Further update

Having deferred a term due to a busy performing schedule and a transitional phase in my dance career, I am now back to working on my inquiry. During the 'waiting period' of auditions and Christmas, I was lucky to be inspired enough to read a number of sources, blogging in detail about each source in sections. Thus my thoughts on the emotional health and resilience in ballet dancers have developed further. 

Updated inquiry question: How do professional ballet dancers cope with and maintain emotional resilience with the adversities and pressures of the ballet industry? 

Most of my approaches towards my plan (Task 7a) has stayed the same, however the dancers used will be from my current workplace- Vienna Festival Ballet. This will enable me to get more into depth with the various emotional challenges us dancers face, especially because we are rehearsing all day with one another and will be on tour with each other most of the time until May 31st. It is the perfect setting too to get footage for my documentary, which I plan to present as my professional artefact.   
Thus I will continue with the plan of getting permission from the dancers used in my interviews and video footage as well as from Directors and the ballet mistress.


There have been quite a lot of other discoveries in literate sources and the ideas that came with them such as from the blog setting the barre and from Andy Shaw. To help this discovery develop, I have devised a written survey for the dancers who I plan to investigate. It is the 'first step' of the inquiry stage, where the intention of this survey is to try and find a relation between an individual maintaining emotional resiliency in general adversities in life, and the adversities that come with the life of a ballet dancer.

I have also been able to devise a more succinct explanation of the main topics and subjects explored.

1) To be emotionally healthy in any adversity you need to be emotionally resilient.
-Spring back from any set-back
-Control emotions effectively

2) Qualities needed:

• Positivity is key!!! When you are positive, it is very hard fro negative emotions or thoughts to seep through. It also creates acceptance and realization of options and possibilities (Science of positive thinking)
• Inspiration and motivation. Inspiration is firstly needed to stimulate the person to become and stay motivated. Motivation helps action take place.
• Be willing and accepting to change, for any situation to improve. 
• Be mindful and aware of present emotions. Being present, it is hard for worrying of regretting to take place. Being aware of your emotions helps to control emotions to not go drastically come into action.
• Have supporting and caring relationships, and is especially beneficial when advice is needed.
• Hardiness- need to have a bit of a back bone and stay strong.
• Have the attitude of not comparing yourself to others- do what is best for you, be confident and believe!

I have also created a more in depth explanation of the intention of my professional artifact:

A documentary portraying an exploration of my inquiry process, which is incorporated in my journey and life experiences after ballet school. It is designed to firstly communicate to any dancers, especially professional ballet dancers, of the importance in maintaining a good emotional health. I aim to inform dancers of the main approaches towards staying emotionally resilient. The video footage will consist of various clips of the dancers used as my subjects, including the original ‘voice-recorded’ interviews in the background. I hope to create a product that will act as inspiration to dancers and portray the insights of what the real ballet world is like.

“Your worker inquirer positioning and the relationship your inquiry has to your

profession shows insight and evaluation, especially in your artifact." (M3 Handbook)

I would like to instill this intention not only in my video but the overall inquiry project. By using my journey through the different work practices so far, I will be able to not only discover more about my inquiry but most importantly about myself. I believe that self discovery, from any course studied or work that is practiced, or any learning curve is the most important attribute to pursue. “The professional inquiry has many attributes in common with work based learning (refer to Reader 4) and an important factor is that it emerges from theresearcher’s own professional practice.” (Costley et al., 2010).