Larissa King BAPP Blog

One thing that is challenging about this course is that although, reading other students blogs and receiving advice from the discussion group has eased my nervousness and quelled my feelings of ‘I’m all alone in this’; when I’m sat in my dining room by myself, trying to figure it out; it is hard to push that aside. Last night I was writing about the positives and negatives of Web 2.0 (which you will see soon); I was part way through writing about a time I was seeking advice about a particular job when I realised although it is part of Facebook, is their messenger service actually classed as Web 2.0? Therefore, although I knew I was getting to a point about being influenced by other dancers, was it actually relevant to the tool I was researching? By definition, yes it is a two way communication through the internet but it’s closer to texting I feel, rather than one author presenting information with the option for others to provide feedback. In this moment, I realised I thought I was m...

I'm coming to the realisation that this blog is highly likely to be a combination of formal research posts as well as informal journal expressions. The reason being, I'm discovering it's surprisingly therapeutic actually writing my thoughts down and should anyone else reading this also have feelings of uncertainty and confusion, they'll know they're not alone!  Currently I am writing a blog entry about reflection, after discussing some of the Lenses in Monday night's discussion group. One of the topics was to look back at specific memories that make you feel a certain way/how you've learnt from them. I can think of quite a few key moments, where I've learnt something valuable from a particular person or event (honestly I could talk forever and a day about my time on cruise ships) however when I'm writing about them, I'm really struggling not going off on a tangent and actually using the anecdote to link back to my point. I'm telling myself to...

  Although these blog entries are not entirely perfect, I do feel better after writing a few of my thoughts down. Just airing my concerns is helping me define what they actually are and therefore able to make progress on them. After reading the handbook further I think I’m starting to identify what’s confusing me about, ‘what my practice is’. Maybe this will become clearer as I venture through the areas of learning but I was reading what is required in our end of module essay and it says ‘Linking prior learning to your professional practice today’ (Page 11). So is the definition of my professional practice, identifying what I’ve learnt in my past experiences? Or what I’m doing as a dancer today (which currently isn’t as much as I used to at the moment)? I’ve just been reading Sally’s blog post, which was an overview of what we discussed in our most recent Skype call. She said something which may help push me on the right track, which is ‘I reflected on my current practice vs my goa...

  As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I have been telling myself to “trust the process” multiple times in the past week (and I think I will a few more times to come!) I have to remind myself that this course isn’t just, ‘write and essay on things you know”, it is a learning process and therefore completely natural not to understand everything straight away.   The thought that has been swimming round in my head constantly though is “what even is my practice?”. This first module, from what I’ve gathered, is all about establishing what your practice is, however the battle I’ve been having with myself is, ‘is this something which I’ll discover in the conclusion to this module, after researching within myself?’ Or, ‘is this something that should be really clear and obvious to me now?’ I know my discipline is dance and I have worked as a dancer on cruise ships the past 4 years. However, during our induction Skype call we were told that our professional practice isn’t defined...

  I have so many thoughts regarding this course at the moment. Admittedly I’ve got out of bed at 2am to write this because I needed to give myself some clarity and put my mind at ease! Although advised this blog doesn’t have to be a perfect string of essays; it can merely be a collection of questions and ideas; I feel actually being able to section and structure my thoughts is what’s holding me back at the moment. I’ve been putting it off, not because I don’t want to blog, it’s something I am interested in doing and it is something graduates have advised is very helpful to do in the long-run; but because I thought there was so much reading to do first in preparation. So I’m just going to work my way through, not critique myself too much at first, as this is a learning process; put as much as I can down here and hopefully it’ll all become a little clearer. My first reaction was that I was very overwhelmed (and still am a little bit). Even before the first online induction, I was qu...

  After graduating Northern Ballet School, Manchester in 2016, with a Trinity Level 6 Diploma; I am finally ready to embark on Middlesex University's BAPP course. I will use this blog to document my findings and be able to reflect on how I've learnt from them. About me: pre 2020 pandemic, I was having the most amazing time performing as a dancer on cruise ships around the world! I love my life at sea; I've had the privilege of performing alongside some incredibly talented casts with Costa Cruises, P&O, Marella and most recently Cunard. I am forever grateful for the opportunities I've had and places I've seen which have shaped me into the performer and person I am today! I've accepted it is going to be a while until the cruising and performing industry gets going again and so, in the mean time, I am looking forward to the challenge this course will bring! Just to give you a lil taster, here's my  Old showreel   (I have new one I just don't have a link...