The pragmatic nature of creativity : exploring the structuring process of expert choreographers

Abstract

To date, empirical studies in choreography mainly focused on the movement generation and manipulation stages. Often, the structuring phase, which entails selection, ordering, and refinement of movement materials, remained untouched. Thus, this empirical study examines the cognitive processes that are associated with structuring and explores how expert choreographers navigate their way through endless possibilities prior to choosing a final dance design. Building from the assumption that choreographers operate in a manner similar to designers, a model of design heuristics (Yilmaz et al. 2011) was used to frame questions and investigate the transformation of dance structures over time. Generally, changes in the detail level were labeled as 'local strategies' and changes to the overall structure were categorized as 'transitional'. These two groups were divided further based on the type of strategies used by expert choreographers during their creative process. The classification system that emerged enabled the identification of patterns of strategy use, leading toward a better understanding of the structuring process. Sue Healey and Gideon Obarzanek, the choreographers participating in this study, worked with a group of five dancers and had five days to generate three different dance compositions under several restrictions. They were given the same theme and soundtrack and could only work with movement material that was generated in day one. Moreover, they were asked to incorporate a design strategy during the creation of their second piece, so that its effect on the structuring process could be evaluated. Observations and interviews enabled the extraction of quantitative and qualitative information indicating how many strategies were used per piece, which were used more often, what influenced decision making, which combinations and outcomes were mostly favored by the choreographers, and what the effect was of using an explicit strategy on the structuring process. I found that choreographers transform their composition through the application of multiple strategies, particularly local ones. Still, each choreographer relies on a particular set of strategies based on the problems they identify in each process and their own personal preferences. Notably, while the use of explicit strategies led to ambiguous results, real innovation was enabled through the application of 'Process Strategies'. These techniques guided the choreographers' overall approach through the solution space by forcing changes in a particular direction. As a result, new dance forms were discovered. Rehearsal time seemed to be a major influence on the structuring process. The more time that was spent on creating a piece, the more alterations were applied. However, having more creation time did not always guarantee a better outcome. In fact, finding the right framework and constraints appeared to be more valuable to the creative process.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English