Task 4)a: Developing areas of 'wonder'

Having pondered my topic for sometime I have travelled a bit of a journey trying to draw up relevant questions. I now realise that I have so many questions about so many things and they have all begun to get a bit tangled up! I have been trying to narrow them down so that I can begin a thorough research. When I spoke with Adesola and Jessica on the Skype meeting I realised that I was combining a lot of different areas that I am interested in however, now I am clearer on the angle I want to take. Although I am still not entirely sure what my question is, I know that I am interested in the topic area of the impact varying performance contexts have on a dancers authentic expression.  I am particularly interested in placing this question in the area of classical ballet as this is my own area of professional practice. However, I feel at this stage it is more beneficial to research the broader dance area a little bit. I hope this may also spark the interest of others and encourage them to share their thoughts with me.

I want to research this topic because I am interested to find out how ballet dancers in the past have adapted to varying contexts and where the most notable performances have taken place. Also how dancers of today feel about the how their performance environment affects them. It feeds into my professional practice as a freelance ballet dancer, as I want to discover how I can adapt to the varied contexts in which I dance in order to produce better performances. I have only been a professional dancer since 2016 and became freelance in July 2017. Therefore I realise that I am very fresh to the business so I really want to develop myself as an artist and I feel this inquiry could help me.  I am also intrigued to find out if it really matters where and for whom we dance as to the effectiveness of a performance.

The 7 areas of wonder I came up with in relation to this are: 

How can the term authenticity relate to dance?

Where does a dancer feel they can be what they would consider their authentic self? 

Does the context a dancer performs in change the way they dance?

Does a competitive atmosphere change how a dancer performs?

What impact do different audiences have on a dancer's artistic performance?

What dynamics are produced from different audiences watching dance and how does that affect the performer? 

Does the status which a dancer holds affect the context in which they dance?

I created this collage for my questions to help me build on my research process in a creative way.

I would be interested to know what others may feel about this area of research.