Journal Writing Experience:

Having done the below Journal writing task I have found it to be very beneficial. The journals that I have kept previous to this have not been as detailed and looking back I can see they are missing key information. In order for me to start learning from my experiences I need to ensure that I am reflecting on them in detail.
“Understanding you don’t know something is important because it is the first stage of learning, seeing something is missing” - this quote taken from the Reflective Practices Reader is one that has helped me the most. I have always believed that not knowing should be seen as a downfall but now I see that if you are aware you don’t know something and can admit this and ask for help, then it is easily solved. I am not good at keeping journals or at least I haven’t been in the past. I now know that this is because I was simply writing without purpose, I was writing because I was told to not because I wanted to. Seeing how beneficial it can be to my development as a professional as made me more aware of the importance of reflection in practice. Although as a performer most of the time I need to ‘reflect in action’ rather than ‘reflect on action’ (Donald Schon) the later does have its place. Granted in an audition if I forget a step I need to make it up on the spot, but this doesn’t mean that later that evening writing a reflective journal about the experience wouldn’t be beneficial.
I find the concept of ‘Tacit Knowledge’ to be one of great interest. I have always been taught that if you have the correct language at your disposal it is easy to communicate your thought with others. I am now open to the thought that this might not be the case. Muscle memory for a dancer is essential and it cannot be translated easily into words. Some of the best dancers make the worst teachers as they simply can’t cant translate what they know into something others will understand. When they dance it is an unconscious process and breaking it down and thinking about what they’re doing isn’t always possible.
I found the ’List’ section of my journal to be of most benefit, simply listing my feelings as they came into my head was quick and easy and gave me something to go back and expand on later in my journal. I am going to take this with me into further journals along with the ‘Themes’ section, which I also found a great help. Being able to see where a certain event fits in not only with your day, week, month or year, it was useful to see where I was in my life as a whole. How I was feeling, who I had to support me and who was bringing me down. I think these are all things that will help be learn from my experiences and grow as a professional. I cant wait to try out other forms of reflective writing such as interpreting my thoughts as poetry, I think I will find this useful as it should add an element of fun to an otherwise challenging task.