Struggling with the Lit Review

So I thought I’d chosen a topic which has been widely looked into and as the handbook suggests, if you’ve thought of this inquiry idea it’s highly likely someone else has too- however I am seriously struggling to find that person. I have entered every combination of professional/ dancers/ theatre/ criticism/ critiques/ correction/note giving/ feedback/ etiquette/ athletes/ artists/ dance captains/ response/ react etc online to source case studies and researchers; yet my results commonly result in how teachers give feedback to students or if it’s in the professional setting it’s how directors give actors notes. I am sure there are parallels in all cases however I’m interested in how dancers react to note giving and corrections in a professional setting. The lack of this research I am unable to find resurfaces the question of ‘is there only one way we should be reacting to notes?’ And that’s why there’s been few/ no studies on it?

My interpretation of theatre etiquette is that people shouldn’t really challenge the dance captain as they have the authority and responsibility of upholding the integrity of the choreographers vision, so they have the final say. Though I also think there are exceptions in individual circumstances-  I can’t say I haven’t questioned the dance captain’s corrections before, but I’ve made sure to do it in a polite way. So is it professional communication I need to be investigating? 

This doesn’t mean however, that people’s personal feelings aren’t altered in that moment; I know I’ve felt frustrated sometimes at myself for being called out for doing something wrong.

The title for this enquiry has been constantly changing however, although I don’t want to ‘give up’, I am at the point where I am considering changing it completely. In my practice it’s something quite relevant to me however I’m worried it isn’t ‘deep enough’ to investigate further. 

In an attempt, to push through with this idea I may try to investigate these topics further to see if when combined, they relate to my topic:

• How teachers give feedback
• How students feel receiving feedback (the research I’m finding tends to be about how they behave externally or the progression they make in class rather than how they feel receiving feedback)
• Note giving for actors in theatre
• The role of the dance captain (because in my practice they’re often the ones giving the corrections)
• Professional communication in/out of theatre
• Communication between dance partners
• Ego in dancers
• How athletes respond to criticism/feedback (this one I’m finding challenging also as like I said in my previous post, dancers as athletes are striving to better themselves and there is a lot of research on self-criticism/motivation but not when working in a team like my practice is)
• Responding to criticism/feedback/corrections in general

Equally, the interviews we may do in Module 3 have been on my mind. Going forward I am going to try and write out some questions I may use in the interviews to help narrow down what I really want to get out of this inquiry topic thus hopefully highlighting some new areas to research.