Good morning, everyone…scientists, techies, artists…dancers…
Studies also show that scientists with creative avocations are often more successful than those without. We believe it’s because they are able to apprehend problems with greater breadth, simultaneously linking intuitive and subjective ways of feeling, with objective and communicable ways of knowing.
Leo Campos sent me What Scientists Can Learn From Ballet, co-written by dancer/scientist couple Sylvie and Bob Leotin – they draw some interesting parallels about what the two disciplines share, not the least of which is the repetition of steps to achieve perfection or experiments to get a solid result. A great post this week hosted by Jeff Jockisch on Tacit Knowledge (which drew 242 shares, 108 comments and 307 +1s…you can go to his profile to find it) inspired a long conversation about how we know what we know, intuition, inspiration, inklings, feelings, creative urges, methodology, approach…the whole smorgasbord of intellectual, knowledge-based and creative experience.
As a person who has moved through her life determinedly through the arts, for whom the arts are a visceral, emotional and creative part of my life most certainly, but also a profoundly intellectual, philosophical and life-querying one, I’m attracted to the musings and questions Bob and Sylvie raise in their article – about learning from other disciplines, empathy, teamwork and collaboration, and transcending perceived limits when going down the road to the discovery of anything.
Maybe it’s my current intellectual and spiritual quest: to remain fully creative, but powerfully connected to other disciplines, including science, so as not to disconnect from anything that might provide creative inspiration and forward movement. Perhaps some of you will find this as interesting as I do. Many thanks Leo Campos for sharing it with me so that I can pass it on.
Have a nice day, everyone, and thank you for reading,
Giselle
http://www.creativitypost.com/create/what_scientists_can_learn_from_ballet
March 30, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Thanks Giselle (and to the others who inspired you to post this). It’s nice to read of dance spoken of as being valuable in the pursuit of knowledge and creativity as well as being applicable to other fields one might at first suppose no commonality exists.
March 30, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for the mention, Giselle Minoli! This ‘Ballet’ article is quite interesting. Any thoughts on this, Rajini Rao or Ward Plunet?
March 30, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Isn’t it though, Kena Herod? It is unfortunate that in this day and age, the power of the arts, the importance of the arts, the positive impact that the study of any art, be it music, dance, paintings, sculpting, is for the most part being left out of our education. For those of us who have had the great good fortunate of living in cities with great museums, and where it is possible to see dance performed, it is impossible to forget the power of the experience. You can’t unknow what you know. You can’t unfeel what is truly felt. you can’t get out of your system that which has creatively affected you to the core. Whatever I have learned about life, I have learned from being an artist. There is no question in my mind about that.
March 30, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Giselle, the arts (dance especially) are being not only left out of education but also squeezed out of mainstream journalism. The mid-20th century seems almost like a great artistic period (if a bit NYC-centric) with some importance highlighted in media: there were Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts broadcasts on CBS, choreographer George Balanchine on the cover of Life magazine or Gesley Kirkland in the 70s leaping across the cover of Time. Of course, mainstream journalism itself these days is going thru a major upheaval in just about every aspect, not just in arts coverage, as finding revenue becomes increasingly difficult. Here in Toronto, arts journalists who reviewed the performing arts on the radio have been let go (only interviews, previews now really). The arts are not a part of “cocktail conversation” as much as they used to be when it seemed you had to be living under a rock to not know who Baryshinkov was. Perhaps, though, I’m romanticizing the past!
March 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Good article. I think that scientists, or anyone, can usually learn not only from ballet but many other endeavours. The trick is to be open to the potential learning.
March 30, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Scientists researching and writing posts like this gives hopes to the arts. Changing education leaders’ and parent’s beliefs that academics suffer at the expense art needs support with research and publications like this. Dance students studying at my wife’s school excel academically. Each year at her spring show, I announce a litany of our student’s academic successes, acceptances to top colleges, and special achievements. Two years ago, every single student of ours in middle and high school made honor roll or straight A’s. I had nothing to correlate the two but it was clearly not coincidental, just observation and my artist’s intuition tells me they are linked.
One reason I believe we have fallen behind in education is that we are not exercising both sides (all sides) of the brain. Sir Ken Robinson is a tremendous proponent for inclusion of all art disciplines, especially dance, in the schools. Without research and studies to support theories and beliefs, it’s a notion that blows in the wind.
Thanks for sharing this article Giselle. I’m looking forward to the responses from our community.
March 30, 2012 at 4:42 pm
I so agree with this! I’m somewhat of a scientist, a tekkie and I’m an artist. I must say it’s helped me be more creative all around in my life. Too bad I can’t find a job yet! Lol! Great article Giselle! Like your creativity BTW!
March 30, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Kena Herod I don’t know what happened…except I do…and I’m slightly fearful of writing this (but not really) that I blame it on the advertising/money-making power of big time sports. We love sports in our house. I love a good tennis match, we’re watching the Kentucky twosome basketball rivalry tomorrow and I cheer on the Giants every year. But…I also love dance, and opera and jazz and every other kind of art. But if the only “sports” that are ever shown on TV are those that are big money makers then the whole thing is hopeless. What saddens me particularly is the lack of respect for the physical prowess and skill in dance. And the assumption that to understand it or be impacted by it one has to have a “poetic” soul.
I fail to understand why the only physically challenging sports that seem to be appreciated seem to be those that have to do with grunting, scratching one’s private parts, and spitting and chewing something or other in the side of one’s mouth. Pardon me, but if I can appreciate hockey and football and basketball and baseball and tennis, why can’t more people appreciate the stunning athleticism, beauty, and, yes, poetry of ballet, modern dance and Jazz?
Why do we speak the language of Giants, Jets, Mets, Saints, Lakers, The Heat…but not the language of Sankai Juku, Pina Bausch, Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, and the Joffrey?
Someone tell me…because I don’t get it. I grew up in a family where it was all appreciated, but it is no longer that way. Sad…to me at least.
March 30, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Bekkie Sanchez In the balance of life sometimes I think that we focus only on work and making money, sometimes we focus on our creativity and artistic goals and sometimes, if fortunes is on our side, they both come together in harmonious union. No better time to attend to the creative Muse than when one is out of work…otherwise it’s like me…squeezing it in before working hours and after…which for me is often very late at night!
March 30, 2012 at 9:18 pm
What a wonderful note from you Giselle Minoli! I am a dedicated St. Louis Rams (how about that Cinderella story in 99/00 Superbowl!), St. Louis Blues in hockey (as well as the Leafs and the Habs) and of course, of course (!) the Cardinals in baseball! But, like you said (or rather implied), dance is spectacular and tough to do too (and not just in the Stars Can Dance or whatever it is called though I give credence enough for effort in this media regard). Sports are wonderful and I am glad that many young people participate in them! But art, I suggest, is different. It can combine all the physicality of sports but add in a special emotional awareness not found in sport. It’s a shame that in education, dance is totally left out. And, here I am, just like you Giselle! I can enjoy sport as well as art. Too bad few in power make the connections. Back in the 70s and 80s, some pro football players talked of the benefit of ballet class–Lynn Swann from the Steelers back in the day praised dance classes to the heavens. Anyway, back to your point and those of others here–there’s loads to be learned from the arts as well as from other endeavours. I guess the big thing is the simple notion of keeping a mind wide open to so much, so much! Thank you, Giselle, for such another great conversation. In a couple of hours I go to a play here in Toronto! It’s all of a piece, eh? 🙂 P.S. The film Pina (Pina (2011) – Official Trailer [HD]),as in Pina Bausch, one of the choreographers whom you mentioned, is great, It nearly won an Oscar! Cheers Giselle and everyone else here! 🙂
March 30, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Kena Herod I was routing for Pina to win the Oscar. The first time I saw her troupe they were doing the Rite of Spring and Cafe Mueller at BAM I was blown away. Simply blown away. Maybe this is the difference for me. There are seminal performances in dance that I have seen in my life – Judith Jamison doing Cry, Baryshinikov doing Metamorphosis – and I am not the same person after the performance as I was before. I love sports, but, I cannot say they it changes anything in me viscerally when its great. Is it exciting? Yes. Is it memorable in some way? Yes. But for me the arts cut to the core of our collective humanity and our emotional, intellectual expression. Perhaps in the same way that science does – the need to understand and express cosmic things, the unknown, to push the boundaries of what we know and understand. Perhaps if there were fewer televised sports it would still feel special to me. But at the moment it is overly indulged and the arts are Gone With the Wind. What a loss for the young people of our world. Have a great time at the theatre, and thank you for your always gracious presence on my thread!
March 30, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Ward Plunet …to be open to the potential learning…and, perhaps, to the potential feeling….
March 30, 2012 at 9:50 pm
Thanks, I do have lots of spare time to be creative for sure! Have a nice weekend my friend!
March 30, 2012 at 9:52 pm
BTW the job you do is very important, I admire you for what you do! Hugs!
March 30, 2012 at 10:10 pm
And you, too Bekkie Sanchez. And thank you for your very kind note!
March 30, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Giselle Minoli – scientist learning to be open to feelings 🙂
March 31, 2012 at 12:18 am
Ward Plunet Anything’s possible, right? Thanks for stopping by. And if you’re ever in Louisville…I’ll take you to the Louisville Ballet…or take you dancing. My Pilates instructor is a former star of the Louisville Ballet, as was her husband. Ballet. It’s a good thing.
March 31, 2012 at 6:49 am
Interesting article. All bullet pts made sense except empathy – not sure there’s a valid comparison between scientists’ relation to their materials and empathy in dance. But I’m not a scientist. What do scientists think?
March 31, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Good morning, linda colman. I think I know what you mean. I could quibble with the authors’ use of the word “empathy” and substitute “imagination” for it because to my mind it’s more accurate. Scientists imagining “what if” we could time travel, astronomers imagining what’s out there in the ether. We might even go back to Ptolemy and Coperniucus. What did it take to get to the realization that the Earth was not at the center of the Universe. It seems to me one has to imagine that as a possibility at the very beginning or else one would look no further to its plausibility. As a dancer, writer, actor, designer, everything starts with my imagination. Everything starts with asking myself the question “what if.” I suppose, technically there is much empathy within this, or what I would call caring. Harshness, on the other hand, doesn’t get one anywhere. For what it’s worth, I do know scientists who are so utterly lacking in imagination I can’t fathom why they are scientists to begin with. It seems to me there could be absolutely no forward progress.
March 31, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Giselle Minoli and Jeff Jockisch , thanks for the post and the tag. I just read a report about the role empathy plays in watching dance..it turns out that our brains echo the dancer’s movements in neural activity. Full circle between art, humanity and science?
http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/30/so-you-think-about-dance/
March 31, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Interesting Rajini Rao. This makes perfect sense to me. I often “conduct” myself, as though I were a symphony of movement when I watch others dance, but I do this when I’m listening to music as well, particularly classical music. Is it “genetic” in some people? A former voice teacher of mine said that “no one is tone-deaf.” Children get taught that they can’t sing. My dance teacher when I was six years old, Elizabeth Waters, said the same thing about dance, “Everyone can dance. It is an innate instinct to move to an internal rhythm and music.” But if you grow up in a culture that frowns upon that expression, what happens to the instinct? I wonder…
April 6, 2012 at 11:55 pm
So true Giselle! It’s all a wonderful part of being a talented and smart scientist. The more creative, the better you are at what you do!