Movement for creativity
I love sharing with you some of the cool and awesome experiences my clients tell me about - I find it super-inspiring not only in my client work but also to keep myself motivated in my own practice - I hope that they inspire you too!
Today’s story is from a client who is a writer, so is creative not only in movement.
We have been developing a running practice as part of their Solaris programme as it’s what they love to do - working with a programme called None To Run, which is the US equivalent of Couch to 5K.
Over the last couple of weeks, she’s had a real breakthrough - she came to our regular client call super-excited to tell me that she’d had her first endorphin rush in years, after a recent run.
And then only a couple of days later, she’d been working on a chapter of her latest book and was getting stuck. A reminder popped up that it was time for her movement programme and off she went for her run. She said, as she was finishing the run, the chapter she'd been trying to write just started pouring out of her and she had to pull out her phone to get it all down!!
I love so much hearing stories like this, where movement has had such a positive, profound effect on someone’s day-to-day life.
How can we translate this to our creativity as dancers?
There’s three reasons I can think of (let me know if you have another one) as to why the run may have sparked creativity for this client:
She was taking a break, rather than trying to push through when she had a block
She was engaging in an alternative activity than the one she was trying to be creative in (1)
The alternative activity was possibly using a different part of the brain - trying to write a chapter may have been using more “decision-making” areas and the repetitive task of running may have been using more of an area of the brain that controls more habitual, familiar activities
I’m not saying we should all take up running! I know it’s not everyone’s’ cup of tea and if I’m honest, it’s not really mine… However there's some ways we can adapt these ideas if we are experiencing a creative block in our dancing.
Try and find an activity that you know inside-out and can do without thinking about it
If you want to keep dancing, perhaps some do very basic, repetitive hip movements or an energetic shimmy drill
Put on your favourite song and getting in the flow, allowing your body to move in your favourite ways without thinking about it
Spend 5 minutes on an easy household chore like hoovering the lounge or hanging up the washing (though try not to get tied up in housework and be sure to come back to dancing to see if you’ve sparked some creativity!)
Pop on a timer for a quick Tabata-inspired HIIT practice - just 4 minutes of high energy movement and perhaps you’ll also get an endorphin rush like my client did!
I would love to know your thoughts on this. Please let me know if you try any of these and how it goes for you. And if you have any other ideas for getting out of a creative block, share them with us in the comments!