Week 6 post 1

A community of practice that I have belonged to is Clifton’s Dance Academy, in Grimsby. Not only were the lessons structured into different teams which had their own unique identities, but simply belonging to the same dance school gave us a sense of community. The dance teams took the idea “community of practice” literally, meeting up once a week for the lessons but also practising in our spare time at competitions and after school. We knew our own strengths and weaknesses and whilst some girls would come to me with help remembering the routine, I often looked to others for help with stretching and more acrobatic elements. Wenger described this as a “shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.)”. The team wouldn’t work if some individuals weren’t as committed as others. When you joined, you are obligated to attend at least one dance competition a month, and others if you can. It took a huge level of mutual engagement for the team to work and win trophies. The “joint enterprise” of the group changed throughout my time in the team. The goals and aspirations changed as we grew as a team and grew up. The first – to win a competition, then what it was about would change until the aim was to win a regional championship. Our reasons for joining may have been different, to get fit, to advance our dance training, but ultimately, our ever-changing goals gelled us together. Even though we were brought together and structured, the team was entirely voluntary; we worked through different systems and compromises.