Oral Presentations - 8th January 2021

I spent several days preparing for my oral presentation, leading up to 8th January 2021. In December 2020, I submitted my final written dissertation and a document containing my artefact (a video link). Yet, the purpose of presenting your findings to an audience is to give a chance to display your work in three mediums. In written form (report), in a creative form (artefact), and in verbal form (oral presentation). I believe the aim of the presentation was to display:

- Why you chose your subject of inquiry

- What impacted that decision

- The themes you found

- Possible links to other fields

- What you discovered, your research findings and analysis

- What was expected? What was unexpected?

- Your research in relation to your own personal experiences within your practice 

- Your journey of the course, stepping out of the inquiry itself

- What you will take with you, as a practitioner, after you graduate 

- Describing your artefact 

- Challenges you faced with the artefact

- Revealing your artefact (playing the video, showing the mind map, scrapbook etc)

However, I watched several other presentations and many of them were structured differently. I will not say that there is no right or wrong, as there are some fundamentals you need to cover to meet the criteria. But, every students' journey was different. Some focused on the difficulties they found on methodology, some spoke more about ethical considerations than others, some talked more about the journey as a whole and their growth as a practitioner, some expressed their literature in detail. 

Personally, I spent more time discussing how the inquiry has impacted my approach to my practice, and how my journey of growth will continue as a result of learning about resilience.

Below are some notes I made of other students' interviews:

Lorien Tier - Shakespeare, Gender, Feminism

- I noticed that ones of Lorien's themes was one she was uncertain about, or did not necessarily agree with nor expect. I found this a fundamental concept of the whole process. Sometimes, it is good to feel uncomfortable. 

- Lorien spoke in detail about the ethical considerations she came across during her research, which I found fascinating. 

- Listening to her presentation, reminded me of J.K Rowling's blog post about transgender and feminism. It is a controversial post, but an interesting read nonetheless. https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/

- As she spoke about the meaning of Gender and Binary, I reflected on the TV series 'Sabrina'. Based on Sabrina the teenage witch, it is a dark take on the light-hearted animation. The characters involve an inter-racial couple and a non-binary couple. I found this representation a good way of introducing 'other' relationships into media.  

- A very visual presentation, with many colourful graphs and mind-maps

- The artefact was an illustration, a fable made into a video clip. Marvellous, so original. And the metaphor of the two characters worked very well.

Shaunna Duffy - UK Multiculturalism, Musical Theatre

- Shaunna interviewed two people as part of her data collection. She found it hard to find people who would be suitable or willing to participate. I believe this proved her point, there perhaps there is not enough multiculturalism, or enough that is embraced! What I will say is that there are many BAME people in the music world - Pop, RnB, Reggae. But certainly not in the ballet world. 

Rowan Sinclair - Theatre Criticism

- A really interesting research inquiry topic, one that I would never had considered. The arts world is so vast, with such a range of skilled practitioners. 

- Rowan's artefact was a theatre programme. I loved the way his presentation was displayed through the artefact, and not shown at the end. Really creative! 

- He had great conversational flow and explanations. 

- The subject made me question myself: Do I judge a performance/piece of work by star ratings? I now know to fully read reviews, and take some of them with a pinch of salt. 

Whoever viewed my oral presentation on dancers' resilience, please feel free to comment on this blog.