The Choreography of Creativity: Practice Builds Progress

Creativity is  movement. It is a living, breathing, evolving thing that exists in our lives. It is energy that flows through us and around us; it moves with us. I danced for many years ,and taught for several more. Dance is all about choreography - how we move, mapping how we move, repetition, repetition, repetition, emotion, feeling, expression through how we move in sequence - each move giving meaning and context to the movements before and after - even the stillness is a moment suspended in time. Dance has taught me more than graceful movement, powerful presence, and technique. It has given me the ability to express emotion, connect with community, feel deeply, and build a creative practice that is centered around self discipline, care, and awareness. Choreography in particular enhances memory, attunement, empathy, and understanding. If we bring those core concepts of choreography into our creative practices regardless of the creative discipline or medium we work with I believe that we can move with our creativity towards progress rather than chasing it to try and force something out. 

Choreography is a specific sequence of steps typically to a specific piece of music that tells a story through movement. It’s about emotion, shape, and meaning. The quality of the movement is what conveys the feeling; that’s expression. In regards to creativity choreography can be translated to how we move through our creative practice, the steps we practice, the sequence we do them in to create meaning in our creative lives.

The Dance of Creativity

Craft

This is where foundation and technique live. This is your craft - the mechanism of how you create, the way you create, the methods you use to create. In the context of dance this is the style - if I’m getting specific, in ballet it would be the barre. In the choreography metaphor this would be the construction of the actual steps being used, the sequence of individual movements that come together slowly, through practice and repetition, trial and error. It’s showing up everyday to do a plie in first position for twenty years, except now that same plie is the base of a jump, the softness of landing, the languid melt into the floor. It becomes something new because you know it so well and can use it in new and exciting ways. 

Discipline

Choreography can be very free, overwhelming, limitless in its possibility. At a certain point you have to make decisions - what is the quality of movement you want, what emotion are you communicating, what story are you telling, and what sequence are you going to use. Showing up day in and day out, session after session, sticking to the decisions you’ve made, and knowing when to scrap something and change it out are all forms of discipline in the dance of your creative practice. To choreograph a practice you have to be willing to stand by it, to ensure its shape fits your life - this is where being disciplined shows up. Maintaining that pattern, that sequence every session with no one looking over your shoulder to make you is hard work, but it is also a beautiful exercise in self trust. 

Project

With regard to choreography this would indicate the actual piece of work itself - the creative project you are working on, the dance that is being created. Choreographing a project is intensive and laborious, but it ensures progress is made. This looks like a structure to your creative sessions, check points set, a plan of attack that makes a larger project feel like manageable pieces rather than an overwhelming amount of work. By choreographing a project - setting out the parameters, planning out the steps, shaping the session to fit the work, you make practical progress towards finishing it. 

The key piece here is that you are in a dance with your creativity and that dance is the creative practice. It is a moving, breathing thing; and it is uniquely tailored to you - your rhythms, your energy, your expression, and vitality, and musicality. The vital components of choreography are: the steps, the story, the musicality. Let’s unpack how these threads of choreography help us weave a creative practice that allows us the freedom of expression through focused energy and purposeful practice. 

Steps - What you do in your practice. How you create. More than that - what rituals do you partake in as part of your sacred creativity? I used to light a candle and use a specific type of pen when journaling at the end of a creative session. Maybe you have a playlist you turn on while you ready your work station. Perhaps it’s in the incense you burn or the nature walk you take to get into the creative mindset. Crossing the threshold into your creative space, picking up the tools of your creativity, starting with a ritual movement, moment, or phrase are all steps in your creative practice, carefully laid out, intentional, planned. Choreography is intentional, every step has a shape, a reason, a purpose. In choreographing your creative practice you ensure that each moment, each movement has meaning and is a driver of progress and purpose. 

Story - Choreography is created to communicate something, to tell a story through movement. It creates shapes, qualities, feelings. It communicates emotion and narrative. Isn’t that what we are doing through our creativity whatever the medium? Choreographing a creative practice helps you sink into the story of you as a creative, the narrative that you are an artist and that these projects are your way of sharing yourself with the world around you. Creating a story centered around why you create is essential to maintaining a creative practice that feels life giving. The way you  structure your practice, the way you create, and what you create, are all actions that communicate your story as a creative being. 

Musicality - How you move through your creative practice - your pacing, timing, flow, stops and starts. These moments all speak to how intune you are with your own rhythms and your creative energy. This dictates quality of practice; slow and steady, passionate and tumultuous, quick and focused, sharp and sporadic. None of these are wrong. By paying attention to the musicality of our practice and how it aligns with our energy we can adjust or support our pacing through projects individually and within our practice as a whole. If you feel off beat and can’t find the groove take a look at your pacing; finding a rhythm in your creative practice takes fine tuning, but when you sink into that score it resonates and you see progress and purpose increase dramatically. 

The Takeaways of Choreographing the Creative Practice 

Thinking about the components of your creative practice as choreography, thinking of the creative practice itself as a dance between you and your creativity can reignite that spark of whimsy and connection. 

Freedom of Expression - Choreography gives us shape and sequence that outline the space in which we can completely be free to emote, communicate, and express a depth and breadth of feelings that otherwise come out in a chaotic mess at top volume. Choreographing our creative practice allows us to fine tune those emotions, freely express their intensity, and dial in to get at the heart of what we want to say. 

Focused Energy - Having a sequence of expressions gives our energy a flow to follow. It funnels our passion, drive, and vitality into a focused project, a predictable path; one that gives us room to create while also showing us a structure that still has room to evolve. Without focus our creative energy can become sporadic and all consuming, but with a choreographed approach to a creative practice that energy knows exactly where to go and how to adapt itself to the project at hand. 

Purposeful Progress - When I danced, each time I stepped on stage or practiced at the studio the dance, the choreography evolved. A movement I’d struggled with suddenly clicked, a moment of disconnect to the music became one of complete intertwining, and when I forgot  I was dancing and was simply existing in the space of the choreography, that was where magic happened, that was where progress was made. In the creative practice those moments of progress come from having a framework, a dance, that allows you to reveal and explore your truest self, to connect with the work on a deeply emotional level. When understanding unlocks and authenticity is granted space to emerge, progress in creativity, artistry, and practice can finally occur.