First principle - recognition of needs
When a social system (a dance company being first and foremost a form of condensed social system), looks down upon individuals, disrespect their self authority and focuses on controlling/fixing them, its effectiveness is highly compromised.
The key to transformative effectiveness, is to be found when addressing them at eye level, figuring out their needs and involving them in the process of finding solutions for these needs.
A creative process that doesn’t look through the lens of the dancers’ needs, will not produce a healthy outcome, since it is reproducing destructive notions of separateness, control, hierarchy and competitiveness (which are the dominant and prevailing denominators of the existing social and work systems today).
- Second principal - Embracing complexity
Complex situations and problems, require specific and individually adapted answers. Each dancer and each situation within the group and overall process, must be met with specific answers, after evaluating and considering the needs in each case. ‘One solution fits all’, handed down by an external authority, simplify complex situations, thus reducing its effectiveness. There isn’t one perspective, which can be used as the default when looking for solutions for a complex situation such as a group of individuals engaged in a creative choreographic process. There’s always a need to form adaptable mechanisms, and a culture of collaboration between the different individuals in view of their respective needs, in order to come up with an holistic solution, based on the dancers willingness to assume a position of responsibility for both their needs and the agreed upon solutions.
- Third principal - systemic support
Although each individual within the group requires a great deal of autonomy in order to achieve self fulfillment, it also needs systemic support so not to have to ‘walk in the dark’, and figure out everything from scratch. This support might include sharing of existing tools, transfer of already acquired knowledge between new and veteran dancers, a coherent long term vision of the system in which they operate, ongoing adaption and a general flexibility of the ways in which the system operates, attention to personal needs outside of the studio and creative process and a sense of meaning.
A healthy and productive social/choreographic system, is the result of a dialogue between the choreographer, which provides dancers with space, time, ressources, tools, physical financial and emotional support and a coherent vision, and the dancers, who operate as autonomous, flexible and adapting individuals, creating and sharing information and content with the choreographer, which is then returned back to them through a série of new questions and propositions for reevaluation.
This ongoing dialogue, is where the choreographic process takes place. But it is only present and functioning, when all three principals are maintained and respected. Resulting in a transformative improvement in the well being of dancers, reduced suffering and an optimisation of shared ressources.
