limitation breeds creativity

We spent the past week studying our individual movement behaviors and patterns. In solo, we improvised with no particular goal in mind, trying to stay true to just following impulses. Through repetition of this exercise, patterns developed and we began to identify our habits. Habit-friend or foe? Yes, friend and foe. I wanted to try eliminating the habits we tend to employ when improvising. Jolt us a little, remove the comfort and uncover the movement narratives that reside under the protective layers. We spent more time improvising trying to exclude our habits- "anti-habit" studies, so to speak. It was a frustrating and revealing task, for me. I was irritated by the limitation and, at the same time, aggravated that I couldn't let my "tendencies" go. Idiosyncrasy has it place in performance and creativity; but, I found myself bored with my habitual movement vocabulary. I wanted new stuff! What ended up happening was exactly what I was hoping would happen: the elimination of the habit eventually created new patterns. We taught ourselves new tricks! The videos posted are several "anti-habit" studies edited together. The studies exhibit some of our little discoveries. P.S. The music in the videos is motivation (and feel-good indulgence). -Rachel :)