Yesterday I had a highly beneficial phone tutorial with Hopal, after which I have had a much clearer idea of what I am doing. I must admit that before this chat, I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed because recently I have had so many different questions going round in my head I did not know what to do with them! I was starting to feel more and more that the area I was looking at from my inquiry 'How does audience opinion affect the dancer' was simply too broad and not really the question that I wanted to look at.
What I realised is that as an individual learner I am much better if I am focusing on a historical figure. I really discovered this in Module 1 when I was looking into who I admired, as they were all dancers from previous eras. The person who has always inspired me is Anna Pavlova and as I am currently performing dances that she also performed and performing in more unusual contexts, like care homes and children's book shops, in front of people who do not have such easy access to ballet, Pavlova has begun to have even more of an impact on me as a performer. I am really wanting to know how I can further develop my dancing to have a greater impact on my audiences. So the questions began to emerge What was it about Anna Pavlova that had such an impact on the audiences she performed for? How Might I develop my dancing to touch audiences with greater power?
However, I was worried that doing a more historical inquiry would be problematic when it came to interviews and questionnaires. So I spoke about all of this with Hopal, she was really helpful as she said that she did not think doing a historically based project would be a problem , although a little more unusual, just so long as I am careful to situate myself in the present. She helped me to see all sorts of other threads to the inquiry, many of which related to the topic area I have been looking at previously relating to the audience. She spoke of how I might explore the audience/dancer connection, why are audiences touched by certain performances, does this have to do with certain eras and what people find applicable to them in different historical periods. This got me thinking, if Anna Pavlova had been a dancer of today she would have had a different training and would be a different dancer, but if she was the same person with the same artistic vision, how would she have reached a modern day audience?
Hopal suggested that I could look into arts centres or theatres and see how the audiences affect the dance which they show at the theatre, see what sells best, this could be one of my interviews. Many ideas began to emerge including the idea of putting on a performance based on Anna Pavlova's work and providing questionnaires for audience members to see how the work impacts them today. She also spoke of Liz Lerman who has apparently done a lot of interesting work on the audience and dancer relationship. So I am going to research her and see how all of these ideas can help form my inquiry.
After reading and thinking today I think I have come up with my true inquiry question which is
What elements of Anna Pavlova's performance had such a large impact on the audience and are these elements still relevant to audiences of today?
I now need to go back and do more literature reviews but I feel that I am finally embarking on an inquiry which I am truly passionate about and one which will have a long lasting affect on my practice as a ballet dancer.
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