Ethics Within My Workplace

As part of my investigation, I'm to consider the ethics that surround my line of inquiry and profession. Before I begin to develop my ideas through research and discussion, here are some of my thoughts regarding ethics around my workplace.

Punctuality

Now initially as I think of being punctual, I consider it a trait that most professions expect from you. It springs to mind in this instance though because in general as a Ballet dancer you have been trained and are expected to be highly disciplined. Where I feel the matter applies specifically to the ballet world though is that if I were to be late for a rehearsal for example, that would have a knock on effect for my colleagues. In a standard office job, one could be late and although it would be frowned upon for the sake of work etiquette, it's possible that no one else is directly affected. In a ballet company, rehearsals often revolve around teamwork and cooperation. My colleagues rely on my presence as I rely on theirs. If I were to be late, not only would it be rude, I'd be letting my colleagues down.

Conditioning

Ballet is a highly skilled profession. In order to work as a dancer, one must take great care to maintain the state of the body with the aim of injury prevention and also maintaining a high standard of fitness in order to practice dance effectively. In many dance companies it is considered ethical to take responsibility of this yourself as a company won't necessarily 'babysit' you. Examples of this would be having regular massages, warming up before rehearsals and attending training class in the mornings.

Commitment to a Role/Piece

The first two things I mentioned are quite simple and basic examples of ethics. Also things that are arguably standard considerations of any practitioner. This last point covers an artist's responsibility of maintaining a director/choreographers vision. Looking after your body and turning up on time are all things that combine and lead up to putting on a great performance, and the performance is the ultimate goal for a dancer. When a choreographer has an idea, they will begin to work on and develop their piece. As a dancer it's easy to be a critic but ethically it's not your place to put in more or less effort based on your personal feelings. It is up to you to perform to the best of your ability and let the audience decide for themselves if they enjoy a certain work.

Literature relating to my subject

During the course of investigating my area of interest, our handbook sets us a task to discover three pieces of literature that relate to our inquiry. In this instance I found it difficult to discover anything more than just a history or explanation of what Choreology or Dance Notation was but fortunately I believe I found some pieces that help regarding the viewpoint of a notator as well.

The Art of Recording a Ballet

https://beneshinaction.com/2016/06/07/the-art-of-recording-a-ballet/

I liked this article because it is a blog from a trainee notator doing work placement at the Royal Opera House. She is assisting the senior notator in documenting a brand new choreography. There is a lot of explanation of the role of a notator and gives examples of the work required. It does strike me there is an awful lot to be done and I feel the job must be very demanding. I also get the impression that it must use a lot of resources for a dance company to invest in the system. Most noteably having to hire dedicated staff to utilise choreology as a tool. This began to make me think about whether a dance company would deem the extra man power worthwhile. One excerpt says...

"The notator is the person that everyone refers to in case of discrepancies (for example when a section has been changed without everyone being there and the different casts are not on the same page)."

I feel this is one of Movement Notation's strengths. It serves as a foundation for choreographic clarity. This relates to my investigation as it highlights the issue of discrepancies. This is an issue that occurs on a nearly daily basis in the company I work for, who don't use Benesh Notation. Perhaps this is a particular situation I could consider when investigating various dance companies.

What is Choreology?

http://hubpages.com/education/what-is-choreology

This article is a nice clear explanation of the history of Benesh Movement Notation and a break down of how it actually works. Considering 'legitimacy', this article is a very trustworthy source. It was written by Juliette Kando, a 'Fellow of the RAD institute of Choreology'.

The thing that interested me more in this piece was the introduction of how Benesh began. We discover that choreology's inventor Rudolph Benesh was not a dancer but his wife was. It mentions that he was inspired from his wife's notes she'd take in order to remember choreography. This suggests to me the dance world was in need of a universal system to record choreography on to paper. As I begin to consider the ethics of my investigation, I notice how this article mentions that the system records accurately in order to maintain a work's originality. When using Benesh as a system, the notator and even the system itself has a responsibility to not interfere with the chorographer's creation.

Meet Denis Bonner, The Repetiteur 

https://www.brb.org.uk/post/meet-the-repetiteur-denis-bonner

This article is an introduction to a seasoned Benesh notator working with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In the same way my first article gives insight into the life of a notator, this is from the perspective of someone who has been a professional for some time.

Although Benesh could be time consuming, Denis actually mentions a way in which Benesh ultimately saves time and makes rehearsal time more productive. In reference to using Benesh to teach choreography over learning from a video, he had this to say...

"And it’s still quicker for me to do it this way,’ he says, ‘because if you do it all with a video in the studio then nobody knows the counts, and you’re forever moving backwards and forwards."

Looking once again at the 'legitimacy' of an article, I like how this statement comes from a profesional notator who would know. I hold many personal ideas and opinions however I've never been in the position that Denis has been in. I can say however, I've been in many rehearsals where learning from a video has been problematic. This example also can be another strength of Choreology I can consider when comparing companies who do and don't use it.

Further Development Into My Inquiry (Reaching out to a Special Interest Group)

After what was a very useful group Skype session a week ago I was able to start looking at the questions I had produced during my initial brain storm. Adesola provided some very useful thoughts in how to approach developing my questions into something more clear and appropriate for embarking on my investigation. The main thing being that when looking at your question, you should try to see what assumptions you have made.

As an example, here is one of my questions...

How does the use of Benesh affect how a company operates?

From this, I can already highlight a few things. I'm not being specific about the 'use'. Benesh can be utilised in two main ways. Recording choreography and teaching choreography. The way I have worded my question isn't clarifying whether I mean one or the other, or both. The main mistake I see though is that I only stated 'company'. This could mean a few things. I know that I am referring to a classical ballet company however someone reading this may be imagining other styles of dance also or even a foundation dedicated to maintaining a choreographer's work.

After taking on board the things I learned in that session, I felt like I had a better understanding of how to approach my work however it also ended up begging more questions. Despite knowing how to be more critical of the question I will choose, I wasn't entirely sure of the best angle to approach the subject of Benesh in a way that would be beneficial for me on this BAPP course. I don't wish to create a question that is purely a justification of my pre-conceived opinions, I'm aiming to leanr something new. I had a brief private session with Adesola to clarify my thoughts which helped a lot because what I needed was to explain my opinions out loud in order to discover what it was more specifically that I wished to learn about. After having a chance to hear myself out loud I realised that my interest in Benesh circled around how it affects studio rehearsals, most importantly teaching new choreography. I think this stems from my personal experience as in my company there are a lot of issues surrounding teaching choreography from a DVD.

I'm not expecting anyone else to be interested in Benesh specifically but does anyone have thoughts or feelings perhaps towards the overall rehearsal experience? After my Skype sessions and reflection I've figured that my interest lies within how Benesh affects the way a dance company operates, in particular, rehearsals. In an effort to set up my special interest group I'd love to hear people's opinions on how they feel a dance company should operate within the studio. Being in contact with others on this course provides a great opportunity to compare opinions across different styles of dance or establishments. My thoughts have been focused very much on a classical ballet company however some of you who may practice other styles of dance may differ from me. I also wonder if these thoughts shift when considering professional dancers and students for example. I really think that comparing the opinions of my peers to their backgrounds could prove to reveal some interesting comparisons amongst our selves.

I'm glad that I feel clearer about the path I'm choosing. I'm really looking forward to hearing if anyone has any interesting thoughts to share!

Questions for My Line of Inquiry

After reviewing Reader 4 I have created some questions for my line of inquiry. As I've been thinking about potential fields I could explore I settled upon the theme of Benesh Movement Notation.

I feel that this is a good subject to investigate as my main plan regarding work after dancing life is to Study Benesh and become a dance notator. Benesh Notation is very relevant to my profession as it is a tool used by many ballet companies to keep record of choreography and to use in the process of teaching choreography to new dancers. On the other hand, it's also something that's not necessarily widely used within the dance world. This inspired a few questions for me to explore on the matter.

How has Benesh affected the dance world?

Prior to Benesh Notation, how did dance companies approach rehearsals? Did they just rely on the memory of the choreographer or a repetiteur? Once notation was introduced, did it have a tangible effect on the productivity of a company for example? I feel this is the most vague question of mine but it raises a lot of questions about the influence Benesh has had on the dance world and could prove to be very interesting in showing the difference between those who do and those who don't use it.

How relevant is Benesh Notation in this day and age?

With the development of technology over the years, most notably digital video recording, many dance companies may feel that there is less need for Benesh. To use Benesh in practice, a company would need to hire a notator. Some companies may not deem it worthy enough to spend their resources on when choreography could be learnt from a DVD for example, which is a much cheaper and accessible alternative. One could argue that the use of videos isn't as accurate at documenting choreography as Benesh so my investigation could weigh up the pros and cons of different methods of documentation.

How does the use of Benesh affect how a company operates?

One of the cons of Benesh is that recording choreography can be potentially very time consuming. Could the use of Benesh affect a company's scheduling for example in order to accomodate it's use? Another point I thought of was can harnessing Benesh actually affect the performance standard? Benesh is a very accurate method of recording dance so I was thinking could that transparency transfer over to the dancers and create a stronger corps de ballet perhaps?


As I've thought about my questions so far I've realised that I've already limited myself to one style of notation. Perhaps I could explore different forms and their popularity amongst different companies, dancers, choreographers etc. This is only the start of my line of inquiry and I know my questions can certainly do with development but I feel quite happy with the area I wish to explore.