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Thursday 28 April 2016

Inquiry Proposal: Refining my direction...

Following a 1-1 with Paula yesterday afternoon, I have had heaps to think about. Both Paula and I agreed that my topic area was a little too wide and my scope too far reaching for the type of research project we carry out on the BAPP course. My title for a start was too long: What legal advice/aid currently exists for dancers? How can these services be improved through dance education, dance organisations and dance companies?

Additional to this, my aims were also extremely ambitious which is not necessarily a bad thing however I do not physically have the resources, the contacts and in terms of myself a professional position from which I can carry out such a far reaching research project. 

I am having to think specifically about what areas of my topic I want to focus on and why I want to do this. Having looked through the first draft of my inquiry proposal, it is clear to me that I am being too general with my comments touching on as many aspects as possible to do with my topic area without fully explaining and exploring what could come of each different strand. This is where I have to stop myself and consider that I have put too much on my plate.

Therefore from my initial ideas, I have managed to focus in on areas that are more specific to my professional practice as it now stands and are also a better suit for what is required for my professional inquiry as carried out during Module 3 next term.   

Working with the questions I first proposed and also looking at keywords from my working title, I have come up with far more conducive questions to develop my inquiry from. They are as follows:


1.   What legal advice/aid currently exists for professional dancers, both company members and freelance artists, across the UK?
2.   What legal issues are professional dancers likely to face?
3.   What dance organisations, for example Equity, offer legal advice/aid to dancers and how do they go about doing this?
4.   What is a dancer’s perception of legal advice/aid within the UK and what experiences have they had?
5.   How can advocacy for this topic area be developed within the UK looking at the work done by One Dance UK and how I can be involved?


As you can hopefully grasp from my newly formed questions above, I would like to wholly focus on:

  •  the specific legal issues a dancer may face whilst living and working in the UK
  •  what dance organisations currently offer help, support and guidance to dancers in the UK and how do they go about this
  •  what is a dancer's perception of dance and the law and how do they feel towards the help, support and guidance they currently receive in the UK
  • how can organisations be used to advocate for legal advice/aid for dancers across the UK

After seeing these questions in black and white it is far clearer in my head the direction in which I am heading. I am still intent on conducting an interview with a professional dancer as well as with an employee of a dance organisation to give me the two most important perspectives on my topic area. As well as this, I have come to the conclusion that a survey is not the best way for me to conduct research into my chosen topic area. After my discussion with Paula yesterday, I think that a focus group would be the best way for me to openly discuss my chosen topic allowing ideas to develop organically amongst a group of individuals with their own unique opinions. I would love some suggestions as to how to go about conducting a successful focus group and I still need to envision how I am going to set this up and what social group I want to focus on.
As the facilitator I will have to ensure that I provide topical questions to trigger the group into discussion. The section in Reader 6 titled Focus Groups has some really useful information that I will be sure to have a look through time and time again in order to conduct this part of my research successfully. 


I am glad to have gone through this process to finally reach a clearer vision for my professional inquiry. Any suggestions as to the clarity of my chosen topic would be extremely useful as would any pointers on focus groups. Comments below are welcome!

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