Qualities of Emotional Resilience

Emotional Resilience means to be able to spring back emotionally after dealing with an adversity. There are certain qualities that emotional resilient people have to help them keep this strength. 

I have taken my experience of my long term injury as one of my biggest adversities in life and related it to these qualities, realising that through this experience I have learnt to become more resilient.

Set realistic Goals
Generally, there was a gradual positive development with my recovery, but it was quite a roller caster experience  Reflecting back, the main reason why it ended up taking 7 months was because I was unaware of how serious the injury was. I was setting unrealistic goals, wanting to audition 6 weeks after my diagnosed fracture (late-diagnoses). Thinking I was being pressured by others to get back quick, the pressure was actually all from me. Although listening to instructions there was not official date/time of the healing process in combination with various opinions, a rare injury and the daunting knowledge of not dancing. This really confused me into one scrambled mess of thoughts and emotions. Therefore I wasn’t fully focusing on what was REALLY best on how to heal, jumping too far ahead, skipping stages needed in the resting and healing process. For e.g.- was told I was able to walk but was in a strap, but had to take it easy. To a dancer, in general, taking it easy means not dancing. However resting fully sends the right messages to the body to heal.
Looking back, maybe it is also because I didn’t know anything else what was better, how I needed to heal. I had guidance, and the best I could attain, perhaps sometime the right information and approach known later on. I learnt more through the experience of it all… by the end, I realized how important it is for us dancers to look after our body as it is our instrument for our career. Feet are our tools. In learning this, I was able to stay strong while having to ask for permission as a brand new member with the company in Cape Town, to stop half way through the season. I had to take it easy, even though I was stepping in for another role, which accounted for a possibility to stay onwards with the company. I feel I gained more emotional strength, became smarter with my choices, thus learning the importance of setting realistic goals.

*One article I read ‘ now is not forever’ helped set this frame of mind where
*“The opportunity to get it right in the build-up phase is advantageous than getting it wrong when it matters!” 

Task 7A

Title: The mindful performer- not sure yet?

Question:

What requires professional ballet dancers to cope emotionally and maintain emotional resilience to face the various challenges of working towards performing?

Following my thoughts and new discoveries on emotional health in dancers (more info in this blog post), I first had the idea of looking specifically into the different challenges within the stages of working towards performances- technical upkeep, castings and auditions, rehearsal process, pre-performance and performance time.

I started by sending out a survey, via survey monkey, to various colleagues and friends who are professional ballet dancers. I chose them as my participants as I know them, and they are all working in the same or very similar work environment as me (professional ballet company) This way It would be easier to relate my experiences to the other participants.

I gained a perspective of what others felt were obstacles that came with the profession.
Reviewing the survey results, as well as observing my workplace,  it became clear that the
challenges within the whole process overlap into one another. Thus I was able to identify
some major ones:
·      Idea of perfectionism

·      Injuries

·      Body Image

·      Motivation and Inspiration

·      Rejection

·      Proving to others

·      Communication issues

These issues cover all aspects of working towards a performance, and are the main adversities I will focus on. It will thus be easier to investigate the main challenges and coping strategies. I feel like having set ‘issues’ to focus on will provide some sort of direction to guide me through the inquiry process.

Besides continuing with reading, researching and working on my literature review, I plan to soon interview fellow ballet dancers of Cape Town City Ballet as well as other professionals around the globe (via email). Therefore I will still need to consider some ethical implications such as:

·      Create proposals that are ethical, and legal

·      Respect all people I will interview, treat them well

·      Stick to the topics of my inquiry when interviewing, finding out information, surveying

·      Inform participants what my inquiry is about

·      Provide feedback

·      Get informed knowledge/permission to use certain info, video footage, recordings, names etc, from dancers and directors

·      Store data safely-in 1 folder +back-up, not to post online, keep all references

·      Manage time and finances efficiently- e.g. don’t go over time, respect each other’s space

·      Report project related problems to appropriate person- student and teacher

·      No plagiarism- use own words, references well, produce bibliography

·      All ‘personal’ quotes to remain anonymous from interviews as well as results from my survey

I have gotten verbal consent from most dancers and the Artistic director so far, and will soon get written consent forms organised.

Literature reviews

Finding Balance:

·      Analysed all interviews of dancers in the book that are relevant to coping emotionally

·      Has a section of body image (a challenge)¨

·      Has a section on injuries and coping mechanisms/mental approaches

Breaking Pointe

This is a documentary on Ballet West in Salt Lake City. So far I have analysed the first series, which is a whole lead up to a performance of theirs. Inside it shows an insight into the sidelines of a ballet dancer’s life, and touches a lot on the emotions of the dancers.

Emotional Resilience

·      …’to be able to spring back into shape after being deformed.’

‘to be able to spring back emotionally after suffering through difficult and stressful times.’ (Mills, H. Dombeck M. 2005)·  
From reading a fare amount of articles on emotional health, I discovered that the base of coping through any challenge emotionally, you need emotional resilience.

·      Identified a few aspects considered to be ‘main’ ingredients to maintain resilience and cope with a tough situation

Mind-Body connection

To stay healthy in the body, your mind needs to be right too. You need to have what is called good ‘emotional health.’

People who have good emotional health are aware of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They have learned healthy ways to cope with the stress and problems that are a normal part of life. They feel good about themselves and have healthy relationships. (familydoctor.org editorial staff)

Articles on emotions:

-       http://www.belongto.org/resource.aspx?contentid=4574

-       http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologytopics/a/theories-of-emotion.htm

-       Blog Post- http://www.help-yourself-stress-relief.com/what-is-emotional-health.html

Short journal entry about article:

Talks about achieving an emotional balance- something dancers are constantly trying to figure out is balance. You can’t over train, but practice makes perfect. You can’t eat too much, but also too little. You can’t dance or as much when injured yet you are paid to dance. You work and train a lot harder than so many jobs and athletes out there, yet get paid way less. Physically you have to be flexible and strong. Finding a balance in these challenges is part of being a professional ballet dancer, but do we pay as much attention on how it affects our emotions? Do they need to find balance in this area too to help us become better and achieve our goals and successes?

The article states that if we are able to master this balance, you are able to enjoy life (enjoy dancing too?) cope with stress (obstacles as a dancer) and focus on our priorities (value of our emotions?)

Motivations and emotions

·      Discovering that motivation is a necessity in order to overcome any challenge, I decided to look more into the topic and came across a scholar analysation of the book Understanding Motivation and Emotion (Reeve, Johnmarshall. Understanding Motivation and Emotion. 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.)

·      I like how it links back to the initial thoughts of starting this inquiry.

Science of positive thinking

·      ‘creates real value in your life and helps build skills to last’ (J.Clear 2013)- what is needed in order to maintain emotional resilience

·      Talks about the impact of negative emotions vs. positive emotions

·      Scientific information of how positivity affects the brain

·      Negativity is explained to block other thought processes- sparked up an idea of how dancers often get mental blocks, which are hugely stressful and act as obstacles.

·      Mentions the connection of happiness and success- how both help work towards a goal

Previous Literature reviews and their connections:

·      Motivation- a core ingredient

·      Music- can be an inspiration

·      Initial idea of why dancers dance- this is the ultimate goal, the end product. It comes from all the challenges they go through to perform and have that one moment that no one else can take away from, something a dancer will understand and feel.

·      Idea of this stimulation - how it drives us to keep going, which enables a dancer to keep emotionally ‘healthy’ and resilient. (Going back a step almost)

 I have learned a substantial amount already on the importance of this topic whilst observing and trying to relate these ‘theories’ to my experiences so far.  From reviewing literature so far, I have picked up some main aspects and ‘approaches’ towards maintaining emotional resilience:

·      Positivity

·      Awareness- focus, concentration and attention to an activity to benefit fully

·      Motivation and Inspiration

·      Persistence and determination

·      Being assertive and communicating

·      Having social support

·      Do what a person loves (dance for dancers) for himself or herself

·      Confidence

Over time my ideas have changed, focusing more on one aspect of a dancer’s well-being. Originally investigating in the reasoning behind why dancers dance, after discovering more I feel like I have almost taken a step back. Going past what motivates a dancer, to looking into the cause and surrounding issues of the ethereal idea of inspiration. However it does connect in a sense that the right emotions lead to the correct approaches to a situation, which in turn supports motivation and inspiration for a dancer to move forward. Initially going back to where I started.

Discoveries on emotional health

Having decided on focusing on the emotional well-being of dancers, through more reading and researching, a new and improved investigation has been formulated:

How do professional ballet dancers cope emotionally and maintain emotional resilience to face the challenges within the various stages of working towards performances.

The mental and emotional side of a dancer’s practice is lesser explored (refer to fonding balance), and is an attribute that is necessary to have in order to solve any adversity the professional ballet industry poses on a dancer. (link theory of emotional resilience- bouncing back) Emotionally healthy people approach challenges and stress with a better more positive mindset, and are able to cope and solve a problem effectively.

In the midst of rehearsals leading up towards our next big production ‘Spring and Fall’ (triple bill of John Neumeier), I have noticed there are quite a number challenges that come with the whole process.

Working towards a performance requires dedication, motivation, practice, skill and hard work. As ballet dancers are always working towards some sort of goal and reward, and constantly trying to be better, the performance can be seen as the next ultimate goal to be better at. Challenges along the way are always part of the package. Physically they need to overcome these challenges, but what is as important is to be mentally strong. Thanks to this detailed source, http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=5799&cn=298

 it has helped create a foundation and starting point for my investigation on this lesser-known topic.

I have discovered that the core ingredient to providing this strength is resilience. And the foundation of this feeling of resilience comes from your emotions and feelings, as they are what drive you to act a certain way, and react to certain situations. This drive sparks up motivation and inspiration, positvity and a healthy positive mind-set towards work and life in general. Therefore in all stages of the build up to any performance, keeping that resilience (emotionally) going is vital in order to solve the various challenges that will in turn create a dancer to improve in every aspect of their work and life. From experience, knowledge and awareness they will learn how to cope better.

It has also been very interesting to apply these theories to my experiences so far with the ballet company and our rehearsal process. I have really noticed and tried to identify the different challenges that fall into the different stages.

I have observed frustration (in myself and others) in everyday class, with castings and rehearslas when having to mainatain technique and an ideal body shape even though some of the younger dancers may not be used in much. There have been motivation issues, a few injuries and dancers down. Fatigue and stress with some of soloists and pronciples who are doing everything. All of these obstacles have affected on our emotions and feelings. By being more aware of having to be more more assertive and aware myself, stay positive and try approach certain situations has been eye opening. There is so much behind maintaining a good emotional resilience. It shows how important it is to have in one’s life, and for sure would be beneficial in a ballet dancer’s life to upkeep.

“…Nurturing positive emotional states is one of the most important things a person can do to benefit themselves.” (H.Mills, M.Dombeck) 

Try This...

In the midst of reading…A LOT…in order to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge for my literature reviews,  I have decided to focus on the emotional well-being of a dancer. So many interesting NEW topics and ideas have blossomed, taking a great interest in wanting to find the connection of mind-body health in ballet dancers.
This lead me to come across a wonderful little activity!

This exercise cultivates a good feeling. It's an exercise in self love.

1. Be open with your self. Take a few deep abdominal breaths.
2. Bring your awareness to the center of your chest. Your heart chakra is here. It's the place of unconditional love.
3. Visualize a bright green colored ball - an orb of green light spinning in the center of your chest.
4. Breathe normally and visualize.
5. Think of someone you love unconditionally, someone who loves you unconditionally. This person could be a loved one, family member, friend, spiritual figure, role model or pet.
6. Send your unconditional love to them. Feel their love being sent to you. Feel your heart connection.
7. Notice what is happening in your chest and your mind-body.
8. Feel this good feeling moving through your entire body - from the top of your head to your toes.
9. Rest in it. Enjoy it.
10. When you feel like it's time to move on, open your eyes. How do you feel now? What did you sense or notice? What did you learn? Write your insights in a journal.
11. Repeat this exercise as needed.

What is emotional health? It's blossoming into greater self-acceptance, self-respect, self-confidence and self-love. 

Give it a try :) You feel wonderful!

(L.Mangione,Help-Yourself-Stress-Relief.com © 2010 - 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.help-yourself-stress-relief.com/what-is-emotional-health.html)

Journal Entry

Though reflecting has helped me as well. Right now I feel like I have just achieved a mile-stone having done my first perfromance after 6-7 months on and off dance. Although a bit uncertain how my foot would cope, I am quite glad I have taken that leap of faith and just did it.

I think it’s the fact that I have been given this opportunity to show myself, almost a reward for keeping on gooing through this whole bumpy ride. Even though my foot still needs time to heal fully, there is not point in waiting more and not giving it a good try.

And you know what…even though it was all a little shaky from the nerves and very few rehearsals, My foot and myself pulled through !

It shows that some sort sort of recogntion and certainty has helped me get over this ‘obstacle.’ Although I have a little more healing to do and to complete my last stage of rehab and strengthening, I have a direction to work towards. And because of that my foot actually is feeling better and stronger every day ! I now feel more mentally prepared, and motivated to keep on pushing forward.

My discovery on what helps

·      Positivity

·      Plan to follow

·      Reassurance and certainty

·      Support from friends and family

·      Ways to work around problems, other options

Investigating deeper...

I was pleased to find out I can continue with my project from the inquiry feedback. However what ‘threw me back’ a little was the fact that my inquiry is still too broad :

What inspires a professional ballet dancer to pursue the feeling of enjoyment and fulfillment when dancing?

What are the motivational factors that keep them going through the hardships of the professional ballet industry?

Skyping Paula cleared a lot out for me where we discussed that I can still stick to the main idea of motivation, and defintitely keeping the passion side going. But one word stood out- obstacles.

*How to perhaps overcome the obstacles professional ballet dancers  experience ? Rehearsals, class and onstage ?

*How do they motivate themselves to work through these obstacles/challenges ?

The documentary of New York City Ballet by Sarah Jessica Parker shows an insight into the different sectors as a ballet dancer where dancers face castings, auditioning, rankings, injuries, performances. This series has given me inspiration to look further into what might drive a ballet dancer to overcome his/her obstacles within a ballet company and its different rankings/stages . I too would like to find these answers, and a balance between all.

Reviewing literature will help direct me towards a clearer and more specific topic, which I plan to do with a few books I have just ordered : 

Finding Balnace http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Balance-Fitness-Training-Lifetime/dp/0415943396

Dancer’s Manual http://www.amazon.com/Dancers-Manual-Motivational-Professional-Dancing/dp/0963786490

Critical Reflection on my Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Module 2 has created pathways in developing my inquiry. I have discovered more about my practice (dance) and its environment through a challenging new phase of my life, unemployed and injured and thus from an outside perspective, with the support from various fellow dancer friends and teachers at the UCT ballet school and worldwide. By finding out other theories on research, being actively involved in discussion groups, and most importantly questioning about the professional ballet world, I have been able to have a clear vision of an inquiry I would so love to explore into and share- the deeper meanings of why ballet dancers enjoy dancing so much, and what are their inspirations and motivations to keep them going? The tasks have helped tremendously in its development.

Part 4- developing ideas

Professional inquiry is a ‘way to learn about what you are doing.’ The three distinct learning mechanisms that helped with the development of my inquiry were:

·      Work Based learning-idea came about gaining some invaluable experience within a work-based environment.

·      Double loop learning

·      Transdisciplinary

I developed lines of inquiry in Health and Fitness and Artistry vs. Sport. Though seeming quite far-fetched from the final inquiry, the discovery process brought me to the finished product:

·      Creating mind maps all relating to the idea of my enthusiasm in a well being of a dancer, mentally and physically, to find inspiration in the explanation of why I love what I do.

·      SIG groups- looking at others’ questions

·      Watching the Cape Town international Competition, but most importantly whilst injured

·      Light bulb idea

I was able to gain more insight from the SIG groups on my decided topic as well as from some other ballet dancer’s responses. I surprisingly gained thorough feedback, picking up on key points in their reasoning to dance, the motivational aspects as well as arising problems.

I used some of these key themes for researching literature:

Þ   Music is a known factor of inspiration, looking into more scientific articles to gain reasoning behind this wonderful relationship of ‘moving to the beat’ and why it happens.

Þ   Anthropology en Pointe is a blog all about motivation and ballet dancers:

o   Numerous topics discussed relate to my idea.

o   Explores the possibility of dancers being able to relate to  ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ where this profession is believed to provide us with every need categorized in this pyramid.

o   Biggest inspiration to create a video footage as part of the finished project.

Þ   Motivation itself is what keeps a dancer going through everything, which could easily link to the various ‘theories of motivation.’

I thus realised the fundamental reason to dancing is the enjoyment, therefore narrowing it down to why dancers enjoy dancing.

Part 5- Ethics

By first distinguishing how ethics is involved in my profession, to researching what is expected opened up my eyes to what ethics entails. I learnt about the connection between ethics and morality, relating to not your individual self but also in a professional environment. Researching more into the ethics in professional dance, I discovered the idea of sticking to basic moral grounds to then be able to work around the rules for the greater benefit. Therefore being able to move on to using this knowledge for my own inquiry.

Part 6- Planning Inquiry

Before going into too much detail about the tools of inquiry, I had decided to use a more qualitive method for my inquiry- feeds off personal experiences, feelings and opinions. After reading about different tools, I decided to use interviewing as my main source of data collection as well as surveys to initiate ideas, and literature sources to gain more knowledge and evidence about the topic.

From testing the pilot interviews I was able to find out my approach to anaylsing the information, gaining advice and general sub-topics.

Further responses- injured perspective

Got the MOST amazing feedback from a great dancer on her views, and from the perspective of experiencing a long term injury...

Dancers and particularly Ballet Dancers find their happiness through dance from such a young age. We are almost addicted to it. It’s kind of an unhealthy obsession being a professional dancer/athlete. You’re addicted to the endorphins and the feeling of working really hard. As dancers we always want to impress people and basically be able to show off and feel special. We therefore, tie a lot of our happiness onto being successful in dance because that is all that we have known for so long. It’s a clear path to a future from such a young age that when it's taken away from you for reasons beyond your control, such as injury or developing the wrong body shape, then you can be left kind of shell shocked because you just don't know what else to do. Body shape generally starts from about puberty so it is not as hard to deal with as say a life ending injury that can happen at any point in your training or career. You don't know what else is out there and you have never had to fully face what you would do outside of dance. When your friends aren't faced with that kind of situation then you feel isolated from them too and you don't have anyone who can relate. Often even people who have been injured in the past soon forget how hard it was for them or there experience is totally different to yours. Friends outside of dance will show perhaps a bit of support over an injury but when it is long term, even dancer friends who have had injuries begin to lose interest. With major injuries that require an uncertain and prolonged recovery period, you are mainly scared about the fact that you don't know if it will work if you choose to continue with dance and that scares you because you don't want to get your hopes up again only to feel what you think will be worse than what you are already feeling- a betrayal of your own body. It is a natural self-protection mechanism to be doubtful and scared of an uncertain future. What you have to remember as a young dancer is that a lot of people our age don't know what they want to do with their lives and that’s ok. This is why it's so important to find yourself outside of the dance world. I really believe it’s important for you to do some extra reading and try to force yourself to look into everything. I understand how draining it is to feel depressed from injury and all the associated negativities that it comes with and you just want to ignore it and distract yourself or go to sleep however, it's only you who can force yourself to get out to this place in your head. It is important to make use of your time off. This can be by exploring other interests (which can be anything-photography, art, science or writing). Whatever helps you grow as a person, will help you grow as an artist. And this is what separates the ranks in the companies and gives a person resilience. Life experience makes you the dancer you are. All dancers reflect their personality and growth in the art form. It is the rawest form of human expression because it is literally your body expressing idea or message. This being said-once you reach a certain point in your rehabilitation it is most certainly a full time job. Most people do not appreciate this if they have not experience it. Recovering is as tiring as a full time curriculum. Motivation can come from other inspirations in life. Perhaps you can be inspired by other athletes-most of whom have overcome adversities to reach the levels they are currently competing at. This can include other dancers. I remember reading articles from Jenna Roberts and Jamie Bond from Birimingham Royal Ballet that really inspired and humbled me. When you have gone through a major injury and rehabilitation you become a much more mature dancer. You have far more appreciation for the art form and freedom of performing it. My point is basically this: Adversity makes the dancer. Injuries can be a blessing in disguise. This is all from an injured perspective however I can say that my motivation lies in all that I have learnt from my injury. I am fascinated by the mental and physical link that dancers entwine with their bodies through dance. I think it is extremely humbling to work as hard as we do. I love to see intelligent dancers working in class. There is always that unobtainable perfection that we are striving for. As much as I believe it is important to find yourself outside of dance-I know that it is a major part of me. It has molded me into the person I am today. I don’t believe we can ever really separate ourselves from dance as professional artists, as this is a way of life. It is impossible to have a work life and a personal life as often this is completely entwined. This can be hard. But the bonds you form with people are often stronger than many people experience. Dance inspires me to better myself. It has guided me for most of my life and will continue to guide me into the future.

Theories of Motivation- Literature Review 3

Motivation itself has a full on connection to why ballet dancers keep on dancing. They are always willing to go through and face the pressures of the industry because they have goals or dreams to conquer that are more important than dealing with the hardships.

This fantastic source of literature gives an in depth explanation on all the different types of the unconscious and conscious motivations. Here I have typed out some of my own notes and pointers, exploring the relations of these theories in ballet dancers.

Intrinsic motivation- Driven by interest and enjoyment of task itself, ‘exists within individual’ (own accord/choice)

Þ   Dancers express feelings from within

Extrinsic motivation- comes from outside the individual, when you perform an activity in order to gain an outcome

Þ   Can lead to over-justification and reduction of interest in intrinsic motivations/desirability within

Þ   However with some extrinsic boundaries, can enhance the desirability of activity

*More rewarding for themselves to dance?

*Do the extrinsic benefits, motives contribute them to keep going?

Push Factors - Connected with internal forces (e.g. need for something)

                           -Stimulated by external and situational aspects of motivation

Pull Factors   - External factors that create desirability for that activity/goal

°As several motives can occur at the same time, you can’t assume that only one motive drives an individual to perform an action

How does this all connect to professional ballet?

·      Dancers feel the internal forces, and need/desire to dance (intrinsic and/or push)

o   Feeling ‘whole,’ express feelings, creativity, enjoyment, food for the soul, passion and love for it, adrenalin, and emotions to express

·      Extrinsic/pull factors are included too

o   Job, keeps body fit, pays salary, fame, competition, promotion, and certain roles, music?

*What is a more effective type of motivation? Intrinsic or extrinsic? Push or pull   factors?

*Is a balance between the two involved, to keep dancers going?

Drive or Desire

“A deficiency or need that activated behaviour that is aimed at a goal or an incentive.” (Drive-Dictionary.com)

A drive/desire originates from an individual’s feelings and doesn’t require external incentives to stimulate their behaviour.

*Relation:

-       When not dancing, an inner desire is established to want to dance (Injury, on holiday etc.)

-       Deficient in a certain move, e.g. if challenging, the dancer will act upon it and be motivated to practice?

Another perspective- Drive-reduction theory:

Where strength of drive increases if it is not satisfied, and once satisfied there is less of a desire to perform that activity/behaviour.

E.g. after dancing you become tired- After a long day of dancing generally you feel satisfied, which leads on a desire to rest afterwards because that is what you lack at that point in time…

Incentive theory

When a reward is presented after an action/behaviour has happened, with the intention for it to occur again

Þ   Positive meaning to the behaviour

Þ   More immediate the reward, greater the effect

Þ   Repetitive reward- becomes a habit.

(Does it become a habit to dance? - class, certain warm up, exercises result in the reward to dance better?)

Motivation + Behaviour- influenced by beliefs.

-       Engage in activity that is believed to increase/gain reward, goal or feelings

*What rewards do ballet dancers feel they gain once they have danced in?:

-       Class

-       Warm up or exercise

-       Rehearsals

-       Performing, on the stage

-       Other exercise

*Do any dancers feel it is now a habit at a professional level?

*Is it based on belief that dancing will bring reward? How do they judge what is rewarding? Moral values...

Incentive theory= Positive reinforcement

The stimulation leads to creating/conditioned to make the person happier or satisfied

Þ   Dancing releases endorphins, and feelings of wholeness

Þ   Stretching more to achieve goal of higher legs

Þ   Practicing to achieve a tricky movement/piece of choreography

Drive= Negative Reinforcement

Stimulation to carry on knowing it will remove the punishment

Þ   Do class every day to improve technique, so improves lines and aesthetics of your movement

Þ   Exercise to keep strong and reduce risk of injury

Þ   Rest to eliminate pain from injury

“For those who received no extrinsic reward, self determination theory proposes that extrinsic motivation can be internalized by the individual if the task fits with their values and beliefs, and therefore helps to fulfill their basic psychological needs.”

This article moves on to reflecting how motivation derives from providing an individual’s needs.

Motivation:  “The process used to allocate energy to maximize the satisfaction of needs” (Pritchard and Ashwood definition)

*Reflecting upon articles, my pilot interviews, discussion and my own experience, the inner feelings in the enjoyment to dance comes with a ‘need’ to- giving the reason of ‘just because!’

I feel this can suggest that if you want to satisfy a need, you will act upon it and allocate time and effort towards that need. Ballet dancers will dance to satisfy their need to move… well this is how I feel!

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

“People are motivated by unsatisfied needs”

1.     Physiological (hunger, thirst, sleep)

2.     Safety/security/health

3.     Belongingness/love/friendship

4.     Self-esteem/recognition/achievement

5.     Self actualization

As a human being, we can relate to motivating ourselves to provide us with these needs.

*How does dancing fit into this? Do ballet dancers feel that their profession provides them with all of these?

Maslow believes ‘only unsatisfied needs influence behaviour’ and action.

Point of note: as ballet especially strives for that never attainable perfection, is this why they always want to improve and push forward? Is it the case where they are instantly trying to satisfy the needs of perfection, which will technically always be unsatisfied to some extent?

*Idea:

To test whether ballet/dance provides basic needs to professional dancers, give list of the 16 basic desires and ask them to tick which they feel provide them.

Herzberg’s two-factor theory

Factors in the workplace that create job satisfaction

Motivators: challenging work, responsibility, recognition

Þ   Working on challenging choreo, roles in a ballet, representing a company, leading a group piece

Hygiene Factors: Status, job security, salary- doesn’t necessarily motivate but is de-motivating when absent.

Þ   Injury creating lck in job security

Þ   No job/unemployed/contract cuts

Þ   Rejection in auditions

Þ   Salary cutbacks due to lack of funding in the arts

Self-determination theory: Elements

•       Humans are inherently proactive with their potential and mastering their inner forces (such as drive and emotions).

•       Humans have an inherent tendency towards growth, development and integrated functioning.

•       Optimal development and actions are inherent in humans but they do not happen automatically.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation- self determination theory)

Goal setting theory

When an individual has a drive to reach a certain goal or clearly defined end state- often a reward in itself

Þ   Relates to the idea of how ballet dancers motivate themselves to overcome challenges, achieve their goals to perhaps feel rewarded?

Models of behavioural change:

When there is a new, unexpressed behaviour, there might be a change in the behaviour that can seem or become more important than the current motivation. Main causes:

•                Instigation (Ts) - increases tendency when an activity has intrinsic ability to satisfy;

•                Inhibition (Taf) - decreases tendency when there are obstacles to performing an activity; and

•                Consummation - decreases a tendency as it is performed.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation- Models of behaviour change)

*Are there behavioural changes in ballet, when it comes to motivation?

Attribution theory

A process by which an individual believes how the causes of success and failure affect motivations from emotions

Þ   Intrapersonal- self directed emotions and thoughts from one’s self/feelings

Þ   Interpersonal- Beliefs about responsibility of others and their impact on other’s emotions

*Talks about seeking positive feedback from failures- used as motivation

Þ   Use emotion from failure to motivate, to then fix it and succeed

*Dancers deal with constant failure, but they are known to be self drive, that these failure could perhaps help keep them going?

*To be so self driven- a vital attribute to have as a ballerina?