Creating through deleting - Achieving that pole dance masterpiece
Sometimes, mastering a pole dance choreography requires courage to delete your old habits. Mel Nutter as Baudelaire shares it in our blog.
Henri Matisse, one of the greatest French artists of the 20th century, said "Creativity takes courage." Matisse is one of many artists, along with Picasso, who are credited for making revolutionary developments in the visual arts, offering a new perspective that was able to shape and influence how others began to see the world and express themselves.
I return to this quote regularly, especially when I find myself in a creative rut. It's so easy to stick to the standard, tried and true combos and forms when creating choreography. You know it works, the trick always gets a good rise out of the audience, and the combination of moves is easy to remember, like muscle memory, so it won't be too hard. But doing something different takes courage, (and determination, persistence, training, inspiration ...) but first courage! There are close to four million posts on Instagram with the hashtag #poledance. A quick scroll through the feed and you might see varying styles (sexy, dynamic, sensual, exotic, flexy, strong etc etc) but not many people are breaking out of the standard combos. How many of those 4 million posts are showing something new? Not just a pose in a new place, or a new outfit, but something that shows creative expression and innovation? While you reconsider how to use your Instagram feed, consider this story: Years ago in a life drawing class the teacher was offering assistance for our sketches. She noted that many people get attached to their first line. A student starts with the models back and then moves on to the shoulders and arms, but something emerges as not being quite right. Students adjust lines of the arms, or erase part of the shoulder. But how many will consider that it was the first line, the back, that was drawn with inaccuracy? You might hesitate at starting again, considering all the hard work and effort that has now gone in to rest of the piece. The end result might still be okay, good even. But could it be better? How could you make it great? Creativity takes courage. Deleting things, starting again, and breaking old habits also takes courage. But it does open the possibility of your creation, your expression, to becoming great! One way to refresh stale or repetitive choreography is to start deleting. If you have many years of choreography practice under your belt, it might be the perfect moment to delete everything. Stop relying on old combos and start afresh. Remove old songs from the playlist and start listening to something new. Create space for innovation and inspiration to enter your dance practice. If you are not quite ready to toss all of your old material, set yourself boundaries that limit your ability to rely on old habits. Tell yourself, - This routine will have no outside or inside leg hangs (yes this is possible!) - For the entire first minute of the song I will stay off the floor, using the entire range of the height of the pole - I will carry a prop for the duration of the routine - in my hand, behind my knee, balancing etc.
Each of these suggestions will force you to change the way you move around the pole and engage with the audience. A pole sit can become something entirely new if you are now holding a prop in a unique way. By using the entire range of the vertical space on the pole, rather than just the middle of the pole for an entire spinning combo, will force you to innovate. How can you move up and down and up again?! By deleting preconceptions of what your pole combos, starting pose, or floorwork, need to look like, you give space to create something new. Yes this will take courage. You have stepped outside the box. There is a chance that not everyone will agree with your actions. But this is the place where magic happens, where you can really create something that stands out from the crowd. And that would be worth liking on Instagram!
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Written by Mel Nutter as Baudelaire.
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