Agnes Balfeg Brull !

BA Dance!
Professional Studies AS1 PDP Essay !

PDP Personal Analysis and reflection!

In the following manifestation I am going to expose a personal reflection as much
objective and descriptive as possible, that will go through the identification of which traits of
personality I can define as strengths and weaknesses (as an internal issue reflection) as an
individual, student and dancer and their impact in terms of motivation, my performance in
teams and the learning processes.!
In order to identify the traits of my personality that could be considered as strengths, I
need to refer to an action. This action is a mind-set I try to keep in every single step I take: I
believe in myself. And it is important to say that as I have become more mature and in this
specific moment of my life, I really feel my strengths have changed on the past 5 years. My
personality has changed dramatically in some aspects and therefore what I want to do in life.
Therefore, doing a deep analysis of my behaviour, and myself I have came up with the
following strengths!

As an individual, it makes me be very confident with everything I do, that leads

me to not be shy or worry about other peoples opinion about myself. Because when
there is something I truly believe in and I think I can succeed on, and there is nothing
that can stop me to achieve it.!

As a student, I am perseverant, and thanks to that I have a lot of energy to never

give up on the worse moments, and be optimistic about the results I will be able to
achieve.!

As a dancer, I am passionate. Everything I perform, I feel it with my full heart and

senses and that helps me to express what I want to say in each movement.!
In spite of these strengths that are useful to achieve my goals, I have some qualities in
which I am weak on. The following are just examples of multiple weaknesses I have, I
deeply reflected on those ones because I realised they were in relation with the strengths I
just mentioned and work against them. !

As an individual, I am an indefinite person, in terms of focusing in one single

thing at a time, I tend to do or think many tasks or things at the same time. Therefore,

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it is difficult for me to concrete on one single thing, Id rather get too exited with every
things that sometimes with eve dont effectively finish any of them. I find hard to take
decisions.!

As a student, I have never been particularly good in managing time and that

leads me to be disorganised with the tasks I need to do and end up doing everything
last minute.!

As a dancer, I am sometimes distracted by my own internal inputs. Especially

when I have to create something specific or practice on my own, I get distracted with
other thoughts or ideas outside the task. And that stops me from effectively using my
time.!
In relation to this self-analysis, I have looked in into which factors motivate me and how
my values can drive me to fulfil and objective. There are two kind of factors that can drive
people according to the theory of extrinsic and intrinsic factors of motivation Ryan Richard
et al, (2000). Intrinsic factors are personally controlled and extrinsic are factors that are in
the environment or are controlled by others.!
I dance because it gives me an enormous pleasure, not only for the things I can express
through it, but for the dance and movement itself. I feel the need to create and contribute
with my little stamp on the performing arts world. And while I have anything left to say, I will
keep dancing. This is my intrinsic factor that drove me to study dance, the need for moving
and the feeling of hunger for learning. And I can identify this desire of achievement is a much
long term motivation.!
Moreover, there are other extrinsic factors which I would define more as day-by-day
motivators. For instance, as the environment I find myself in, the music, the energy of the
people around and the one that affects me the most: the teacher. The teachers feedback,
corrections, recognition is the external input that really push my expectations higher and
motivates me to achieve certain goals.!
Furthermore, the effect of the teams I work with or group of people around me is crucial
when it comes to learning and motivation. I really like working in teams and even though it is
sometimes hard to understand each other, it is a very enriching experience to work with
completely different people with other points of view and ideas. The most important and at
the same time most difficult thing to create when working on a team is to have a common
goal shared by all the components. When the group has a common goal (e.g. practice to
have the choreography perfect) then I am very comfortable and it is easy to work because

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everybody is on the same direction. However, when there are opposite intentions or
disparate directions within the group, then I find it really hard to work and sometimes leads
to frustration.!
The group performance and behaviour affects dramatically on the individuals one Learning
in groups, Julia Buckroyd (2000). I have find myself int he situation that when the group is
united and the members help each other and are coordinated, the results are better and
quicker. Contrarily, if the energy of the group is low, the members barely know each other
and there is not a united feeling, I individually also evolve slower and less successfully.!
The last part of the reflection has to do with the learning methods that work effectively in
my case. I have analysed three complimentary learning processes that would come into the
following steps: understanding, thinking and doing.!
Understanding!
In dance training, when it comes to learning technique or particular steps, the first
thing I need to do is pay attention to the teacher, listen and watch all the details.
However, it is curtail to understand what the etcher is trying to explain and assimilate
it in my own mind and body. !
Thinking!
Going through the process of thinking and analysis of every movement helps me to
do it (e.g. which muscles to I have to move, how does it have to look like,) and what
find really helpful is to use the imagery. Meaning that I translate the movement into an
image that helps me to find the sensation.!
Doing!
Learning comes also by repetition and perfection of the steps. So practicing is
essential to interiorise the movements and positions and improve. !
In conclusion, through this inner conversation process I have better understood my
behaviour, my aims and how to achieve them, and the relation with others around me
(colleagues and teachers), so I have now a clearer idea of myself. !
!
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Bibliography

Ryan, Richard; Edward L. Deci (2000). "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic
Definitions and New Directions". Contemporary Educational Psychology 5467!
MichelleMiulli, M.Sc., and Sanna M. Nordin-Bates, Ph.D. Motivational Climates:
What They Are, and Why They Matter https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iadms.org/resource/
resmgr/Public/Bull_3-2_pp5-7_Miulli.pdf !
Julia Buckroyd (2000). The Student Dancer, emotional Aspects of the teaching and
Learning of Dance!
Eric N. Franklin. Dance Imagery for technique and Performance, Second Edition!

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