Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away. And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.

As my blogging activity is rather dismal, it must seem, like I am not really doing too much...on the contrary....I´ve been rather busy...still searching for the grains of inspiration for my final enquiry....as the module commenced I was already chatting with friends about my ideas...stirring things up a little. I made an appointment to talk to one of the ballet-masters at work and I also had the wonderful opportunity to talk to the new financial director of the "Hessen State Theatre" where I am employed. I am trying to approach the subject with open eyes, looking into many fields around me and I am sure come autumn I will be able to harvest and bake a nice bread out of my work.
I´ve been looking into the structures of the German cultural scene. Where does the funding come from, what is considered important and how are cuts and closures affecting society.
There´s the German culture council to start off with. It is responsible for political decisions concerning the arts including drama, opera, music, dance, literature, architecture, design, film and cultural education. Many enquiries are initiated by the council...and I was able to print some of personal interest and read through them.
I took a look at the German governments web-site and found answers on how the German government views the necessity of dance at this day and age.
Then there are also several associations concerning the german theatrical landscape. The "Deutscher Bühnenverein", the "Bühnengenossenschaft" seem to be the largest ones- then there´s the "Vereinigung Deutscher Opernchöre und Bühnentänzer", responsible for choirs and dancers in Germany. There are two dance specific archives. One in Cologne and one in Leipzig. Their sites also operate in English...
I´ve been putting a lot of thought into the social aspects of dance, or more specifically ballet and modern dance as we know it today, as I would like to look at the rather unknown field of dance-sociology for my final piece of work. Maybe I am falsely attempting to land on the wrong branch of the tree here...not sure yet.
The financial director of the theatre advised me to look into the sociological department of the TU in Dresden- especially at Dr. Rehberg´s work concerning culture, which again in turn lead me to a highly interesting book about the arts in society. Basically this book is what I would like to take a closer look at- but from a dancer´s point of view. Something like "The dancer in society". Or "Dancing with Society"....something like that.
Concerning research I am actually getting slightly worried...I am advised not to query the audience of the Hessen State Theatre. I could however ask my colleagues....dancers, as well as actors, opera singers, choir singers and the entire technical department. I am also able to draw upon my professional community...but I am also aware of the fact, that that will not be scientific research, as from my subjective point of view. Conversations with a sociologist have led me to GESIS, the German institute of social indicators. Maybe I can peck out some more ideas here??
So long so far...a quick glance at the creative mess I am looking through at the moment...maybe the birds of spring will help me untangle it...