This past week I accomplished the following:
I re-wrote the rest of "Benefits of Dance" and re-wrote "Creative Movement: taking the values of professional dance to children" with arguments. I started "The implementation of Creative Dance in Schools: professional opinions" but am missing three interviews, I already wrote arguments for that.
The sources I consulted this week were:
My own text and some creative dance notes.
By next week I want to have accomplished:
THESIS is DUE. aaaah!
Finish interviews. Re-write "Creative Dance in Washington Elementary Schools" and "The Arts: An Economic Force in the Community." Write Conclusion.
Start missing annotated bibs.
What obstacles stand in the way?
TIME
What steps can I take to move forward?
Use every free moment I have to finish this and my other classes' work.
In this week's seminar I want to discuss:
Nothing. Listen to final projects.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Prep Sheet 10-11
This past two weeks I accomplished the following:
I re-wrote my introduction and the first part of Benefits of Dance. I also found a structure in my work! So, there is kind of a table of contents now.
The sources I consulted this week were:
No sources these past two weeks, but I think there are areas to be further researched.
By next week I want to have accomplished:
I want to finish re-writing Benefits of Dance. Last week I didn't finish re-writing the economy section, because when I read the benefits of dance, I saw that there were economic paragraphs randomly inserted throughout so I decided to follow the order of my paper instead of jumping in between sections.
What obstacles stand in the way?
None, I think last week I was mostly scared about getting rid of paragraphs. Now, that I've re-read and re-written it is easier to find what works in each section and what doesn't. I am also given a second opportunity to analyze what I wrote by re-writing. It's really cool because before I wrote in a way trying to find vocabulary for what I wanted to say, and now I know more so I can edit things too.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Keep writing and highlighting the text with Chris's feedback. I found out that I like to write and read with color to keep myself motivated, organized and focused. I look forward to it more if there's color. Isn't that weird?
In this week's seminar I want to discuss:
I'm doing well, I just need the time to keep writing.
I re-wrote my introduction and the first part of Benefits of Dance. I also found a structure in my work! So, there is kind of a table of contents now.
The sources I consulted this week were:
No sources these past two weeks, but I think there are areas to be further researched.
By next week I want to have accomplished:
I want to finish re-writing Benefits of Dance. Last week I didn't finish re-writing the economy section, because when I read the benefits of dance, I saw that there were economic paragraphs randomly inserted throughout so I decided to follow the order of my paper instead of jumping in between sections.
What obstacles stand in the way?
None, I think last week I was mostly scared about getting rid of paragraphs. Now, that I've re-read and re-written it is easier to find what works in each section and what doesn't. I am also given a second opportunity to analyze what I wrote by re-writing. It's really cool because before I wrote in a way trying to find vocabulary for what I wanted to say, and now I know more so I can edit things too.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Keep writing and highlighting the text with Chris's feedback. I found out that I like to write and read with color to keep myself motivated, organized and focused. I look forward to it more if there's color. Isn't that weird?
In this week's seminar I want to discuss:
I'm doing well, I just need the time to keep writing.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Prep Sheet 9
This past week, I accomplished the following:
I started A Study of Creative Movement in Elementary Schools with an argument. But I still have to polish this section and make it blend well (arguments and facts).
The sources I consulted this week are:
I didn't consul any sources this week. I've stuck to my text.
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
I want to have finished re-writing The Arts: An Economic force in the Community and start on the Benefits of Dance.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
I have issues re-writing with arguments. Sometimes things that I wrote don't make sense to me at all. AND it's taking me so much time to see each paragraph and think that its not meaningful.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Take my computer to the theater and write. Thanksgiving week will be awesome, because I'll be in Mexico the whole week and will have tons of time.
I need to look at a clean page, because trying to fix my text in the same page gives me a headache.
In this week's seminar, I want to discuss:
I'm good right now, I just have to keep getting into my text.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Prep Sheet 7-8
This past week, I accomplished the following:
I have started going over Chris' notes on A Study of Creative Movement in Elementary Schools.
I also researched who I would be writing to, so that I could get a better idea of how to re-write my paper as an argument.
The sources I consulted this week are:
I didn't consul any sources this week. I've stuck to my text.
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
I want to have finished re-writing A Study of Creative Movement in Elementary Schools and start going over The Arts: An Economic force in the Community.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
I have little time this week, but that section isn't too big. So I know I'll be able to finish and hopefully I'll be further along the next section because tech for CDT is next week and I'll be at the theater most of the time.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Going paragraph by paragraph. Taking it step by step.
In this week's seminar, I want to discuss:
I'm good right now, I just have to keep getting into my text.
I have started going over Chris' notes on A Study of Creative Movement in Elementary Schools.
I also researched who I would be writing to, so that I could get a better idea of how to re-write my paper as an argument.
The sources I consulted this week are:
I didn't consul any sources this week. I've stuck to my text.
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
I want to have finished re-writing A Study of Creative Movement in Elementary Schools and start going over The Arts: An Economic force in the Community.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
I have little time this week, but that section isn't too big. So I know I'll be able to finish and hopefully I'll be further along the next section because tech for CDT is next week and I'll be at the theater most of the time.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Going paragraph by paragraph. Taking it step by step.
In this week's seminar, I want to discuss:
I'm good right now, I just have to keep getting into my text.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Creativity & Education Link...
TED Talks....
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Enjoy!
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Enjoy!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Prep Sheet 6
This past week, I accomplished the following:
I read and created an annotated bibliography on Seattle Arts & Economic Prosperity. I reread what I had written about Anne Green Gilbert's project and added wrote some more because I realized my voice wasn't in there at all. Then I wrote about arts and their economic drive in the community. YAY 5 pages total! 3 of them written today!!!
The sources I consulted this week are:
Lynch, Robert L. Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences in The City of Seattle, WA. Rep. United States: Americans for the Arts, 2007. Print.
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
Complete the arts and economy section with evaluative insight.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
I need some sense of direction for what else I should be consulting in this research.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Consult Heather and finish the economic and arts section with some evaluative input.
In this week's seminar, I want to discuss:
I just need your feedback Christine on those pages and direction on how to move forward.
I read and created an annotated bibliography on Seattle Arts & Economic Prosperity. I reread what I had written about Anne Green Gilbert's project and added wrote some more because I realized my voice wasn't in there at all. Then I wrote about arts and their economic drive in the community. YAY 5 pages total! 3 of them written today!!!
The sources I consulted this week are:
Lynch, Robert L. Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences in The City of Seattle, WA. Rep. United States: Americans for the Arts, 2007. Print.
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
Complete the arts and economy section with evaluative insight.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
I need some sense of direction for what else I should be consulting in this research.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Consult Heather and finish the economic and arts section with some evaluative input.
In this week's seminar, I want to discuss:
I just need your feedback Christine on those pages and direction on how to move forward.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Prep Sheet 4-5
This past 2 weeks, I accomplished the following:
I read different articles concerning the arts and the economical activity they produce. I created one annotated bib for the second one and posted it on the blog.
The sources I consulted this week are:
Donnelly, Peter F. "Direct Link between Vitality of Arts Community and Region's Economic Prosperity." Community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. The Seattle Times, 7 Sept. 2003. Web. 09 Oct. 2011. <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030907>.
Lynch, Robert L., and Gene Duvernoy. "Opinion | The Arts Can Be Part of Economic Solutions | Seattle Times Newspaper." The Seattle Times. Seattle Times Newspaper, 17 June 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009350172_guests18lynch.html>.
http://www.seattle.gov/arts/_downloads/research/SeattleArtsandEconomicProsperity.pdf
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
I want to have written some of my findings concerning the arts and their economical impact. At least 2 pages.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
Time as usual...
What steps can I take to move forward?
Make a comparison chart from each year's economical impact.
In this week’s seminar, I want to discuss:
How to be ok with knowing that I might not achieve my goal for the semester and set another goal.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
On economic proliferation and the arts....
Donnelly, Peter F. "Direct Link between Vitality of Arts Community and Region's Economic Prosperity." Community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. The Seattle Times, 7 Sept. 2003. Web. 09 Oct. 2011. <http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030907>.
Donnelly gives facts about how the arts, heritage organizations and their patrons annually generate around $375 million in economic activity and create 16,000 full and part-time jobs.
He references Richard Florida, professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University due to charts Florida developed about the relationship between a creative social environment and economic prosperity in The Rise of the Creative Class. Florida says that these people are drawn to communities that value creativity and individuality, and that are tolerant and diverse. Corporations and economic growth increasingly depend on the skills that these people bring to the table. This is related to my thesis, because if we spend more time stimulating children's creativity in schools, they will become these type of people that will come up with solutions to many of the problems that we face as society. The reason I would like to make a movement class a requirement is not because I want to breed dancers, but because of these skills –creativity, critical thinking, problem solving– that are transferable to a wide range of industries and can help our economy.
Donnelly also says that on any given night there are 10,000 people streaming into theaters and concert halls in Seattle, and consequently into restaurants, shops and parking facilities. While this statement helps his argument about the arts creating safety in downtown and adding to our sense of belonging to the community, he is also making evident how much economic activity is generated by the arts. It isn't only the ticket to the performance, it's the food, the parking and the occasional treat at a shop.
Donnelly gives facts about how the arts, heritage organizations and their patrons annually generate around $375 million in economic activity and create 16,000 full and part-time jobs.
He references Richard Florida, professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University due to charts Florida developed about the relationship between a creative social environment and economic prosperity in The Rise of the Creative Class. Florida says that these people are drawn to communities that value creativity and individuality, and that are tolerant and diverse. Corporations and economic growth increasingly depend on the skills that these people bring to the table. This is related to my thesis, because if we spend more time stimulating children's creativity in schools, they will become these type of people that will come up with solutions to many of the problems that we face as society. The reason I would like to make a movement class a requirement is not because I want to breed dancers, but because of these skills –creativity, critical thinking, problem solving– that are transferable to a wide range of industries and can help our economy.
Donnelly also says that on any given night there are 10,000 people streaming into theaters and concert halls in Seattle, and consequently into restaurants, shops and parking facilities. While this statement helps his argument about the arts creating safety in downtown and adding to our sense of belonging to the community, he is also making evident how much economic activity is generated by the arts. It isn't only the ticket to the performance, it's the food, the parking and the occasional treat at a shop.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Prep Sheet 3
This week, I accomplished the following:
I read two articles by Anne Green Gilbert, one of the leading dance educators in the nation. One of them was a research study of movement as a tool to teach Language Arts.
I wrote two pages about those results in a section I named Creative Movement in Elementary Schools.
The sources I consulted this week are:
Gilbert, Anne Green. Creative Dance Center. 2011. Web. 2 Oct. 2011 <http://creativedance.org/>
Gilbert, Anne Green. “Learning Language Arts Through Movement.” 1979. 1-10. Print.
Gilbert, Anne Green. “Teaching the Three Rs Through Dance.” Exchange. 1994. 33-38. Print
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
Give arguments about how Gilbert's project is a good example of how movement is beneficial to an academic curriculum.
Design my own curriculum, including danza folklórica.
Read more about Goleman's Emotional Intelligence.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
My commitment to sitting for chunks at a time and work.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Set alarms in my calendar during the week to dedicate time only to this project.
In this week’s seminar, I want to discuss:
Researching the arts' economical production in Seattle. Maybe?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Prep Sheet 2
This week, I accomplished the following:
-Created tentative sections for my paper.
-Read the info in websites that Christine Sumption recommended and some of the info that Daniel Goleman offers in his website.
-Evaluated what I still need to research.
-Decided to narrow the thesis to the Benefits of Dance and Economical production through the arts for now, potentially extend it to writing about the idea of a touring dance company that visits public elementary schools.
The sources I consulted this week are:
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
Consult sources of areas in need of research.
Read more about brain science.
Acquire a copy of Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman) and read info that pertains to the project.
Listen and transcribe at least 2 interviews.
2-3 pages written.
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
Making time!
What steps can I take to move forward?
Wake up early on Saturdays and Sundays to read.
In this week’s seminar, I want to discuss:
How to be an efficient reader and not waste time in what will not help me proceed.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Seminar Prep Sheet
This week, I accomplished the following:
I listened to 3 interviews and transcribed them.
I wrote 2 pages of my thesis.
The sources I consulted this week are:
Centro Nacional de las Artes webpage (www.cenart.gob.mx) to read about the faculty.
Interviews
By next week, I want to have accomplished:
Sections, divide my paper and see what I need to research.
2 more interviews transcribed
3-4 written pages
Evaluate how much more to close the Benefits of Dance chapter
What obstacles stand in the way of progress?
Reading Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence book, or skimming what is necessary.
I need the book.
What steps can I take to move forward?
Research the library, buy it at the bookstore or order the book online.
In this week’s seminar, I want to discuss:
How to proceed.
How not to get lost in tangents.
How to annotate interviews in an MLA format.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Brainstorming
What is your motivation in this communication situation?
I want to help Mexico's lack of postmodern dance cultivation. I want to increase the interest for this art form by demonstrating everything that it has to offer to a child's development. I want to build a generation of people that support the arts in Mexico, therefore aiding and alleviating the economical need of artists.
What do you hope your audience will do or feel or think after they have experienced the communication you will produce?
I hope that they see how much I can and want to offer to the arts and the community. I hope they believe I'm worth investing in to keep studying dance. I hope they will want to support my project and actually come through with it.
What would be the best and worst possible outcome of the communication?
The best would be that I would use the exact appropriate words for a non artist to understand. The worst would be that what I write comes out like I'm lunatic, thinking I'm living in a utopia and my project is unrealistic.
How will your communication change the situation in which you make the communication?
I think the people that read it will realize how interested some people are in the arts and how it can be productive for an entire country to integrate them into education. I need to charge on nationalism and stay positive in the middle of a society that is tired of the problems and therefore has developed a fixed pessimism.
Audience characteristics
- They are interested in the arts and believe in the power the have.
- Don't necessarily know everything about dance, but are aware of the art form and have been exposed to diverse choreography.
- They are in their 40s
- They are willing to support and promote artists in other countries.
- They want to advance the development of the arts in Mexico.
- They are Mexican.
- They have diverse able-bodiedness.
- They grew up with the arts.
- All genders.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Why am I interviewing dance educators in Mexico? What am I hoping to gain from their perspective?
Why am I interviewing dance educators and performing companies in Mexico? What will I gain from their perspective?
I want to know how the bureaucratic education system affects and limits their expansion into all k-12 schools. I want to know what their experience has been with non-dance students, if they've had such an experience. I want to know if they think dance is important enough to make a requirement in all schools. These dance educators are living in Mexico; they know what's going on today better than I do.
For the performing companies I want to know if they take into account dance education as part of their responsibilities to build audiences. I want to know what their thoughts about performing for a k-12 audience would accomplish.
Dance Educators:
I want to know how the bureaucratic education system affects and limits their expansion into all k-12 schools. I want to know what their experience has been with non-dance students, if they've had such an experience. I want to know if they think dance is important enough to make a requirement in all schools. These dance educators are living in Mexico; they know what's going on today better than I do.
For the performing companies I want to know if they take into account dance education as part of their responsibilities to build audiences. I want to know what their thoughts about performing for a k-12 audience would accomplish.
Dance Educators:
- How have the constraints in the education system affected your expansion of dance knowledge into k-12 schools in Mexico City?
- Have you been able to teach a dance class at a public school as part of their PE class?
- Have you had an experience (or more than one) where a non-dance student flourished into an individual highly interested in the arts?
- Have students been more generally interested in the arts after taking your dance class?
- What has been your most rewarding experience teaching dance?
- How do you think students would benefit from taking dance classes as part of their curriculum?
- What do you think about making dance an educational requirement for all public and private schools?
Performing Contemporary Dance Companies' Directors:
- How have you built your audiences over the years?
- Do you think that part of your responsibility as a choreographer/director is to teach your audience and the general public about contemporary dance?
- What events have you held to inform your audience about contemporary dance?
- Have you performed for k-12 students at their schools? What was your experience?
- Have you seen an increase in audience in your regular performances after performing for a public/private school?
- What would performing for k-12 students in their schools accomplish?
- How do you think students would benefit from taking dance classes as part of their curriculum?
- What do you think about making dance an educational requirement for all public and private schools?
Sunday, March 6, 2011
3rd Annotated Bibliography... Multiple Intelligences.
Gardner, Howard. "In a Nutshell." Multiple Intelligences: the Theory in Practice. New York, NY: Basic, 1993. 5-12. Print.
Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, was asked to devise a measure that would predict the success of children in the primary grades of Parisian schools in 1900. His discovery came to be called the "intelligence test"; his measure, the "IQ". Soon it arrived to the United states and after WWI, the IQ was tested over one million American recruits. The nature of its success was that now intelligences seemed to be quantifiable.
Over the years, there have been suggestions to add reaction time as part of the assessment of someone's intelligence, or look directly at brain waves.
Another more sophisticated version of the IQ test has been the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) where a person's verbal and match scores are summed up to rate their intellect a long a single dimension. Gardner explains the along with this one-dimensional view of how to assess minds comes a corresponding school, which he calls the "uniform school". This type of school has a set of facts that everybody should know and few elective courses.
Gardner suggests another type of school which he calls "individual-centered school", in which the mind is seen through a pluralistic view, recognizing different and discrete facets of cognition and acknowledging people's strengths and contrasting cognitive styles. His suggestion is based on two studies: cognitive science and neuroscience. He approaches this through his "theory of multiple intelligences".
The multiple intelligences that Gardner has unveiled through a series of sources have been Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Spatial (think of engineers, sculptors, architects), Musical (Mozart), Bodily-kinesthetic (dancers, athletes, surgeons), Interpersonal (politicians, teachers) and Intrapersonal (understand oneself and operate effectively in life) intelligences. As a society we have come to place the Linguistic and Logical-mathematical intelligences as the most important. Therefore, we have devalued the rest or do not acknowledge them as intelligences.
The individual-centered school, assuming that people have diverse interests and abilities and that not one person can learn everything there is to lear, would seek to match individuals to curricular areas, particular ways of teaching, and after the first few grades to the various kinds of life and work options available in their culture. The risk of this school would be premature billeting an individual to a way of life. However, the early identifications of strengths can help children profit from experiences and the early identification of their weaknesses could be attended to before it was too late.
"If we can mobilize the spectrum of human abilities, not only will people feel better about themselves and more competent; it is even possible that they will also feel more engaged and better able to join the rest of the world community in working for the broader good."
I think this author is inclusive of all people and can help my research by supporting my argument that as a society we give more value to the left hemisphere of the brain and that the right hemisphere can help us solve more problems creatively. I think its a good source, but I worry when Gardner uses language, such as "the normal child". I don't like to have people "normalized". However, I think he tries to support all individuals, even when he falls into complicated relationships between language and social justice.
I want to read more about what he has to say about bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, was asked to devise a measure that would predict the success of children in the primary grades of Parisian schools in 1900. His discovery came to be called the "intelligence test"; his measure, the "IQ". Soon it arrived to the United states and after WWI, the IQ was tested over one million American recruits. The nature of its success was that now intelligences seemed to be quantifiable.
Over the years, there have been suggestions to add reaction time as part of the assessment of someone's intelligence, or look directly at brain waves.
Another more sophisticated version of the IQ test has been the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) where a person's verbal and match scores are summed up to rate their intellect a long a single dimension. Gardner explains the along with this one-dimensional view of how to assess minds comes a corresponding school, which he calls the "uniform school". This type of school has a set of facts that everybody should know and few elective courses.
Gardner suggests another type of school which he calls "individual-centered school", in which the mind is seen through a pluralistic view, recognizing different and discrete facets of cognition and acknowledging people's strengths and contrasting cognitive styles. His suggestion is based on two studies: cognitive science and neuroscience. He approaches this through his "theory of multiple intelligences".
The multiple intelligences that Gardner has unveiled through a series of sources have been Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Spatial (think of engineers, sculptors, architects), Musical (Mozart), Bodily-kinesthetic (dancers, athletes, surgeons), Interpersonal (politicians, teachers) and Intrapersonal (understand oneself and operate effectively in life) intelligences. As a society we have come to place the Linguistic and Logical-mathematical intelligences as the most important. Therefore, we have devalued the rest or do not acknowledge them as intelligences.
The individual-centered school, assuming that people have diverse interests and abilities and that not one person can learn everything there is to lear, would seek to match individuals to curricular areas, particular ways of teaching, and after the first few grades to the various kinds of life and work options available in their culture. The risk of this school would be premature billeting an individual to a way of life. However, the early identifications of strengths can help children profit from experiences and the early identification of their weaknesses could be attended to before it was too late.
"If we can mobilize the spectrum of human abilities, not only will people feel better about themselves and more competent; it is even possible that they will also feel more engaged and better able to join the rest of the world community in working for the broader good."
I think this author is inclusive of all people and can help my research by supporting my argument that as a society we give more value to the left hemisphere of the brain and that the right hemisphere can help us solve more problems creatively. I think its a good source, but I worry when Gardner uses language, such as "the normal child". I don't like to have people "normalized". However, I think he tries to support all individuals, even when he falls into complicated relationships between language and social justice.
I want to read more about what he has to say about bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
2nd Annotated Bibliography: Dance Audiences
Sussmann, Leila. “Dance Audiences: Answered and Unanswered Questions.” University of Illinois Press on behalf of Congress on Research in Dance. Dance Research Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1. Spring 1998, pp. 54-63. www.jstor.org/stable/1477894
In the U.S. there are four national surveys of arts audiences, three of which are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); they report the size and social profile of the ballet audience. In 1992 it was found that eigteen- to twenty –four-year-olds made up 37% of all ballet attendances, as opposed to 47% in 1982. In contrast to ballet, the modern dance audience has never been the subject of a nationwide, or even a large inclusive survey.
The arts are patronized disproportionately by people of high educational income and occupational status, and education is much the strongest determinant of arts attendance, stronger than income or occupation. After WWII the proportion of people graduating from college grew rapidly, having its epitome in the mid-sixties. However, even though education is the major determinant of arts patronage, the attendance rate has gone down, which helps conclude that colleges are not teaching students to participate in high culture as well as they used to. A part from not receiving enough encouragement to attend high culture events,due to the expansion of higher education, students that weren’t introduced to high culture at an early age are also attending college. Even in 1992, college graduates were still a larger proportion of ballet audiences than of the population.
Questionnaires from two modern dance companies were conducted, the Mark Morris’s audiences reveals that in 1990, 63% of the people attending three concerts had some education beyond the bachelor’s degree, whilst the Paul Taylor audiences in 1994 reported 57%. Performers and choreographers are also highly educated; in 1990 57% of the retired modern dancers had at least a four-year degree as opposed to 10% of the retired ballet dancers. Also, in 1989 the NEA found that among five hundred choreographers (most of them doing modern dance), 77% had completed college. This “may be the highest college completion rate among professions for which there is no formal or informal licensing requirement.”
However, no study deals with the size of the modern dance audience nationwide in part because the interviewees interpret “modern dance” to mean musical-comedy dance, the latest fad in social dancing or something else other than what the artworld means by the term. A study of the dance subscribers in Boston (specifically Dance Umbrella and Boston Ballet) suggests that the modern dance audience is more educationally elite than the ballet audience since the small group of 1000 modern dance subscribers (8000 for Boston Ballet) accounted a disproportionately large number of arts attendances. “They were committed, not just to modern dance, but to the high culture arts in general.” Some differences between both modern and ballet audiences are that to some people modern dance is more engaging than ballet and exudes more emotion, to others it is hard to understand because there isn’t a storyline. Modern dance choreographers insist that the audience has a right to interpret the dance. “Frequent and wide exposure to the arts was the key difference we found between Boston’s ballet and modern dance subscribers.”
This article is a good source that expresses key differences and approaches to both modern dance and ballet. I think this last argument is important to my thesis because in Mexico there is no constant exposure to the arts in the k-12 system and it is possible to see the effect that this has caused to the art world not only in Mexico but the U.S. as well. It also demostrates how there is a very small group of people that participate in modern dance.
Learning about summarizing...
I understand better how to find a focus for my summary, it might take a draft of a summary and listing to find what the purpose of my writing is. I want to get better at it this weekend.
I want to challenge myself not to write exactly what the article says, but to process it in my mind or through writing and then create the summary.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Questions about Summarizing...
How might we employ these strategies when working with a text that doesn't have an overt "argument" about an issue? What strategy might you add or revise?
I think I would hook myself onto one of the aspects the writer is discussing and try to make a summary about that. I would add my own point of view, knowing that I'd be falling out of the summary realm. I would also write that the author is neutral about an issue and is trying to inform without giving her opinion. I would also be weary about how reliable the text is and what points of view are being omitted.
How might we employ these strategies when summarizing an interview or an observation of an event or sub-culture? What strategy might you add or revise?
I think that for an observation, stating clearly that this is what you particularly saw and thought about. To that type of summary I would obviously have to add interviews from other people that experienced the same event or that are part of a sub-culture. Even then, the conglomeration of summaries on what happened will be a subjective report because every person presents their observations with a very diverse background.
For an interview, I would try to be very careful to not manipulate what the person had said into fitting my own opinion. I think I would actually use their observations as a way to have a discussion on the topic.
I think I would hook myself onto one of the aspects the writer is discussing and try to make a summary about that. I would add my own point of view, knowing that I'd be falling out of the summary realm. I would also write that the author is neutral about an issue and is trying to inform without giving her opinion. I would also be weary about how reliable the text is and what points of view are being omitted.
How might we employ these strategies when summarizing an interview or an observation of an event or sub-culture? What strategy might you add or revise?
I think that for an observation, stating clearly that this is what you particularly saw and thought about. To that type of summary I would obviously have to add interviews from other people that experienced the same event or that are part of a sub-culture. Even then, the conglomeration of summaries on what happened will be a subjective report because every person presents their observations with a very diverse background.
For an interview, I would try to be very careful to not manipulate what the person had said into fitting my own opinion. I think I would actually use their observations as a way to have a discussion on the topic.
Clive Thompson - How Tweets & Texts Nurture In-Depth Analysis SUMMARY
Clive Thompson writes about how the Internet through its text messages, tweets, and status updates (short-form thinking) has opened the road for more "long-form meditation".
He argues that these forms of "short-form thinking" are ways in which society takes in what just happened; the impression that people form from situations. Contrary to tweets and texts, the long take is a report that has been analyzed, often taking a considerable amount of time to produce (weeks, months, years). With the internet, the long take –usually published in magazines, documentaries or books– can now be published in blogs. Thompson emphasizes that tweets become dated quickly, but a smart long take can be valuable for years. With the internet it's easier to find articles or blogs that are very old, whereas the physical newspaper or magazine is quickly removed from the newsstand.
Thompson says that the form of communication that is not reaching a vast amount of people is the middle take, where essays on major events are produced a few days after without a lot of analysis, depth or critical thinking. This was the way blogs looked like ten years ago, but once Twitter arrived bloggers started writing long takes. According to one survey Thomson found most people enjoy long blogs (1600 words on average), saving tweets for "little stuff".
Thompson ends his articles with "We talk a lot, then we dive deep".
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_thompson_short_long/
He argues that these forms of "short-form thinking" are ways in which society takes in what just happened; the impression that people form from situations. Contrary to tweets and texts, the long take is a report that has been analyzed, often taking a considerable amount of time to produce (weeks, months, years). With the internet, the long take –usually published in magazines, documentaries or books– can now be published in blogs. Thompson emphasizes that tweets become dated quickly, but a smart long take can be valuable for years. With the internet it's easier to find articles or blogs that are very old, whereas the physical newspaper or magazine is quickly removed from the newsstand.
Thompson says that the form of communication that is not reaching a vast amount of people is the middle take, where essays on major events are produced a few days after without a lot of analysis, depth or critical thinking. This was the way blogs looked like ten years ago, but once Twitter arrived bloggers started writing long takes. According to one survey Thomson found most people enjoy long blogs (1600 words on average), saving tweets for "little stuff".
Thompson ends his articles with "We talk a lot, then we dive deep".
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_thompson_short_long/
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Focus on NAEP (The National Center for Education Statistics). 1st Annotated Bibliography...
National Center for Education Statistics. “NAEP and the Visual Arts: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment.” Focus on NAEP: The Nation’s Report Card. Vol. 3 No. 4. Washington: NCES, 1998.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessed the visual and performing arts (dance, music and theatre) in the fourth and eight grade in 1995 and in 1997 for the twelfth grade. Since there were too few dance programs in schools, the NAEP did not conduct an assessment in dance.
In the section of “The Importance of the Visual Arts” the NAEP states it’s belief in the arts as an essential component of every child’s development and education. They also state that the arts can be used as a vehicle to communicate ideas in various kinds of multimedia. The NAEP does not expect that all students will become professional artists but that they experience enough discipline, challenge and joy while creating as means to intimately understand the human significance of all the arts.
In their assessment framework they cover content and processes. The area of content is divided into knowledge and understanding of the visual arts and perceptual, technical, expressive, and intellectual/reflective skills. In the area knowledge, students must be able to account for the influence of personal, social, cultural and historical context whilst creating and responding to works of art. The area of skills relates to way that students interpret meaning in visual form. They must analyze and synthesize experience; generate, plan and organize visual ideas and apply technical proficiency in the making of visual objects.
Processes include creating, and responding. When they create, students experiment with ideas, such as sketches, before they create the final work and this is a method of evaluation. In the area of responding students describe works of art showing knowledge of form, aesthetics and context; they analyze and interpret by looking at relationships between form and context and articulate judgements that reflect prior knowledge, while developing a personal belief system and world view that is informed by the arts.
NAEP uses two types of assessment tasks: paper-and-pencil and performance. The performance task assesses creating; on the other hand, the paper-and-pencil tasks assesses students' ability to respond to the visual arts. The performance tasks try to be authentic, but are limited to time and resources. An example of a paper-and-pencil task includes asking students to consider several sculptures, intended to use in a public space, and to select the most appropriate for an imaginary community; explaining the reasons for doing so. One of the challenges of the NAEP is to create tasks suitable for students with a diverse educational background, while also making distinctions among levels of student ability. The scoring guide for paper-and-pencil tasks is divided in four: unacceptable (student writes “It’s pretty. It’s interesting. I like it.”), partial (student says “there is a small figure and a large head, that make an interesting contrast”), essential (student describes the artwork specifically and relates to the work as a whole in only a general way), extensive (the student not only describes the work specifically and relates it to the work as a whole, but also refers to formal elements of the medium, or to the emotional or imaginative experience provoked by the work).
Even though this assessment report was published in 1998, a recent report was published in 2008. This one compares the results of both years in the area of visual and performing arts. I think it is important to know what others are writing about the importance of visual arts in a child’s development and educational growth, however I found that this article was lacking reasons as to why visual arts are important. I think this assessment is useful for my research when the time comes to create an arts education program for k-12 grades.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Reflecting on sources...
I found through Google an article with information of audiences:
"As a result of the 1992 NEA survey we know, for instance, that 4.7% of the U.S. population has attended at least one ballet performance in the previous year. The figure for New York City was 10%, and for Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and the major West Coast cities it was 7 to 8%. Eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds accounted for 37% of all ballet attendances in 1992, down from 47% in 1982... In contrast to ballet, the modern dance audience has never been the subject of a nation-wide, or even a large, inclusive survey. We don't know its size, nor do we know with any certainty what its social profile looks like."
It was published in 1998. JSTOR: Dance Research Journal is a biannual publication with historical and critical theory of dance. I think this is a valuable resource that I will keep consulting throughout my research.
Working on a clearly defined project
What I already know about my topic is that artists are underpaid in Mexico. Most of the Mexican population has a low income and has priorities when it comes to basic needs (eating and a place to live), and education. The education system does include a music class in elementary and middle school, but does not include visual and performing arts until the last year of high school and it is optional to take the class. There is a PE required class throughout the k-12 system, and only sports come into consideration. Dance isn't in the realm of PE class. Most of the funding that goes into dance is directed toward ballet and danza folklórica, not modern dance.
I am drawn to this topic emotionally and intellectually. I can't avoid feeling like I need to do something about the lack of cultural education in Mexico, in order to help my country. I feel less valued because I am a dancer and not an architect and I wish this would change. I think dance and the arts are the soul of communities and without it people would be more stressed. I think that the body and movement are fascinating subjects; I want to keep studying them and share them with more people.
This project would benefit me because I'll be able to show a good research project to scholarship donors and possibly get funding to study in London. The project would benefit children in the k-12 education system in Mexico, since they would be more exposed to art and hopefully as they grew up would be more likely to support the arts. Mexicans would become aware of culture and the financial support for postmodern art would hopefully increase.
I have a cousin who used to dance in one of the stronger modern dance companies in Mexico City before it closed in 2009; I know I can contact and interview her on the project. I also know a teacher in the National Center for the Arts whom can give me other people's contact information; especially someone in the National School of the Arts. I can research articles about building audiences in the U.S.; interview directors from places such as On the Boards and local choreographers; research how small modern dance companies in Mexico have built their audiences over the years. I can research the last proposal or program held by the Mexican government in support of the arts.
I am concerned about how to organize so many questions into sections of my thesis. I worry that I won't find enough information on the subject in Mexico or that it will be difficult to find information in Mexican web pages.
I didn't find a lot of articles in Wikipedia about building Modern Dance audiences and the k-12 art/dance education system. It only directed me to the National Dance Education Organization, which I didn't know existed. However in Google I found an article with information of audiences from the Dance Research Journal which I think is a valuable source. I will keep this in mind while I go about my research.
List of 5 potential guiding questions:
1. How have modern dance companies, choreographers and theaters built up their audiences over the years in Seattle and how would I apply this knowledge in the educational system in Mexico in a way that it makes sense for such a different culture?
2. Why are audiences less likely to attend a modern dance concert than a ballet or danza folklórica performance? How are the issues different between the two countries, Mexico and the U.S.?
3. Why has history of some art not been made a requirement in k-12 education in Mexico and you only receive this course during a semester or a year in your last year of high school?
4. How many and which dance groups have toured or asked to perform in k-12 public and private schools?
2. Why are audiences less likely to attend a modern dance concert than a ballet or danza folklórica performance? How are the issues different between the two countries, Mexico and the U.S.?
3. Why has history of some art not been made a requirement in k-12 education in Mexico and you only receive this course during a semester or a year in your last year of high school?
4. How many and which dance groups have toured or asked to perform in k-12 public and private schools?
5. Why is there no government support for modern dance in Mexico? Why is INBA taking all their financial support away from dance companies? Why is art the first area to be relieved of financial support when there are insufficient funds? How has this affected art instructors and education in the k-12 system?
Keywords
- modern dance education
- 20th century concert dance
- Building audiences for modern dance
- dance curriculum in k-12
- national dance surveys
- modern dance attendance
- national endowment for the arts
- dance funding
- modern dance Mexico
- government support dance Mexico
- proyectos de la Escuela Nacional de Danza
- educación cultural en primarias, secundarias y prepas
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Reflecting...
I am very confident in the topic I want to write about... Solving the lack of cultural awareness in Mexico, specifically in modern dance for two reasons mainly. First, the interchange of ideas that artists from one country and another would increase and it would be great to have more relationships with artists around the world; it could also expand people’s creativity to solve a wide range of problems ⎯from ordinary to global. Second, artists would be better appreciated and taken seriously, which means they would be better paid and able to sustain themselves economically with one job.
I know that my proposals seem like I want to create a utopia for artists, and that it is unrealistic; but I think that if I at least get an economist to care about art more, then my effort is worth it.
Ways to go about this project are consulting with people from the University of Washington, On The Boards, Spectrum Dance Theater, Velocity and choreographers like Corrie Befort, Amy O'Neal and Amelia Reeber how they have created an audience for modern dance and their collaborative work.
Then, I would like to interview choreographers and dance teachers in Mexico, specifically in the Centro Nacional de las Artes (CNA National Center of the Arts) and ask them how they have created an audience for contemporary dance and how well it is attended in comparison to folkloric dance; if they have toured in k-12 schools and if they have thought about having a Q&A session with the audience (which I have never seen in a performance in Mexico).
I also need to research what the educational program for public schools is in regards to the arts; if they include history of some art since elementary school and if they have a type of lab for an art as a requirement. It seems to me, that if I want to see artists valued more in my country, why not start there? Why should we all be required to study Math and not Painting? Why is the left side of the brain valued more than the right?
I know that my proposals seem like I want to create a utopia for artists, and that it is unrealistic; but I think that if I at least get an economist to care about art more, then my effort is worth it.
Ways to go about this project are consulting with people from the University of Washington, On The Boards, Spectrum Dance Theater, Velocity and choreographers like Corrie Befort, Amy O'Neal and Amelia Reeber how they have created an audience for modern dance and their collaborative work.
Then, I would like to interview choreographers and dance teachers in Mexico, specifically in the Centro Nacional de las Artes (CNA National Center of the Arts) and ask them how they have created an audience for contemporary dance and how well it is attended in comparison to folkloric dance; if they have toured in k-12 schools and if they have thought about having a Q&A session with the audience (which I have never seen in a performance in Mexico).
I also need to research what the educational program for public schools is in regards to the arts; if they include history of some art since elementary school and if they have a type of lab for an art as a requirement. It seems to me, that if I want to see artists valued more in my country, why not start there? Why should we all be required to study Math and not Painting? Why is the left side of the brain valued more than the right?
Traditional Dance in Mexico
I was reading the article "The Dances of Mexico" as my piece of writing that is research-driven. This is the link: http://www.culturalpartnerships.org/fan/MexicanArtists/MexicanDances.html
The article is part of Pennsylvania's cultural program, which intends to unite the diverse traditions that make up the state's neighborhoods. Some of the research that was done included interviews with dance masters and seamstress, video excerpts and a quick general historical and geographical overview:
"Amelia Contreras is the director of Generación Diez in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She invited me upstairs to her closet to show me the traditional clothes worn when Luis Ramirez and María Sosa’s students perform."
I can see that the writer thought about her reading audience whilst creating this article because the language used is very simple, its purpose is to introduce Mexican Dance, Danza Folklórica. The writer shares a map of the Mexican states to help the reader understand where a type of dance is located. In the text, I also notice that the information is organized in states, and also in themes such as "Identity", "Marriage Tradition", "Fabric" and "Your Closet", each of which briefly discuss the importance of Mexican traditional dance as means to understand the culture more. Two of the most interesting facts I read were:
In the second quote I can tell that the interview was in Spanish; I can imagine the way that the phrase "They wanted more screaming, and more like 'we are revolutionaries'" was told, with its mannerisms and passion.
I know that for my research project I will have to use an academic style because I am trying to get a scholarship with it, thus I need to obtain my readers' trust and have them value my work as a professional.
The article is part of Pennsylvania's cultural program, which intends to unite the diverse traditions that make up the state's neighborhoods. Some of the research that was done included interviews with dance masters and seamstress, video excerpts and a quick general historical and geographical overview:
"Amelia Contreras is the director of Generación Diez in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She invited me upstairs to her closet to show me the traditional clothes worn when Luis Ramirez and María Sosa’s students perform."
I can see that the writer thought about her reading audience whilst creating this article because the language used is very simple, its purpose is to introduce Mexican Dance, Danza Folklórica. The writer shares a map of the Mexican states to help the reader understand where a type of dance is located. In the text, I also notice that the information is organized in states, and also in themes such as "Identity", "Marriage Tradition", "Fabric" and "Your Closet", each of which briefly discuss the importance of Mexican traditional dance as means to understand the culture more. Two of the most interesting facts I read were:
- "the women of Veracruz wear a flower in their hair on the right hand side if they are single, on the left if they are married", and
- “The north of Mexico has more influence from the United States and all those dances, but the Mexicans didn’t like the waltz. They wanted more screaming, and more like ‘we are revolutionaries.’ So they make the dresses more colorful and the dancers more aggressive.
In the second quote I can tell that the interview was in Spanish; I can imagine the way that the phrase "They wanted more screaming, and more like 'we are revolutionaries'" was told, with its mannerisms and passion.
I know that for my research project I will have to use an academic style because I am trying to get a scholarship with it, thus I need to obtain my readers' trust and have them value my work as a professional.
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