Task2b Reflective Journal

Task 2b Reflective Journal

I had an interesting and very crazy day about a few weeks ago. And, I thought this will be a good theme for my Reflective Journal.

I am a dancer who worked in both classic and contemporary. The company I work for, we have only eight dancers. There are no apprentice or under study or anything. So, in my company injury is a taboo word :S

As I wrote till now, I think people can guess what I am going to write. Yes, that was two weeks before the end of the winter tour, one of our the male dancers injured his foot.

It seems like girls always get injuries but just do not tell people and get on with it. One of the female dancers in the company, her big toe was fractured or broken. But, she just carried on dancing till the end of the tour. She only kept in herself! Bless her.

Anyways, one of our male dancers injured and came back with the crutches, we were all shocked! As you can imagine we have only eight dancers in the company, we all dance lots to cover up. So, even one dancer is off, that is a serious situation to us! The emergency bell was ringing in side of my brain.

It was not just that. The dancer who injured did not communicate with any of us and just suddenly came back with the crutches. He actually hurt his foot a day before and he seemed not happy. The director was not pleased with his behaviour. And, it was only a few hours before the performance. You can imagine how hectic it can get! He just did not let anyone know where he was and what he was doing. If, he could let us know about the situation, we could planed an extra rehearsal to cover his part.

Some of the dancers were panicking, some of them were angry, some of them were calm, some of were cursing him :S. It was interesting to see different individual reactions to the situation.

When I saw him with crutches, first thing which came in to my mind was work out what I need to do to cover up his part. I was kind of calm. It is a serious situation but it was not first time something like this happened. People wish or not, we get injury some times and there is nothing wrong with getting an injury. It is just a part of our job, unfortunately. But, important thing is how to communicate with the others and do everything I can to help the situation.

So, we got together and rehearsed very quickly! Everyone tried their best to learn new steps and remember the different timing, sequences as fast as we could! It was very serious and stressful situation. However it was also a little bit exiting to do something different to usual! We did not have much time for this last minute rehearsal, while we were rehearsing and panicking a bit, I actually felt the time so raw, the passing through of time so physically. That is something I do not usually feel in normal rehearsals, because we rehearse what we already know and kind of relaxed in a way. So, that was different!

Well, the performance went well, Thank to God!

The situation demanded an extra pressure and concentration on us.

However, when we finished the night, it felt so good and we felt we all did a great job together as a team!

It actually went really good considering one dancer was missing and we did only last minute rehearsal!

However, it could go horribly wrong. I would hate to imagine but, the worst situation could be happened was someone lose their concentration and leads us to another accidents, chain reaction of different injury :S 

If, I was the director, what will I do? How will I react to the situation?

To be honest, that is something I do not want to imagine or that could be the worst thing to be happened. Especially if I get to know only a few hours before the performance!

Probably I will try to be calm, and think what need to be done and tell the dancers as quick as possible, so dancers have some time to prepare for the situation and digest the all choreograph. End of the day only dancers can dance on the stage and not much director can do once the curtain is up.

In the situation, I think the director`s job is to calm the dancers and relax them as much as possible, as already there is so much pressure on them!

It would very stressful and not nice day as the director. But, if I was a director, I would make sure that dancers to be aware of injury from the beginning and ask them to lean other people`s role roughly, just in case of emergency!

Generally, the day went very quickly because of the incident. Well, I felt like it was a short day because it was so busy!

Things I have realised and learned from the day and the incident

When I analyse how I reacted to the day and to the incidence, I was surprisingly calm, and adapted to the situation quickly and well, surprisingly! I also realised that it is not great to get injury, for your own sake and for everyone`s sake. But, injury is something we can`t avoid in this business. So, if we get one, better face it! And take it positively and make a move swiftly, not just for yourself, for everyone sake. So, if we get one, we better commutate with the director, rehearsal director and rest of the team as quick as possible. And talk about the situation and provide the best solution, and do our best to assist the situation as much as we can, even with the injury, we are still are team. Team can only function properly when we communicate and help each other!