5b

After I did task 5a, I have looked in to my company`s code of conduct as a dancer.




  1,Costumes and props must be returned to wardrobe and placed back where they came from as soon as possible after a performance.  Costumes should also be returned on the hangers they came on.

·         2, After a performance the dancers should make themselves available to sign autographs or to talk to members of the audience if required.

·         3, Dancewear for class should be appropriate, especially when members of the public are present.

·         4, Dancewear for workshops should be neat and tidy; company t-shirts are provided and should be worn.

·         5, Dancers should be punctual for both workshops and class.

·         6, Dancers leading workshops must plan appropriately so they are presented at the highest standard.

·         7, Dancers are expected to perform certain extra duties if the situation arises, for example, the male dancers should help with the get in/get out on rehearsal days, dancers should help to tape the dance floor and the female dancers may need to help the wardrobe department on occasion.  These extra duties will be shared out fairly amongst the company dancers.

·         8, Our dance education programme is an integral part of the company’s ethos and therefore company dancers are expected to undertake training for workshops as well as to lead and assist in all dance education activities such as workshops, summer schools and courses and our ballet associate programme. Dancers are expected to be responsible and act as role models during all education work and to participate enthusiastically.

·        9,  If company transport is not required then the dancer should tell both the director and the technicians.

·         10, If a dancer would like a guest to use the company transport then the dancer must first confirm this with the director and the technicians.

·         11, Dancers should be punctual for the leaving times of the company transport.

·         12, The company transport must be kept tidy and all rubbish removed.

·         13, The drinking of alcohol is not allowed on the company van.

·         14, Dancers may not bring guests to stay in company accommodation.

·         15, Dancers are responsible for reading and understanding all the information contained in the contract, handbook, company etiquette and any other documents relevant to the role of company dancer, any queries may be made to management.  The dancer’s signature will be taken as confirmation that the documents have been read and understood.

·         16, The dancers have the right to elect a dancer representative from the company to liaise between the dancers and management.

·         17, The company dancers are ambassadors for the company and should behave likewise at all times.  This includes information or pictures published on social media sites that could compromise the reputation of the company.

·         18, At times, dancers may be required to participate in extra activities such as working with artists and taking part in research activities. Dancers are expected to be open minded and accommodating in these circumstances.

  19, The management tries its best to be accommodating.  If there are any queries or problems then dancers may speak to the dancer representative, education officer, assistant director or director.

It seems like a lot of restrictions, however, I had a discussion in my professional net work and other dancers told me, usually there are a hand book code of conduct for dancers, and it is often very thick. So, maybe my company`s code of conduct section is not too bad. And, most of the code of conducts are common sense.

5a code of conduct

I have been working as a professional dancer for six years.

So, I believe I know basic code of conduct at my working place.

However, I have worked at several ballet companies; big one and small ones, also different countries.

What I found interesting was, I do same profession where ever I go, but code of conduct changes with country and by company!

I worked in Serbia`s national theatre of ballet, which employs over seventy dancers. The organisation was big enough that, employers do not remember each other’s name. Especially costume people had to work for Opera, Ballet and Drama, so they clearly had no idea who is who in Ballet. Costume people use to call me Bruce Lee. All of my costume`s name tag was typed Bruce Lee, Is it ethical? Well, probably not in the UK. 

Also, smoking in public place was very common too. Dancers use to smoke in a lift! Also, pianists smoke while they are playing for class and rehearsals! Is it ethical? Probably is in Serbia!

However, rest of the companies I worked and working for seem quite normal.

Ross Dunning mentioned about registering ourselves in morning on his blog, but all the companies I worked I never signed in and out. Usually people from the office come and check during the morning class to resister.

I understand code of conduct as mainly as common sense.

So, I believe my cod of conduct as a dancer will be like these?

Dancers need to be punctual for rehearsals and morning class.

Ware appropriate clothe during class and rehearsal

Do not bring private matter in to work.

If dancers need days off from work by being ill or injured, dancers need to show a proof from doctor.

Avoid physical contact with children during the workshops.

Equal opportunity policy.

Act with respect to costume people, to the technicians and the driver.

Ethics on dance; Images of Dancer, expectation of being a dancer

I wonder what kind of answers I get, if I ask people for an images of a perfect dancer?
Pretty? Skinny? Beautiful? Light?

I would like to investigate what dancers do to keep this expectation from people and from dance companies.
I would like to look in to how these images effect on dancers mind and body, and to work out the consequence of it.

Also, are we supposed be a role models for young dancers?
Are we sending a right message to them for being skinny and pretty?

Evaluation of Inquiry tools; Focus Group

I have discussed my inquiry tasks with my focus group,  I chose my focus group as my work colleagues.

I am not sure it was a great choice of group, as I see them everyday and work together. As I have written on my observation journal that, people do tend to pick up each others habits with out noticing and also people`s life style has become very similar if you work at same place as share the same time schedule, if life style becomes similar, people`s personality and onions become similar with out realising.

Advantage;
Advantage of choosing my colleagues as a focus group was I could ask some thing I usually choose not to ask participants, as I know my colleagues more than participants and my colleagues know me well too. So, in that way I received very honest answers as we did not have to worry about consequence of the answers.
Also, every single people have a different back ground, yet every one of them has professional knowledge, so it was very good way to correct quality, yet very individual opinions.


Detriment;
As it is a group of same interest, a bunch of specialists. So, every one can provide useful, quality information, but some how never get to the answer or solution, because every single participants in Focus Group has same problems.

Evaluation of Inquiry tools; Observation

Observation is one of the most common and used inquiry tools in dance.
However, I have noticed observation can provide more with collaborating with other inquiry tools.

Advantage;
this tool can provide more than what researcher can visually see, with researcher's deeper understanding toward the subject by using uses other inquiry tools before hand.
For example,  if observer, researcher choose to begin investigate the task by using tool of observation. Then, current event can provide only so much of information to the observer.
However, when observer has a clear aim and already investigated toward the subject before hand, i,e, certain dancers habit, teachers aim, or  what is the current event is focusing on, if researcher is already aware of these by using other inquiry tools, suddenly observation can provide different point of view.
If, researcher already investigated and correct some information by using other tools, it is much easier to understand the reason why things are happening and why current event is going to to certain direction. And, researcher can built a theory based on these evidences.
For example, I observed some dancer who have been interviewed by me, and, I saw some contradict act in the class from them. And, I also started to realise why dancers get paranoid about certain things, also how they get in to these mental state.
This tool could help put all the factors and show a bigger picture to researcher.

Detriment;
if, researcher has an fixed idea before using this tool, it could plants an assumption on researchers head; we see what we want to see. So, some times we are already deciding what researcher is going to see. That is what I found it tricky. Compare to rest of the tools, this tool is very much rely and depend on researchers understanding, as this is a very one way tool; there are technically no communication between researcher and participant.
And, often apparence of third party effect on participants mental state. And, that could give them  reasons to act differently to normal. In that case, observer is going to observe what participants want to observer to see, that beats the object. And, I could not find out how to avoid that situation.

Evaluation of Inquiry tools; Interview

I found this tool can be the most personal inquiry tool for the research. In this sense, this tool stands totally opposite to the way of survey.

Advantage;
of interviewing people is researcher and interviewee are physically very close. And, this physical distance creates the atmosphere.
I have noticed the atmosphere and body language often provides some thing more than just answers to the questions, some thing more than what interviewee try to explain to me.
This is one the special advantage of interview.

Some times people give me very clear answer and some times answers come with some hesitation or a long pause before they answer.
Some people answer straight away, some people answer very slowly with choosing the right words.

Read between the lines, very famous saying and it is true for survey.
But, I say, try to feel the silence between the conversation. Which I have learned from interviewing people. There are so much information in silence. In other words, possibly the true answers can be only in silence.

Also, interview provides more details compare to rest of inquiry tools, in a very different way, which I will compare and explain at my critical evaluation later.
I started to know them as a person through interviewing. And, gave me a clearer shape of who they are, and what they are trying archive as a person.
That is what this tool is very different to the other inquiry tools.

Detriment;
is it is very time consuming. And, I do not think I need to go through the detail as everyone experienced this.
I also made sure not to digressed from the main subject while interview.
Some times I get unexpected and interesting answers. So, I had to be very careful not to carry out and ask any extra, unnecessary questions.
As Module handbook warns, I need to ask only propriety questions. It was actually a bit difficult as I stated to know the people. But, I realised protect the ethics and keep the questions to minimum and necessary, it is the way to avoid going over the time limit.

Also, I could see some times interviewee hesitate to answer some questions.
It looks like they are thinking of the consequence of their answers, and how they effect them after. That happened when I interviewed dancers and students mainly. However, not from the teachers. It seemed dancers and students were more careful with their answers.
I guess, invisible hierarchy also effect the answers..... 






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Evaluation of Inquiry tools; Survey

I am using mainly three inquiry tools for my research.
.
Which is Survey, observation, and Interview.

I would like to analyse and compare these tool`s advantage and detriment.

Survey.

Advantage;
I have actually used a lot of survey for my research.
However, it does not mean it was successful!
I used a lot because I found it quite convenient and time saving, as once survey has giving to people only thing I needed to do was to wait.
Also, surveys results are much easier to check and analyse compare to other inquiry tools results, because it has been done by people and there are evidence on the survey.

 Observation and Interviews, I need to listen to the record or read through the notes to recall the memory of that time.
And, human memory can be effected by day to day incidents.
For example, let`s say I interview some one, and that person gave me generally negative answers at that time. And, I analysed as that person is not enjoying and also finding hard to carry on with what she does. However, later on I find out that her mother is very heavily sick, so that effected her answers and my understanding towards the person.
With circumstances like this, I find it hard to analyse corrcetly when I go through the results of these tools.

However, survey results are pretty much one dimensional and straight forward. That is why I found much more simple and easier to analyse on survey.
And, names are unrevealing, so I will never know who is who. So, there are no space for emotions to effect the results.

Detriment;
is ironically all the advantage above. I found these advantages can be back fires in survey.

Most importantly, Reliability of information.
I used survey on the web; using survey monkey website. And, also I made some questionnaireｓ to give to people.
The reason I avoid survey monkeys and instead I gave out the questionnaire was, because some of the students are not old enough, so I felt very inappropriate to ask them their e-mail address and fill them up on the web. 
I made that decision based on my ethical knowledge of teaching young dancers.
However, I have noticed the difference of answers between web survey and questionnaires.
The questions were the same, and I have asked the students there are no need to reveal their name.
However, when students were filling in  questionnaires, I could clearly see the appearance of teacher effect their answers. 
I had a feeling of they are worried and thinking of consequence, so students did not answer entirely honest.
Even, though name is not known. 
However, I guess there are evidence on the paper. So, I do I understand why students found it hard to express freely.  
Survey monkey results were much more direct and some of the answers were very useful for me to improve my quality. However, the problem I had with survey monkey was I did not receive reply as much as I wanted to.
As I mentioned in advantage section, Yes, it is time saving in a way compare to interviewing people  and observing classes and people` behavior. However, the problem is once the survey has given to the people, only thing I could do was to wait for the reply. 
I guess, I can nudge people to reply me, but I do not think that is a right way to get a reply for the research.
No wonder, all the restaurants give out a lot of prizes and money to fill up the survey!
That was the biggest dilemma with survey monkey.


Do people find it same?
Or does any one have any good solutions?