It’s a Process, Not a Result
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
The Creative
Process can be argued to have had more influence, impact and success than
any of the scientific or technological processes we so readily turn to.
Indeed, those other processes were usually developed as the result of some
creative process. Take, for example, any of the anecdotal information about
great discoveries. Newton and the apple, Da Vinci and the birds, Gallileo
and the stars, Copernicus, Einstein, Hitchcock, Baryshnikov, Copeland…every
field and every discovery began with either a quest or a question, and was
the result of looking/seeing/perceiving in a new way, one that usually defied
prevailing “knowledge” of the day.
Rudolf Nuryev was from a poor family in a small Russian town. Under the
Soviet system (a perfect illustration of traditionalist, non-creative thinking
manifested as a government or society), Nuryev was considered too large
and too athletic to be trained as a ballet dancer: this, within the culture
considered the epitome classical dance. Yet Nuryev loved and longed to dance,
and through persistence and perseverance got himself into training by the
age of 15, even though, under the state system, ballet training for men
was begun no later than eight years old. Nuryev had surpassed many legal
and traditional rules. Once in training, he was considered too large and
too athletic to be a dancer. Still, his persistent vision was so strong,
his commitment so powerful, that he continued to see alternatives to the
denials given him. He took menial jobs as his “official” activity
and yet continued to present himself at the classes. As a non-official dancer
he ate veritable scraps rather than the carefully nutritious diet given
to the “real” dancers. At every turn he persisted until he was
finally admitted officially into the training. He became an almost instant
sensation by overwhelming the world with a “rough athleticism”
that defied all accepted principles of male ballet dancers. Today, most
modern choreography for male dancers in the ballet world is derived from
some version of the original choreography devised expressly to engage Nuryev’s
abilities. His own strengths (and limitations) created a new standard and
perspective.
So at what point did Nuryev’s creativity manifest itself? During a
particular choreography for a particular ballet? When he defected to the
West as an acknowledged master and dance legend? No, the illustration of
Nuryev is that his is an example of a creative process powerfully put into
action when he was a young boy and consistently, persistently applied. In
fact, it was years of creative effort just to be able to get into the school
as a conditional student who had to perform drudge work in kind. It was
creative effort that enabled him to promote his own strengths and build
upon them, rather than submit to defeat because he was too tall, too muscular
and too crude for the traditional choreography or the traditional sense
of a dancer.
Nuryev’s problem solving skills exemplify true creativity. If Nuryev
had succeeded in entering school at a younger age for professional training,
he might have acquired some of the skills that he lacked as a dancer. However,
the creative process within him did not look for excuses or what-ifs. He
consistently found a new way of applying what he did possess: strength,
athleticism and an almost fanatical commitment. Of course, there is a certain
irony in that Nuryev’s style became the standard against which others
are judged and molded. So even beyond the individual is group/cultural creative
process that should demand an ever evolving and idiosyncratic standard rather
than an “accepted way” of doing things because it has always
been done that way.
As illustrated throughout this paper, nothing has “always” been
done a certain way. From the American myth prevailing after the glory days
of post WWII, to Newton’s “discovery” and society’s
limited understanding of gravity, which deterred advancements in physics
even as it expanded the doors to discovery, to Nuryev’s challenging
and overcoming accepted artistic standards…all of life is a creative
process.
The creative process is not a “handy tool” as presented by some
books and authors. No proscribed formula or method exists that can be pulled
out like a screwdriver or hammer. In fact, even the tools of creativity,
like the traits and habits of creative people, do not themselves alone guarantee
the building of anything sound or useful. Tools themselves do not create,
do not inspire. A process can be an effective tool, but one needs a whole
array of tools and the knowledge to use them in order to effectively build.
Every creative person has unique internal rhythm, a balance of the intuitive
and the rational, and idiosyncratic variables such as temperament, personality,
strengths, weaknesses, tastes, biases, interest, aspirations and so forth.
All must be acknowledged and accounted for at some level in order to become
conscious and alert to one’s own thinking so that one can begin to
challenge, imagine and create.