Creative bodies on the move: Exploring tensions of collaborative creativity in productional spaces of dance

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The focus of this paper is on the phenomenon of collaborative creativity emerging from shared, embodied experiences in the context of dance.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> Our aim is to explore <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how collaborative creativity is shared and negotiated in productional spaces of dance</em>. We define collaborative creativity as an aesthetic experience emerging collaboratively in embodied and often unexpected ways. We argue that collaborative creativity actualizes in productional spaces, here understood as the frames settled for the current artistic production and within which dancers are able or unable to fulfill themselves as &rsquo;creative, embodied agents&rsquo;. To support our argument, we present observations from an ongoing study of dance in which sensuous, creatively embodied ways of moving are at the heart.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">Based on our research material from two separate dance productions, we identified three tensions through which collaborative creativity is negotiated. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">The findings have significance firstly for how we understand the ambiguous phenomenon of collaborative creativity from an <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">embodied</em> point of view. Secondly, we show how collaborative creativity is not only a result of a collective social process (Sawyer 2000), but rather a multi-dimensional phenomenon in which shared meanings of emotional, intuitive and improvisational movements take the stage in day-to-day life of professional dancers. </span></p>