The Creative Process

Man Against Himself

a photoshop project I made for my Foundations of Research class

Creating a 3 minutes solo was one of the specific requirements of the Choreography workshop class. The first idea that came to mind was reworking and presenting the 3-minute solo that I performed at the audition in January. That piece was and is still very dear to me as it brings memories of my mother whom I miss so much. Missing her got me homesick which resulted in the creating of the piece. I wanted to challenge myself, so I decided to work on something completely new.

As usual, I went through my music collection in search of a song that I can work with. I came across the song “No more, My Lawd” by the Mississippi and Louisiana State Penitentiaries Prisoners. I listened to the song continuously hoping it speaks to me (This is how I created my audition solo too). It might be both a strength and weakness that I am motivated by the songs I listen to in my creative process. But for this class, I was challenged to create some works before finding music which I did for some of my pieces.

I realized I wanted to create something about fighting an internal battle. Immediately, I cast my mind back to my undergrad days in the Department of Theatre Arts in Ghana as we studied the term Conflict. Man against Himself was one of the types of conflict I studied about and I decided to name my piece “Man Against Himself” (It is my first time finding a title to a piece before the actual piece is created). I started improvising in my bedroom while the song played, and I began exploring and connecting movements. I came up with a two-minute version which I presented in class as the first showing for my solo. I received positive comments which encouraged me to build the piece. I had a second showing which was quite different from the first and the main suggestion was to incorporate the floor movements I had in my first showing. I took some time to delve into what I wanted to portray and how I can showcase that precisely.

I finally had a solid piece that was ready to be presented to my colleagues and professor. In addition to the piece, I wrote this note which after reading inspired certain gestures that shaped up the piece for the final presentation. “Sometimes people fight internal battles/conflicts which take them to a place where no one understands and knows. It is impossible to fit into one’s shoes to know exactly how he/she is feeling. You might empathize with the person because you have been in that situation before but definitely, the feelings and reactions wouldn’t be the same. This piece is based on individual struggles and pain that people go through, the mental imprisonment they are experiencing because of whatever their problem is. Whatever you pick from this piece might be different from what the next viewer sees and resonates with. Enjoy and ponder over this food for thought.”

The Space Within

I traveled last semester with the school of dance majors at Ohio University to Canada for a dance sharing at Concordia University, Montreal. At the sharing, one student spoke about how she had always done fast movements and was told by her professor to explore other tempos. She performed a slow piece which was interesting and was pleasing to watch. After the sharing, I decided to explore slowness and how my body reacts to slowness.

With this, I knew I would not be working with music. I rehearsed about six movements and slowed them down, adding different shapes and gestures. I rehearsed it for a day and presented it in class. Surprisingly, everybody loved it and I was given ideas to make it interesting. One idea that came up was to perform it in an enclosed space (between two buildings, in a confined place, in a box, etc) and shoot a video of it to present in class. I decided to give it some time to let the ideas sink in well so I could come up with something mind-blowing.

One day as I was in my car trying to make a turn, I noticed how the cars filed past me in both directions and an idea dropped into my head. I decided to perform this in the middle of the street with cars filing past me. I began to look for possible streets that had spaces in-between them that I could perform there. Also, I realized it should be a place where people will be walking around, crossing the streets, and going about normal daily lives. I located the street behind the Ohio Union as it had people walking to the building and from the building to the Oval and other parts of campus. I asked Jonathan after a class in the Tent about dancing in the middle of the street and he said once I’m being safe, I would not need permission from anyone. “Perfect” I exclaimed, then moved on to speak to my colleague Yukina about helping me shoot in the middle of the street.

The shoot turned out great and with some editing skills learned from my Dance Film class, I made an amazing piece. This piece is a piece that I will rework in the future and submit to a dance film festival.

From Ghana to the US

The Ghanaian Smock also known as Fugu/Batakari is popularly worn by Chiefs and people in the Northern part of Ghana where it originated from but it is now widely worn across the entire country. It is the costume for some dances in the Northern part and the most popular is Takai. The smock exhibits its glamour when the dancer does spiral movements. This made me curious to experiment how it will look on a ballet dancer.

John Cartwright is a colleague in the MFA program here at OSU, and being a very good ballet dancer, I decided to go on this quest with him. I spoke to John about a collaboration and he eagerly jumped onboard. I had been listening to songs by a French Afrobeats artist called Hiro and his “Motema” song really moved me and I wanted to choreograph to it. I shared the song with John and he offered to explore some ballet movements that fit the song while I also offered to develop African dance movements specifically from Ghana. We met for the first time, shared ideas and tried out some movements, it was a great start and we were empowered by the materials we had, and kept exploring. We had a week to finish up this project and present it in our Choreography Workshop class so we had to keep experimenting and bringing out ideas. We both had different schedules and that meant limited time to meet and rehearse. On our second rehearsal, we had a solid piece which was ready to be showcased in class. The second and last rehearsal was very vital as we had to dance with the costume because that was the icing on the cake. I have danced in smocks several times but I knew John had to rehearse with it in other to be very comfortable in it during the performance since it was his first time. John’s first impression when he held the smock was “wow this is very heavy”, “yes the smock is a heavy attire/costume”, I replied. I made him move about with it for sometime till he got comfortable. The ballet movements and traditional Ghanaian movements looked great with the costume on and we were ready to present it in class.

We presented it in class and the feedback was great and this is definitely a piece I would love to develop in future. I would like to experiment it on ballet dancers to use the costume for a full ballet piece. Also, I would like to develop the idea of ballet movement and African dance movements further and this might be in the near future. Thanks to John on working on this piece with me, I hope we develop this piece soon. Here is John’s block post about our exploration and adventure.

This project provoked a few questions about male identity in dance: what is masculine movement? What is feminine movement? How do the clothes or costumes we wear influence the movement and the audience’s perception of the performer(s)? What does it mean to see two male identifying bodies dance together? How do different cultures perceive what is masculine and what is feminine?

So Far, So Good. (Mid-Sem Diaries)

photo accessed through the department of Dance, OSU.

A friend asked me, “So how is school”, and I responded, “it’s great, I’m really enjoying it.” She was like “how is that possible because most people say grad school is difficult.” Well, yes grad school is difficult, a lot of school work coupled with personal tasks to accomplish. Those who are married or live with their partners or children have extra load on their plates and that also can make grad school very stressful.

For me, this is my second masters program so I have had a taste of what grad school is all about before beginning this journey. This journey has so far been challenging but a great learning experience. I have always wanted to get into a dance program here in the US so this is like a dream come true for me. The best part of it was getting accepted to the only school I auditioned at which was my first and best choice.

It is tedious to be dancing 5 days a week since I had not really been dancing full time for some years. I remember before classes began, a colleague and I volunteered as dancers in a video shoot which was being done by the University. The new West African dance professor was to work with us in the video. We only spent an hour shooting the entire video but we both got sore after the shoot and could not really move the next day. That showed how the lockdown period got me and many dancers out of shape. During the first two weeks of classes, my whole body was in grievous pain but the joy and excitement I had from being in my dream program was always a motivation to “keep on keeping on”. My body could not understand some of the movements which I was being introduced to and instead of giving myself time to adjust, I was trying to rush the process and get better overnight. A few conversations with some professors and grads made me realize that all I needed was time and dedication. Ever since that sinked in, I have been enjoying the program even more. Although I do not get some movements immediately, I allow my body to process it and get in tune. In addition, dancing with masks on has not been easy at all. Dancers are advised to breath while dancing and here is the situation where by there is a piece of fabric reducing the amount of air one takes in at a time. I understand this is the new normal and this might go on for some time so one has to adjust. The first few weeks were rough but currently, my body has adjusted to dancing with masks on and I feel great.

I enjoy all my classes but for my Advanced Academic Writing class. I believe I would have enjoyed that class if it was in person. Since everything is online, it becomes overwhelming to read and understand everything that is being posted. It is a lot of work and sitting behind the computer for the entire period makes it stressful. Aside from that, I love the exposure to certain new writing styles I did not know about. I believe this class aside from being stressful will help me become a better writer which is an essential skill in grad school.

So far the journey has been great and I am looking forward to see my artistic and academic development over the rest of the semester.

Goals for the Semester

My brain mostly gets clouded with ideas, concepts, and images of work that I want to put together. The bigger problem is how to executive these ideas, where to start, where to end, which movements to use etc. I believe I often think too much of what message I want to send across rather than getting to work and letting my body explore. This makes me spend so much time on “nothing”.

My first goal for the semester is to learn to put life into my ideas. Not just create vague ideas but narrow it down to a specific and concrete concept or idea and put life into it. I already see how that is shaping up as a result of the classes I am taking and the feedback I research from my professors and colleagues.

The other goal I have is to be a spontaneous creator. My choreography workshop class has showings every two weeks and at certain points, I will be creating week in week out. This means creating continuously and that is something I really want to be able to do. When a soccer player is given a ball right after jumping out of bed, he is able to start kicking and do whatever with the ball. That’s how I want to create and move, once I think about it, I just do it. Like the Nike slogan, “Just Do It”.

My last goal is to be able to merge my music and dance experience. I have a music background and I want to inculcate that into my dance. This is also important for me because, in Ghana, the music is “married” to the dance and they stick together. I hope my classes will help me develop creative ideas for working with the two.

This is kind of an “on the side” goal, but I really want to be able to do a full split by the end of the semester. Even with the deep stretches that is done in class, I spend time on YouTube at home to get more stretched so I can meet this goal.