Award title.. will they allow "physiotherapy" in my title?

I've thought long and hard about this potential problem and wondered if by writing a quick blog post about it, some others might see it and have some helpful opinions.

When constructing my Award Specialism Title Form I asked for my title to be in "Dance Physiotherapy". Now I know what you're all thinking and I know, I'm not a physiotherapist, but having the word "Physiotherapist" in my title is very important to me as it is the area that I wish to pursue not only for a potential MSC, but for my career after dance.

I wonder, what do others think? Should I be allowed "Physiotherapy" in my title? Is there another title that seems more appropriate?

All of my interviews, surveys, literature, research, inquiry.. everything is based around physiotherapy and its affect on dancers. By having a very keen interest in this subject and deliberately focusing all of my time and research power towards it, I don't think it is degrading or insulting to the profession for me to have it in my title, after-all.. It is the field I wish to pursue in the future.

I guess all I can do is sit and wait for an outcome

Hope everyone is doing well and got all of their forms and drafts in?

Good luck to everyone

Professional Ethics.. What have I learnt?

After reading and re-reading the Professional Ethics paragraphs in my reader I have started to piece together personal ethics, professional ethics and employer expectation ethics. 

As I have mentioned in previous posts, dancers ethics are a little on the grey side of things. I discussed where our hands have to go and what attire is deemed ethically and professionally appropriate, but as I delve a little deeper I can start to touch on ethics which apply more strictly to my own topic of physiotherapy within my profession inquiry. 

So what have I learnt? Whilst reading through the reader I came across a paragraph written about professional norms and how they have developed their own ethics. Dancers definitely have a set of ethical norms but rarely are these norms challenged. Recently in my workplace they were though. We currently have an outside choreographer working with us on a piece that will be premiered in March. The style of the piece is Street Jazz/Hip Hop. Already when seeing the cast sheet and researching into the choreographers previous works I knew this would be a problem.. and here in lies my ethical dilemma. As a professional and someone who takes great pride in their work I want to perform his choreography to the best of my ability but doing so will endanger my body greatly. Is disappointing my boss by refusing to dance dangerous steps unethical? Should I just take the risk and hope for the best?  We are (as stated in our official employment contract) Classical Ballet Dancers in our company. The steps he is asking us to do are those that would be done by a street dancer. Within just five days of rehearsals, four dancers are already injured. 

This ties in with physiotherapy in my own dance company. By not having an on-sight fully qualified professional physiotherapist, injuries have occurred. If we did have one, would it be ethical for him/her to step in and raise awareness about the concern of dangerous steps? Would it be taken more seriously coming from someone qualified/ more experienced? What I'm learning is that dancers need to have a stricter ethical stand point on our own bodies and choreography that could endanger that. Most of the time people are injuries are because they are expected to just "get on with it" or "suck it up". Then I delved a little deeper, would others feel ethically right about voicing concern? It's this concept of "right and wrong" that surrounds ethics that I am trying to distinguish within my own working environment. Reading through the reader and doing these tasks is definitely helping me understand the ethics within my company.

When understanding the ethics when conducting my own questions within my inquiry, I will have to take many things into account. Confidentiality being a big factor. What happens between physiotherapist and dancer during a treatment session is under the same roof as a doctors confidentiality agreement (something I learnt whilst reading through the Reader material). Fair analysis of information obtained is another huge part that will play in my inquiry. It would be very easy for me to "cherry pick" information that would support my claims, but it is ethical to take both sides of any story into account to make a fair inquiry. 

After discussing with different members of my SIG group I will now start to prepare drafts of my Ethical Release Form and my Employer Support Form with special attention focused on the ethical dimension of them. As discussed above, I have a lot of ethical situations to take into consideration whilst in my preparation phase that will tie in closely with my future inquiry. 

Codes of practice

As some of you may or may not know, fellow BAPP colleague Ben Roomes and I work in the same professional ballet company so this post might be quite similar to his. I spoke at length before about my own personal ethics when it comes to my working environment but in this blog I'm going to discuss the ethics from the other side of the fence, looking at it from my works perspective. My only solid point of reference which ties those two together is my personal contract that I have signed and is what legally binds me to my work.. sounds a little ominous when you think about it.

The largest paragraph in my contract is the "Content of Work". A particular example of something I have always done but had forgotten it was a contractual obligation is "independently master the repertoire on the basis of video materials". It is a common understanding amongst dancers that if there is material that has been previously created in earlier years or on another company that you learn it before hand, but I was unaware this was written in our contract.

Another point that I wanted to touch on was something I discovered whilst looking through the very small print of my contract, "Employee is obliged to notify the employer at least 3 months beforehand of any private life matters which have an effect on the Employers repertoire". As this is all it says, it leaves me with a few questions. Death? Emergencies? These are not things that can be predicted or known 3 months prior. Our Theater has always been accommodating with illness or family emergencies but it does seem unnerving that they do in fact have the power to contractually cause issues. This seems like an ethical problem to me

Requirements of myself as a dancer base a lot around what I wrote in my previous blog post. Being punctual, not being intoxicated, professionalism and honesty are all written into our contract. One thing I didn't know but makes sense that is written in our contract is "a good command of at least one international foreign language". As English is my mother tongue I never really think about it as it is known as the international language of the world but for other dancers from other countries, it is an important aspect, as all of our rehearsals are taught in English. "Acquiring all necessary repertoires on time" is another common understanding but frames an ethical understanding also. It is respectful to not only your workplace but your other colleagues to come prepared to a rehearsal regardless if you have to work in your own time for it using video footage or not. It stipulates in our contract that we are to have a "higher or secondary choreographic education". This is not what I would assume as dancers are not required anywhere else in their work place or in the contract to choreograph any material. It actually states a few paragraphs later that we are employed specifically as a "Ballet Dancer".

Overall there have been a few surprises whilst reading through my contract. A few assumptions that I have as a professional are stipulated specifically in the contract but a few surprises came up whilst reading about private life matters. Do these apply to anybody elses contracts at work? I'm sure teachers have much stricter rules and requirements? Would like to hear some feedback and thought from others.

First Tuesday of the month Skype call..

I thought I would just write a quick blog post after coming off of Skype with Paula.

I feel like maybe I've been looking at this all wrong. Ok, well maybe not ALL wrong, but definitely not from the perspective that I should have been. As my interest and questions are all focused around physiotherapy within a dance company I have managed to pigeon hole my mind set into thinking like a physiotherapist, and not as a professional dancer, which is what I am. I had become so fixated on almost a scientific/medical approach to my questions that it was only when Paula opened my eyes to a different approach that I started to understand properly the angle that I need to look at my questions.

This inquiry is about "learning research". Learning, that's where I think I started to look at this wrong. In my everyday life, if someone approaches me with a question, I like to have an answer but in this instance I'm not supposed to have an answer yet. The inquiry and research IS the learning. Maybe some of you are reading this thinking "well.. obviously" but honestly it has only properly sunk in to my brain now. I have been trying so hard to think of these questions and research like I am already a professional physiotherapist which isn't right and is actually hindering my learning on this BAPP course.

It was only when I gave an example to Paula of how a specific physiotherapy situation within my dance company effected me, that I realized how I should be approaching my research and questions.

I think that I'm on the right lines and am excited to continue with my work but I just wanted to put my thoughts on paper for myself and also, so that maybe if someone else is reading this who is in the same situation, that they have the same mini epiphany that I did.