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Facilitate a warm and playful atmosphere
In my experience this is what I found very important for a creation process. In order to be creative you need to feel welcome, appreciated and connected. A good balance between guidance and autonomy, trust and respect. “working with you feels like playing a fun game’ 20 years ago I was trained by two old circus artists, de Osmani’s they could be quit demanding, but after class they always gave something nice, like a fruit or a sweet. I translate this by always make sure that there is good food available after training as a sign of appreciation
Trust the process
The only way to do an experiment like this, and maybe any experiment is to trust the process. This is not laying back, but work hard and feel confident. There is no answer until the process is done. Even at the moment of presenting there is still a lot of opportunity for change.
Listen well and communicate clear decisions.
I start a day with explaining the program and a timeline, I record the conversations we have so that I make sure I don’t forget clever ideas. I show dilemma’s and ask the group to think out loud with me when I make an order in the different scores. I ask for feedback and if there is discussion on how to use the material I listen and communicate why I make the decisions that I make. I am always open for good arguments. This attitude is also a clear choice that I make because I want the content to emerge from the doing, taking all influences into account.
Make intuitive choices.
I found out that (besides practical) I make intuitive choices. Sometimes I can explain myself, but often not. For example the colour of the costumes: at some point the idea came to me it has to be white, the only reason I can think of that I did that is because it looks great with the green bamboo. Its not practical at all that’s why the pants are a neutral colour so they don’t get to dirty on the street. After a while I realised that it was good choice, they play on the streets that can be very distracting in colours and movement. White will give some rest, maybe even a serene atmosphere.
In: Reyna, V. F., Weldon, R. B., & McCormick, M. L. (2015). Educating Intuition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(5), 392–398. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415588081,Weldon writes that the ability to sense something without thinking about it, is something you can develop, and trust and recognizing my intuition is something I developed during this process.
one of the tools I use while creating is play. (see film above)
references are:
I created an improvisation game see: http://www.marjoleinwagter.nl
Sicart M. (2014) Play matters
Caillois R. (1958) man, play & games
Bolton, R. (2004b). Why circus works: how the values and structures of circus make it a significant developmental experience for young people. Bolton, Reginald < https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/view/author/Bolton, Reginald.html> (2004) Why circus works: how the values and structures of circus make it a significant developmental experience for young people. PhD thesis, Murdoch University
Understanding which methods of play I use, helped me. I realize that in teaching I use much more the ludo didactics, (game methodology) and in creation I use more play. Play is more difficult to define because it is less regulated and for instance, ‘whirling’ like children do, create a sense of excitement and light feeling in your head but you cannot pigeonhole this because it is a sensation.
