Task 2c Reflective theory.

Reflection is something I've never really thought about using within my professional practice. However thinking about my industry and environment I unknowingly use reflective practice more often than not.

Whilst being a dancer is a tough job physically it also can be a challenge on the brain. To remember routines, think about alignments, muscle control and other things. There's so much to think about. More often than not I  find myself in front of a mirror correcting and perfecting my steps, going through routines in my head is a must. If I made a mistake I would go back and go through it again, watching myself in the mirror. If the problem still persists, I would go back and repeat slowly, and ask myself. What am I doing wrong? How am I doing it wrong? Once I have found the centre of the problem I attempt to correct it. I ask myself again, what can I do to change this to make it right? How do I change it? Until we spoke about reflection on the first day of this course I never realised I use it time and time again. Reflecting on my practice has got me through my career as a performer.



Dewey theory


In reader two it explains Dewey theory, 'reflective thought.' I feel this theory plays a big part within performers lives, if you Engage in life and experience new things the reflection comes along within another situation, you can reflect on maybe how different the show is? Or how the dynamic is within the cast? Dewey felt that interaction with the Arts led to a unique and valuable experience (Dewey, 1934) In ever performers life different contracts within work is not strange, but something we grow and become accustom to. I have always, once starting a new contract, reflected on a previous job and tried to compare the two to see if there is anything I can apply to my current position I have experienced before. As my experience starts to grow with more and more opportunities, my reflection become more and more useful.

Kolb.

Kolb in reader two describes the learning cycle. His theory explains the specific time within someone's experience they begin to start learning. Whilst beginning the course our first task was to set up a blog online and blog the different tasks within modules. As this was a new experience to me I was unsure of how to approach it. My first instinct was to go ahead and set it up without a second thought which is what I done. However it was until I decided to research and explore others blogs I started understand and learn what the overall process of the task was. Within kolbs learning cycle this is explained as reflective observation.

I found this was useful to me to understand my learning cycle, I'm able to understand and learn more from looking at other peoples ideas and work to prompt ideas and wake up my brain.



 Overall, all theories have their own point and explanation of reflection to discuss. I found the most effective theory for me was the learning cycle. I found out something about myself, but also it has helped me to progress easier and quicker within my learning. I now know what works for me, so at some point during an activity I will research and explore different topics and subjects within that task to help my progression and learning.