Creativity Means Destruction
Posted by byron on 04.13.11 10:35AM under Learning Swing Dance
There’s a major misconception about creativity. We see it in the business world when people talk about “creative professionals” and maybe that’s why it crops up so much in dance.
The myth? That “creative” means “bursting with ideas.”
The main mistake here is that creativity is linked to the generation of ideas. But that’s not entirely true. Thinking up ideas is the first step, but it’s not the definitive point where creation occurs.
The moment of creation is when you eliminate all possibilities but one.
In other words, the heart of creation is decision. It’s about reduction, not expansion as commonly thought. In that sense, creation requires destruction. Let’s look at the problems that this confusion creates:
- Fear of creativity. On one extreme end, people end up fearing creativity because they see it as a big mess. They associate creativity with weird, half-baked ideas. “I don’t want to look bad on the dance floor, so I won’t be too creative.” But that’s a bit like disliking bread because you don’t want to eat raw dough.
- I’m just not creative. Similarly, some people assume that they can’t be creative because they don’t feel their brains exploding with ideas. The good news is that you don’t need a million ideas to be creative. Just one.
- I don’t have any ideas. Don’t worry–just do what artists have always done: steal an idea.
- Look Ma, I’m being CREATIVE! Often I see people suffering from the opposite problem: trying too much STUFF. Ironically it comes from the same place as the fear-of-creativity folks: it’s that assumption that creativity is all about the ideas, when really the ultimate creation is in the execution. Sometimes these dancers look literally like they’re trying express a dozen ideas at the same time. And the end result is that they don’t really express any of them.
So what can you do to be more creative on the dance floor?
- Creation isn’t about perfection, it’s about newness. This is an important lesson for beginners. I always say to my students, “don’t be perfect–be AWESOME.” It’s ok to take risks once in a while. And in swing dancing, it’s the essence of the dance. As Frida Segerdahl once said, sometimes you need to “dare to be ugly.”
- Make Mistakes. The #1 most common source of inspiration for new dance ideas is mistakes. You learn two things from making mistakes: how to create new moves, and how to react to new situations on the dance floor. Ironically one of the biggest beginner dancer mistakes is to be afraid of mistakes. Embrace them with a smile. Laugh a little, it’s good for you… and your dancing.
- Steal from everyone. The #2 most common source of new moves is people trying to copy someone else’s cool move, and failing–yet succeeding at creating something even cooler. I’ve lost track of how many times people have explained to me, “oh, that move–well, my partner and I were trying to copy this other move from XYZ, and we just couldn’t get it, but it turned into this other move that we think is even cooler!”
- Less is more. I hesitated before saying this, because this saying is so commonly abused. But the main thing is that you shouldn’t feel like you ever need to add things just for the sake of adding them. The dancers I enjoy watching and dancing with the most, are the ones who essentially do “nothing special” until the music absolutely captivates them. A trick I’ve often used to help dancers cultivate this skill is a little exercise: put on some music, and try to dance as simply as you possibly can. Wait… and wait… until the music absolutely compels you to make a statement. The most valuable part of this exercise is dancing without ornamentation while listening very carefully to the music.
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Posted by Thinking About Creativity « The Rantings of a Lindy Hopper on 04.25.11 8:34 pm
[...] Creativity Means Destruction by Byron Alley of Ottawa [...]
Posted by Swing Choreography and the Tibetan Sand Mandala on 11.23.11 2:10 pm
[...] time working on sequences, then breaking them down and looking at other possible combinations. Destroying the choreography is primarily a moment of creation: the creation of new options. And so the ultimate destruction of a swing choreography is when the [...]