Forced thinking outside of the box?

Having gone through quite a tough period recently, both in terms of personal life and within my practice, the video that Helen has passed on of Giovanni Corazza's TEDxRoma talk on Creative Thinking and "how to get out of the box" has hit quite a few issues on the head that I've been encountering.

When Corazza states "Why should we go out of the box", he answers purely with answers around reasons for personal development, and how humans (and us as practitioners), cannot truly develop without doing so (2014). However my response to this (rhetorical) question that is proposed would take it one step further - and that within my practice I often find myself in situations where if I didn't think outside the box, there simply could be no continuation of process. A really clear example of this this happened just this weekend (yesterday) when I was due to take one of my choreographic works to a festival, and two (of the five) performers decided to pull out with only three days notice. From there without drastic creative reparations and thinking outside of the box (we decided to present a "live creative process" instead of perform the work) we wouldn't have been able to attend the event at all.

In the instance just described I was so embedded within the situation that I could only think of the "outside of the box" process of it as being quite a negative thing - however having listened to Corraza's view I'm now realising that I can turn this, and other similar situations, into positive experiences, as succh thinking of "outside of the box" not only as being a thing of bravery (in the ways I have previously encountered the expression) but also a place of learning experience and growth.

I also enjoy Corazza's thoughts around thinking. He states as follows, "Normally we talk about brilliant thinking, fast thinking, deep thinking, but he're we're talking about... deep thinking" (2014). In my current state of overwhelmedness (out of the box word creating *wink*), this is very useful to hear and digest. In this early stage of studying and learning on the MAPP programme, I have been picking apart theories and reading through the module handbooks, with each section completely seperate in my brain - almost compartmentalising without realising - and this I see now is probably a key factor in why I'm feeling overwhelmed. By listening to Corazza's encouragements of seeing the whole and not the individual (I adore the analogy of how you wouldn't listen to a single note / instrument within an orchestra), I believe I can develop the veiwing of my practice as a learning process - and therefore be able to take more meaning from it.

To see the full video of Corazzo on Creative Thinking click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=392&v=bEusrD8g-dM

Welcome to my blog!

I'm very excited to be starting study on the MA Professional Practice Dance (Specialisation) at Middlesex University.

I will be using this platform as way of inquiring into and developing my own practice, as a practitioner new to the ever-evolving field of dance.

Looking forward to sharing.