I think every person working with a form of art can relate to the moment when it just suddenly seems like someone just reached out and flicked off the switch controlling your creativity. Unsurprisingly, this happens to dancers and choreographers as well – one moment you’re vibing to the song you’re working on and your body is moving to the beats, and then suddenly it’s like your body doesn’t know what to do. Fortunately, getting rid of choreographer’s block (or any artistic block, really) is essentially finding ways to troubleshoot any problems that arise, and while it puts a break in the creative process, there’s always a way to get around it.
The first, most natural instinct most people have during a choreographer’s block is to repeatedly listen and try to dance to it again. This often works; however, when it doesn’t, it helps to get a pair of earphones and try to focus on the different layers of the song. Not every beat of the song can be caught, and to make up for the space created by those beats, a bass note, a lyric, or a certain sound effect in the song can act as a replacement. If possible, the choreography can be paused in the middle for dramatic effect, depending on how the song goes.
It also helps to turn towards external sources – this could be a fellow dancer that hasn’t seen the choreography acting as a fresh set of eyes, or online dance videos by other choreographers acting as inspiration. At this point, it is also a good idea to take ideas from other dance styles; sometimes classical dance moves can be modified or incorporated into western dance, and vice versa.
Another way to combat choreographer’s block is to simply leave that section of the song for another day. While there’s nothing like working in a continuous flow without any broken links, sometimes it just so happens that we need to clear our heads and take a break after having taxed our brains and body so intensely. Other times, we’re energetic enough to choreograph, but the moves just do not flow out as easily, in which case we can move on to a different section of the song, preferably one where the beat has switched up, and this way we can provide our mind with some relief from the monotony of listening to the previous section over and over again.
Most dancers have a certain element on which their style of execution is based. These are usually strength, power, fluidity, clarity and control. If one is aware of their execution style, going through a choreographer’s block gives them a chance to experiment with another style of execution. This does not mean to completely switch up your execution for the choreography; rather, executing a few moves differently or deriving inspiration from moves that are executed differently helps to create new steps that fit the atmosphere created by the song and the choreography.
In other words, the fact that choreography is a process so open to change and external influence helps one to overcome a creative block without much difficulty. While there may be deadlines and other factors causing a choreographer to focus on one thing only, forcing yourself to come up with ideas, concepts or moves may not take you very far, but enjoying the process and trusting yourself and your abilities certainly will. Creative blocks encourage us to think out of the box and try new things, and, more than anything else, are an indicator of growth and progress.
Kommentare