{"id":1234,"date":"2022-01-28T19:23:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:32:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:32:55","slug":"shifting-from-a-creature-of-habit-to-an-ever-evolving-artist-revitalized-my-career-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/shifting-from-a-creature-of-habit-to-an-ever-evolving-artist-revitalized-my-career-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shifting From a Creature of Habit to an Ever-Evolving Artist Revitalized My Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, I had an experience at the Museum of Modern Art that rocked me hard. At a Willem de Kooning retrospective, there was a timeline of his career that detailed his stylistic shifts. Among other things, he worked as a house painter, a muralist, an abstract expressionist, a sculptor, then in figurative landscapes before returning to abstraction. I had an epiphany: Of course he worked on different things as he became interested in different ideas or was exposed to different influences. He evolved as a human. Why wouldn\u2019t his art reflect that?<\/p>\n

At the time, I was in the early stages of my transition from ballet to contemporary dance. I\u2019d known how to be a ballet dancer, was well-versed on how to lead that daily life. It wasn\u2019t easy, but it was familiar. And while discovering the contemporary, postmodern scene was invigorating, it was also disorienting. I\u2019d walked away from the aesthetics, routine and people that I\u2019d known.<\/p>\n

Our field requires commitment, and for people who don\u2019t want to disappoint, breaking up\u2014with a director, a company, a show, a genre\u2014can be a challenge. As dancers, we lovingly invest in relationships and repetition, but this can also render us creatures of habit who are particularly resistant to doing things differently.<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t realized it when I was in the thick of it, but my knowledge of the dance world then was myopic. Even though I\u2019d left one chapter to begin the next, I was still looking backwards more than I was able to look ahead. I kept comparing myself to the dancer I\u2019d once been, in part because other people kept pointing out how much I looked like a ballerina when I\u2019d execute contemporary work. I did myself no favors by getting stuck in the labels I let others put on me, and the labels I put on myself.<\/p>\n

Sometimes when we work exclusively on behalf of a singular idea of \u201cright,\u201d one way can easily become the only way. Devotion can be a vacuum. We become so laser-focused that we exclude the possibility of options,\u00ad and we might find ourselves stuck, whether it be in a particular style or a certain work situation. But when you don\u2019t\u2014or can\u2019t\u2014allow space for change, you impede your growth as an artist. Even when we say we want to \u201cimprove,\u201d we often forget that that itself is a form of change!<\/p>\n

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\"Woman
Meredith Fages. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan, Courtesy Fages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhile change is most commonly considered reactive, it can also be proactive.\u201d Meredith Fages<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

With an expansive mindset, change doesn\u2019t have to be so precipitous or vertiginous. Allowing ourselves to be insatiably curious can help to unzip narrow notions of success and identity, thereby softening our perceptions of what\u2019s at stake in a career transition. The words \u201cpivot\u201d and \u201cresilience\u201d have gotten a lot of airtime during the pandemic, yet their definitions are invaluable. In this era of the Great Resignation, many dancers are rethinking their career paths. It\u2019s easy to forget that while change is most commonly considered reactive, it can also be proactive. What if moving forward could be less about negating prior experiences and more about pulling back the layers of an onion? It\u2019s all part of a whole.<\/p>\n

I took my first improvisation workshop at age 27. The opening prompt was to move in response to elements in the ornately decorated room. The instructor, Todd Williams, offered a sample demonstration, during which he endowed the smallest body parts, like his little toe, with the same power for expression as the more obvious parts. In a mere 15 seconds, I experienced a radical paradigm shift that helped dislodge a mental block that had been holding me back. I\u2019d never considered that my own body could be a spontaneous, generative force, or that I had the agency to invent movement that still celebrated the clarity of line that I spent so many years honing in ballet.<\/p>\n

When I did venture back to a ballet class after five years away, it was with a newfound peace. At that point in my contemporary work, I was no longer adamant about breaking away from or disguising my past. I let it carry me forward, and my artistry deepened. As de Kooning once said: \u201cAfter a while all kinds of painting becomes just painting for you\u2014abstract or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

What artistic adventures will be found on the timeline of your retrospective? <\/p>\n

Making Growth Manageable<\/h2>\n

With micromovements, we can start small and invite fluidity in on a daily basis.
Postmodern choreographer Deborah Hay is known for sounding her wakeup call in blunt language: \u201cTurn your [expletive] head!\u201d If that doesn\u2019t resonate, consider these concrete, actionable steps to become more comfortable with change:<\/p>\n

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  1. Cross-train your brain. Investigate something you know nothing about.<\/li>\n
  2. Reinvest in action verbs. Be purposeful in how you taste, touch, harvest, concoct, share.<\/li>\n
  3. Reacquaint yourself with wonder. Be moved by the beauty found in unexpected people, places and things<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/span><\/p>\n

    The post Shifting From a Creature of Habit to an Ever-Evolving Artist Revitalized My Career<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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