Phone call with Paula - What is Context?

Yesterday I had a conversation with Paula concerning my feedback, changes to my inquiry and next steps.

Paula began to ask about the context of my inquiry to help focus my plans. What does the inquiry mean to me? Why am I looking into support for injured dancers? Something inspired that topic?
I actually struggled to answer some of Paula's question and she admitted it can be awkward to answer when somebody asks "what's the context?"...what does that even mean?!

I began to think, why is this the inquiry topic I have chosen? I am not doing this because I have to or it is a requirement of the degree, I was doing this because it interests me and is something close to my heart. It made me question was I currently able to support the dancers I teach? Did I feel like I had to know more about it before I could support my dancers and workplace? I think the answer to that is Yes, that's exactly the reason. Having researched literature and specifically injury related documentation I have already uncovered many things I didn't know before. For example, in London there is a specific NHS clinic for dance injuries and if you ask your GP to be referred there as a training or already professional dancer you can receive free professional treatment by doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists and health experts etc. I wish I had known this in my training and I'm sure this knowledge would benefit future dancers.

During my own training, I had numerous injuries due to hypermobility in certain body parts and stiffness in others. I felt that I had just recovered from one injury and then would suffer from another. Maybe I didn't give myself a realistic recovery time which is an area that really interests me and I am going to look into further. My injuries soon became worse psychologically than physically when I kept doubting if I would ever survive in this industry. If my body could cope with the intensity.  And how frustrating it must be for the teachers that I had to sit out or miss class.

Ultimately I want to make a difference to my teaching, my workplace and also the wider dance community. Firstly in terms of my own teaching I would like to be able to recognise signs of distress or lack of coping and be able to advise on support available. Also adopt some of the skills which can be integrated into teaching such as offering praise, constructive criticism and feedback. Secondly, within my workplace, I would like to promote the importance of having support in place and making sure the dancers know about it. Lastly in the wider community, my inquiry has inspired to look further into becoming trained in some form of dance therapy so that I can offer a service and make a difference to dancers both in vocational training and working professionally.