Task: 6a

Focus Group Findings:

The findings to the question “what do you think ballet is” showed that with the ballet students at the beginning of the workshop their perception of ballet was ‘posh, flexibility, strength, hard, fun perfection’ whereas the Hip hop perception of ballet was ‘boring, strict, leotard, slow, tutus, perfection’. The word perfection repeated which was interesting to me because an informal discussion of these spider diagrams showed they did not think hip hop had to be perfect, this made me aware that, was this just students picking the ‘easy option’ in terms of discipline. The Ballet student’s responses use of vocabulary was more technical reflecting a deeper educational understanding of dance. My use of language in both lessons are different, I use more technical terms within ballet classes and I am less strict about using these terms in the hip hop class. These finding made me reassess my language and perception within both classes suggesting to me that, is my use of language and lack of communication with the students the reason students are turning to hip hop.

Through the development of the workshop when looking at body images, my finding showed pupils misplaced them showing that another reason for this decline in ballet could be their perception of their body image having a low self-esteem is resulting in the students not being motivated because they don’t feel like they can be a ballerina or why they need it to study ballet at all. This was interesting to me as the results from the survey questions (16/17) were about confidents with peers and self-assessment backed up my reason to believe that image is an issue with the ballet students.

A student also brought to my attention through a passing comment that ‘examinations are way easier in hip hop’ this is an area that I never would of considered if she had not spoken out. This was very interesting to me as examinations are taken annually at the dance school although they are not compulsory students do want some gratification of achievement through their study and do seem to take the examination. 

By the end of the workshop both the ballet and hip hop students showed a much deeper understanding of ballet and the career opportunities ballet offers. The ballet students responses were ‘Good knowledge for auditions, jobs’ this relates to question (4/12) of survey because it shows that these students have a longer term view of the dance career. Hip hop students began to recognise its importance but one commented that it was easier to get it wrong in ballet which showed me students had a fear of failure in ballet as it becomes more complex which again comes back to motivation self-esteem and confidence.