On my second meeting with my supervisor, we went through the whole essay so that I can get clear feedback on what I need to focus on. One of the things we focused on during the meeting was the research question. The initial research question was “Alvin Ailey’s influence on the interpretation of African Dance in America in America?” but my supervisor said that it’s still very vague so we tweaked a little bit and it is now “How has Alvin Ailey’s style influence the practice and development of African dance in modern-day America?” . We talked about the structure and how it doesn’t make sense because when I was writing my essay I wasn’t focusing on the structure, I was focused more on finishing the essay, so my supervisor helped me plot a clear structure. In the initial submission, I wasn’t very clear with my sourcing, so my supervisor told me to source all my research and make it clearer. 

Before my first meeting, I had done some research on the topics that I have put forward related to dance. It was really hard for me to find resources since almost all of my questions were so vague, in which my supervisor seems to agree as well. We spent an hour exploring the different ideas that I would want to write my EE since my questions were too vague, and was hard to find resources for those questions. When I first started my research, I thought it wasn’t gonna be as hard but too my surprise it was actually harder than I thought. After having my first meeting with my supervisor I still haven’t finalized my research question and still wasn’t certain on what exactly I want to research and write. After doing further research, I set up another meeting with my supervisor to go through the idea that I am interested in researching and writing about. I know that I wanted to do my research on something that’s related to African Dance, so that was the main focus for me going to the meeting. Developing a research question based around the African Dance.

I’m really happy with the outcome of the EE day (9/05/19) because I think I really accomplished something. We spent a lot of time in the morning talking through everything we’ve done so far, where are we up to, we also created the essay planning and which directions to take. I know that I am behind everyone else, but I will do my best to get everything that needs to be done, especially now that I have finally breakdown my idea and have finally made a question (Alvin Ailey’s influence on African Dance in America?) which I’m really excited to get started on it right away. But, first I need to read the books related to Alvin Ailey that Ms.Thomas has recommended me to read, and I also need to watch some DVD’s about all his work and about him as a choreographer and an entertainer, so that I could familiarise myself before start writing anything.

Books I need to read:

• Alvin Ailey (A LIfE IN DANCE)
• Moving History/ Dancing Cultures (Africa)

I am really looking forward to starting reading these books and watching the DVD’s so that I can start my writing. I have also conducted some research so I will be referring to some articles, interviews, and videos that are related to Alvin Ailey and his work, and also choosing which resources/research is useful and deciding which ones to use, which one not to use, etc.