Ethics in my place of work..

This is a topic that I have been looking forward to writing about since I initially read through the Module 2 handbook. It's something I think I could write for hours on so I will try my best to condense into bite-size sections so that you don't have to read pages and pages of me waffling on. Ethics inside a professional ballet company can be considered somewhat a "grey area". There are obvious ethics that are relevant in any working environment like always being courteous, no bad language, punctuality and doing your job to the best of your ability but in dance some standard rules of thumb can/have to be bent in order to do your job properly.

My best example of this is physical contact. I know many of my fellow colleagues on this course are teachers and must have very strict rules on what is "appropriate" contact with students and what isn't. Dancers in a professional ballet company on the other hand, don't really have those rules. Because so much of a male dancers career relies on being able to partner female dancers efficiently from all areas of their body, there will be times where you have your hands in places that don't seem appropriate to people who aren't dancers. This is just part of our job.

Another good example of differing ethics is professional work attire. Most office jobs require you to wear smart suit like clothing, dance teachers are usually required to wear at least a t-shirt representing the school/organisation they work for. My work attire for example ranges from full one piece dance leotard to a Ramones t-shirt with pajama shorts. For dancers (especially female dancers) the less worn on the body the better. That way ballet masters can see the lines of your body and male dance partners have an easier time partnering and lifting women. A pet peeve for many male ballet dancers is partnering girls who insist on wearing massive amounts of baggy clothing as it is much more difficult to grip, lift and maneuver the dancer.

Personal preparation and responsibility is the biggest ethical task of my day because it encompasses so many different aspects.  It is my responsibility to have my body prepared for the days rehearsals or show to be able to dance to the best of my ability and to not injure myself unnecessarily. It is my responsibility to know the choreography that I am meant to as to not waste the companies time nor endanger who ever else I am on stage with. As my body is my profession and without it I don't have one, self maintenance is such an important part of my daily work schedule. Everything down to making sure I eat right, sleep enough and wear appropriate clothes.

Something that I really love about my profession is what I mentioned above, my body is my job. I know that in some workplaces people can run into some ethical problems when others will try for example to take credit for someone else's work, in my profession that is impossible. You get as much as you give and your employer will notice that because it is shown in your work through your own body. Another important point that other work places would run into is people using company time for personal business. When you are partnering or dancing, your 100% concentration has to be in that moment you are working. If you lose sight or concentration for even just a second, someone could get very badly hurt. So in some respects, that is an ethical problem that I personally don't have to worry about but could be disastrous if it became an issue in my workplace.

Even after trying to condense my thoughts, I still feel like I have waffled on a bit. Apologies for that. I would be really interested to see what other ethical problems people have in their own workplace and compare whether some of them could relate back into my own. It's a subject I am interested in and would love to get a discussion going in the comments below.