I looked back over my notes from last week's Skype session with Paula and remembered when we had discussed what reflection meant to us. For me, it is a case of not waiting for anyone to point out what you can change to improve yourself. After our Skype chat I realised how true this had been throughout my training. The majority of the time my tutors wouldn't tell me straight away what I could improve on and would sit back and let me try and work it out for myself. I did this by watching videos of myself acting, listening back to a recording of myself singing, or looking back over notes that tutors and peers had given me after a showing of material, for example. This helped me improve so much as a performer as I could self evaluate my performance and pinpoint areas where my technique needed work and change it so that it was up to standard.
I have decided to handwrite my journal at the end of every day. I have not started my panto rehearsals yet so at the moment I am just working in my retail job which I will leave in just over a weeks time. As soon as I put my pen to paper I realised that even reflecting on things that have happened at the gym or work that day, for example, which aren't directly related to my performing work, still had an impact on both my performing work and me as an individual and is very useful towards developing my knowledge and understanding throughout my BAPP studies.
"Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over & evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning" - Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1985). I completely agree with Boud's statement and think that keeping a journal is a great way to reflect. You can capture something when it happens and then reflect on it later. Keeping a journal allows you to really think about a situation and means that you shouldn't just act on impulse.
By writing my journal I hope that I can reflect on events, adapt accordingly and move on with any new changes in my work. I am looking forward to see how my journal content changes when I begin panto rehearsals in 2 weeks.
Well stated - professional practice is about the on and off stage activities - emotions - sense-making - the critical thinking about artistic decisions - the extra research you do to understand your work. This process works very well with change - personal and with peers/communities of practice (Lave and Wenger).
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