MORE thoughts?

Beginning this MA programme, I already had quite a clear vision of the road I wanted to go down with my inquiry and the areas I wanted to explore, question and delve in to.

As the new academic year has started and I move in to module 2, my clear vision is becoming blurry. Maybe not blurry, but more overcrowded with so many different thoughts and questions that I now am not too sure which direction I'm travelling in.  In the module handbook, it says questions should read to better questions. In my case, it seems to be at the moment that questions are leading to a whole inquest of catechisation! I'm not sure if I'm feeling excited at all the new thoughts, overwhelmed by all the different routes it's taking me down, or some kind of mixture of the two?

My key area of inquiry is looking at the accessibility and inclusivity to dance schools for young people with disabilities and additional needs, particularly within the realm of syllabi based work and access to examinations and accreditation. In a general overview of inclusivity in dance, we have come so far in recent years, and there are lots of amazing professional companies and artists providing inspiration every single day. A recent notable performance has to be Joseph Powell-Main performing with the Royal Ballet for the 2021 Paralympics. An extraordinary and moving performance that was truly beautiful...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j9GI6-ArYAo

But my particular interest lays more in the availability to access opportunities for our children and young people. There are gradually more and more groups, schools and charities being established for children with disabilities. I Can Dance for example is an amazing inclusive company that offers weekly classes for children and young people with varying needs including complex, profound and multiple disabilities. 

But what about 'main stream' dance schools. The 'every day' dance schools that generally follow an association or examination syllabi that many of us attended as children that sparked and developed our love of dance? How does the disabled dancer fit in to this scenario? How accessible are these examinations for our young dancers with a physical disability or additional learning need for example?

As I read through the module handbook, re-read, and read again, my thoughts are now starting to gather around my literature review. The handbook mentions that the 'literature' doesn't always take the form of written texts which provides me with some relief as I haven't yet 'connected' with any key texts of scholarly reading within my area of interest, so I am aware that I need to keep looking for more literature as my research and reading thus far has very much centred around looking at:

• Different inclusive professional companies and organisations such as Candoco, Stopgap Dance Company, and Para Dance UK
• The equality, diversity and inclusivity documents for some of the leading dance examination organisations. 
• Articles about disabled dance artists and their experiences within the professional dance industry
• Notable inclusive dance performances and collaborations
• 'Accessing Pathways to Training',  a collaborative research project between the ISTD and the University of Bedfordshire investigating accessibility to syllabi for disabled young dancers

I'm also starting to deliberate where I am going in terms of my research models and how this fits in to the MORE ethics application. I have began drafting out the 9 practical steps task within part three of the handbook to start getting some definition and structure to my thoughts. I had initially thought that I would use some of my own students in some kind of case study and narrative enquiry. However, the handbook advises against using our own students within our research so I am now starting to branch off and look at some different ideas of how I might actually approach my research and gather data.  I'm hoping to find some inspiration from everyone in the module 2 focus online session on 11th October! 

Well, this was quite a lengthy post, basically about my thoughts so far for beginning to find my feet in module 2. Not sure if it will have any relevance or resonance to anyone else at all, but it feels good to put my thoughts down in to written words and sentences as opposed to them swimming around in my head and the occasional post-it note!