Liam Pentland

I have been looking through my blogs, the recent questions I created, feedback from people to come up with the award title I would like to propose. The majority of my questions seem to relate to me as a performer, teacher or choreographer. In the future I am looking to study my PGCE to enable me to be a teacher, therefore I don’t feel it is relevant to state “Teaching” within my award title. Due to fact I have spent a large part of my life improving my knowledge as a performer and choreographer, with trips to LA, choreography workshops, A Level and Professional and Nations Diploma in Dance, I would like to propose the award title:   BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Performing and Choreography   Please let me know what you think?

  “Lets Work Together” With my SIG group I would like to discuss topics around professional and community dance, as these are two topics I am involved in and passionate about.   Below you will find My Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn page. I have set up these accounts so that we have no problems communicating. I am also interested in being part of other SIG’s so that I can help debate and share my ideas on topics I am interested in. If you would like me to join your SIG, please leave me a comment below with a way of communicating with you. Facebook: Liam Pentland Twitter: twitter.com/LiamPentland LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/SIG-Performance-Theatre-arts-Education-4665053?mostPopular=&gid=4665053&goback =  

Here I teamed up with member s of my SIG to see how we could develop my questions, so that I had a more thorough investigation. 1)       In what order do I label my professions? Do I label it in order, starting with the profession I believe I am highest in or do I label it to benefit the job I am applying for? When we discussed this question a good colleague and friend of mine, Jon Broni raised the idea that I ask them 2 simple questions:   How would YOU label my profession? E.g. Teacher/Dancer/Choreographer Why? I felt this was a very good question to ask because here I will find out other peoples perspective of my practice, which will help when promoting and selling myself. Also, by asking people” why?” I will then get given a reason, which should answer the question “How do I label my profession?” This way I can calculate how people label professions. I was also thinking of asking another question along with this being “Would I label my profession different

  1.        In what order do I label my profession? Do I label it in order, starting with the profession I feel I am the most strongest in or do I label it to benefit the job I am applying for?   2.        Does a strong dancer mean a strong choreographer?     3.        Does a strong dancer mean a strong teacher?   4.        Is teaching seen as an easy way out of being a performer?     5.        Does a teacher with a degree, result in the teacher having more knowledge than teachers without a degree?   6.        Is there an age where dancers should stop performing? Or are you as old as you look within the dance industry?   7.        Is social media becoming a better way in which to promote you, than the usual way of working yourself through the industry?     8.        Is it more marketable to be a choreographer who has one very unique and defined style? Or a choreographer who doesn’t have a unique style but can choreograph too many

For me to answer this  question:" Are there any ideas from work based or organisational knowledge theories of learning that could be used to understand your own professional inquiry?" precisely I believe I have to categories my profession into 3 sections; Dancer, Choreographer and Teacher. As a dancer my job is to retain choreography quickly, execute movements precisely and to perform in a professional manner. I am currently training in two of the biggest studios in Los Angeles, USA and I’m learning that being a dancer is a state of mind that must be programmed into your brain through training. It takes time and a lot of classes to train your mind to retain, execute and perform efficiently. I see this whole process as a sector named, “Being a Dancer”. I believe the learning tool here is to analyse different methods when picking up and executing, and decide on what methods work best for you.   I have been critically reflecting my performance when training and came up w

    I choreographed this dance earlier on this year (2012) and recently taught it at a few workshops including HDI Summer Camp, Wales and at Norway's, House of Dance. I'm so grateful and amazed by the support I have been receiving from everyone around the world and therefore I am releasing this piece as a way of saying Thank You! Honestly, can't say how much it means to me. I have been critically reflecting on my experiences in my journal, this summer and two event I have learned a lot from was my workshops in Norway and workshops at HDI, Wales. Thought I would share this video with everyone, feedback would be much appreciated and I hope you all enjoy...

On 26 th August 2012 I was given an amazing opportunity to teach at a dance intensive summer camp named HDI. This camp employed the 5 of the best choreographers from the UK and 4 of the best choreographers from America who have worked alongside artists such as Nikki Minaj, Britney spears been on TV programmes such X-Factor USA, Americas Best Dance crew the list goes on. I felt for my name and picture to be on the same poster as these artists, and for it to be promoted all around the UK was amazing publicity for me. As well as this over 140 dancers from all over the world would take my class and amazing choreographers, as stated above would also be able to acknowledge my work. This was a big dream/goal of mine and has been something I have been working towards. It was very important to me that I made a good impression by teaching choreography that I felt was creative and would be respected by the people at this event and also the atmosphere within the class was full of high energy. I

Here, I have had to take a step back from my practice to explore what methods I use to search, organise, and gather criteria and the knowledge I gain through my experiences that consequently enable me to develop my practice. YouTube This is one source I have referred to constantly through-out my journal. I am able to use YouTube to keep up-to-date with how dance is evolving in other countries around the world so that my practice isn’t dated.      This is essential to my career as, If my choreography is seen as “old” or “out dated” then I will be less employable as dancers also want to keep updated and learn choreography that is up to date and “with the times”.   Through this course I have realised that you are also able to watch videos that enable you to learn things step by step, for example when emailing my tutor Paula Nottingham she sent me a link to the “Bapp YouTube” for video advice. Diary Every Morning, or sometimes the night before, I open my diary to plan a pro

Task 3b Theories relating to networking The reader defines professional networking as ‘a work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs’ . For example, I have a group of close friends at a studio in Bolton who are part of my networking system. We are all able to work together and help each other, with our skills and abilities, to help one of another with goals and tasks we wish to accomplish in order to become successful within our practice. Within this group consists of dancers, choreographers, studio owner, event organisers, promotional staff, mentors and other people who obtain useful assets, which enable us to improve on our practice. Having a social networking group like this helps us to improve our success, promotion, development and sense of worth. I believe that there is a strong amount of trust in this group and as long as we all work together and maintain that trust, our practice will develop a