By reflecting on the challenges I had when composing my previous studies, I feel that I have gained a better understanding of my creative process. I have found that the challenges I have with my studies typically correlate natural tendencies that can be considered strengths in different situations.
For example, I naturally move with circularity, and I have a softer quality with my movement. While this was a hindrance in my ‘5/8’ study, it was an advantage when creating and performing my ‘3/4’ study. When given the assignment of the floor study, I felt very comfortable creating movement in the ‘3/4’ quality, despite the fact that I feel very uncomfortable when creating floor movement. I usually struggle with floor movement because it is not what is natural to me as a mover, but finding a quality that felt natural to me helped my movement flow literally from my mind and my body.
Another challenge that I encountered in my studies – I’ll call it ‘centeredness’ – can also be considered a strength in other situations. I like to stand on straight legs and feel more comfortable in a smaller base; I keep my energy focused toward my center rather than out into the space. This ‘centeredness’ gives me a great sense of verticality, control, and balance – a good combination when creating movement with a bounded and sustained sense of effort, but to good of a combination when I need the main purpose of a study is to move, to project myself outwards, and to get off of my vertical axis. I feel that this ‘centeredness’ was very helpful to come back to when creating my ‘5/8’ study, which was in a quality that I was unfamiliar with. Having a sense of boundedness and verticality helped me generate material that was in context to the quality, and it allowed me to move linearly quickly. Both my strength of centeredness and my strength of circularity have helped me generate material in situations when choreographing in an unfamiliar quality – they are a resource that I have used to solve my challenges.
Marissa Thomas 