a teaching career once I have completed my BAPP degree, and I understand that teachers can sometimes struggle with students crossing boundaries online; with regards to professional and personal relationships. This can be seen as a negative in the use of Web 2.0 sites as it poses difficulties in terms of keeping up a level of professionalism.

However it has also become extremely popular to use web 2.0 as a basis for a career. I am a big fan of Youtube as  a site, I use it to gather research and purely for entertainment in my personal time. There is a large community with a huge fan base on Youtube currently, where being a "youtuber" is now becoming a reputable career. It has created huge internet stars who have become immensely successful, simply from posting videos in the comfort of their own bedrooms. It can be anything from car enthusiast videos to beauty tips. I personally really enjoy watching the videos of "The Saccone Jolys", they are a non celebrity family which have been posting videos on youtube for over five years. They have become incredibly popular with well over a million subscribers through posting youtube videos of their family and their journey each day.  They have used web 2.0 as a platform to create a very successful lifestyle for themselves, and it is has now become their full-time job. This clearly shows the vast opportunities which are arising because of the growing popularity and use of the Web 2.0 platform. It is becoming apparent that people who take advantage of these opportunities can become extremely successful. 

"The original idea of the web was that it should be a collaborative space where you can communicate through sharing information." Tim Berners-Lee
Furthering on the subject of Web 2.0 it also has additional negatives. Every type of site that I use on the web is set to private; however I would never post anything that I thought could get into the wrong hands, or show me in a negative way. Even if your profile is private you don't know who can actually view what you're posting. I feel there are aspects of your life that definitely do not need to be posted onto a Facebook profile for the entire world to see. I feel especially as I am somebody looking into becoming a teacher you have to be very diligent in the way you use your social media. You have to constantly be aware of the content you are sharing with others, so that it does not impact your professional career in a negative way.  It is exciting however that the web is forever ongoing and ever changing and adapting with new technology being developed every day. I am thrilled I live in a generation where communicating and sharing our views on the web is such a huge part of our lives now. 

The use of Facebook for example has changed dramatically since it was first founded in 2004. I still remember creating a profile and not taking advantage of it's full capability for the first few years of having it. Over the years it has become hugely successful and now has more than 1.23 billion users. As consumers of web 2.0 we help it progress and develop. If you think of all the different types of websites you use daily they all have constant updates to benefit the consumer, some of which you probably don't even notice. Web 2.0 is tailored to you in more ways than you may even realise. I have recently noticed, for example, that when I browse on certain shopping sites on the internet, links to specific items I have been looking at are advertised on my personal Facebook wall. This is done through use of cookies, as the Web 2.0 sites learn and remember my search patterns, and what I'm likely to be interested in. It is used not only as a social hub, but also as a tool used by companies to advertise their products, based on the knowledge that Facebook has gathered from you surfing the web.  Underneath I have included a word diagram I found online with all the key words best used to describe all the different branches behind Web 2.0.

I feel that using web 2.0 sites on this course is something extremely exciting and beneficial for both me, and people of the younger generation. I am finding myself engaging a lot more than I probably would do if I was restricted to writing notes on dictation from a lecturer. After doing some research I am becoming very interesting into looking further into Web 2.0. I like how we, as students, are given the freedom to interpret,  and shape our own path on the course. I feel using the blog as a tool to progress through the handbook is a benefit to me (in order to consolidate my learning), and to my peers on the course who can use it as a source for ideas. It is also something I am personally finding really fun to write.

Task 1a - Professional Profile

After reading through the documents on Reader 1.0 and the Module 1 Handbook I thought I would try to begin the first task of the module. I have been scowering  through quite a lot of fellow students' blogs who are on Module 2 and 3 and looking at their very first few posts in regards to the module. I wanted to see how fellow peers had approached Task 1a and found a variety of different ways in which different people had adapted their CV's into a professional profile. Some people have incorporated images of their actual CVs into their blog posts whilst others have made the professional profile more personal and incorporated more of their life into it. I found being able to use the blogs a great resource to visually see how others had adapted their CVs into the professional profile and it has really helped me personally to decide how I would start the module.

After taking time to look at both of my CVs I have found that my working CV for a regular job is worlds apart from the CV I used when training at performing arts college. A regular CV should incorporate all your skills,  achievements and personality qualities that would make you an attribute to whichever job you are applying for; whereas the CV I used when going to auditions whilst still at college lists a completely different set of skills. It incorporates what accents I can do strongly, all the dance genres I am trained in, and all the performance experience I had already obtained before and whilst being at college. I found trying to change a CV into a professional profile quite taxing due to the layout of my CV originally. Even though the CV I have includes all the information it needs to there is nothing about me personally included in either of my CV's, both work and performance. I had to bullet point the elements of my performance CV that I wanted to include in my professional profile. Which I would then turn into a more descriptive, personal and in-depth post that is more enjoyable, and hopefully interesting for others to read. I also opted with my professional profile to go for a more personal take, as I feel it's easier to express myself by giving a bit of background about how I began in the arts in the first place. I feel this is relevant as if I hadn't of pursued a career in dance I would genuinely not be here studying the course I am now, and furthering my education to lead me onto a new chapter. I am very excited to be furthering my studies and I am enjoying this new way of learning with Web 2.0 sites featuring heavily throughout the course, as I use the internet heavily on a day to day basis and really enjoy learning that way. 

Task 1a - Professional Profile

My name is Shona Beggs, i'm twenty two years old and I originate from Cheshire. I began dancing at the age of three when I asked my mum whilst on a family holiday to take me to ballet classes. Nineteen years later and every element of performance is still a huge part of life. I trained from the age of three until I was ten at the Olwen Grounds School of dance in Widnes. It was then that my love for ballet and performing really took a grasp of me and I knew it was more than just a hobby. I wanted more ballet classes to improve my technique, and more intense training as I had decided I wanted to further my career and become a professional dancer. I moved to Elliott Clarke Theatre School at the age of eleven where I trained most nights after school and loved every minute of it. I joined the Cechetti ballet associate programme; where I met some amazingly diverse teachers who improved my technique in ballet and contemporary dance, in more ways than I thought was possible.  At the age of sixteen I gained a full scholarship to Bird College in London and moved away from home for three years to study professional musical theatre.

Whilst my training at college was very tough and very disciplined, I wouldn't have changed my time there. I had some amazing experiences including representing the college at the MOVE IT festival, performing each July in our end of year shows at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford and performing on the one show for BBC. I found my third year at college very taxing and as a result of this I decided I wanted a break from anything to do with performance once I had graduated. I graduated in July 2013 with a higher national diploma level 6 and for a while after graduating I was stuck with trying to decide my next move, and what I wanted to do. As dancing had always been such a huge part of my childhood and growing up, it was very difficult to try and find out what else I could be as passionate about, and would want to do as an alternative career that I would enjoy. Dance had always given me strong discipline, confidence and something to put all of my focus and energy into. I still love dance and performance and it will always be a huge part of life. 

I obtained a job shortly after graduating and began working in financial services as I wanted to support myself after being so independent and living away for three years. It was a big adjustment to move back home again and I have been working in financial services for the past year and a half. This has given me great customer service skills, working as part of a team, handling accounts, dealing with data and different computer systems that I had never even heard of previously. I do now have a wider knowledge and understanding of the use of finance. My nineteen year old self, prior to this job role, didn't even know what credit or finance was; working in finance has helped me with my understanding towards it and will help me in future situations in life.

I am now hoping to go into teaching once I have completed my BAPP course at Middlesex University, as I have a passion to share my knowledge, experiences and hopefully be able to help others learn and progress.  I would love to hear any comments underneath about the blog post.