Physics 101 – What goes up must come down! Guess what? Your emotions are the same.
A great artist knows how to use their emotional cycles to create works of art such as choreography, productions, music, dance – you name it we all do it! Beethoven had a string of personal muses each time he created a new masterpiece and the depth of his experience included extremes of pain and pleasure; happy and sad is evident in his work. Shakespeare (although married) used the inspiration of human drama and romance to create world famous iconic stories. On the edge of the rational mind and the irrational heart is where the centre of true inspiration lives and as a dancer, choreographer, performer or teacher you need to know this!
The ability to draw upon your personal stories and emotions for art’s sake requires awareness of what it is that motivates you. Everyone will have a painful story that drives them into expressive action. However, when you are unable to separate yourself from your story by letting your story consume you, you can end up internalizing this powerful energy which can depress you to the point where self expression is stifled. When you identify your story as being part of the human story (knowing that you are not alone, yet you are very unique) you identify your personal experience as a gift to humanity. Therefore, to not utilize and draw upon your personal experience and heart’s wisdom to create art is not only a disservice to you, but also to those that you interact with and those who may use your skills and knowledge.
Heartache comes in many forms e.g. romance turned sour, career failure, deceased loved ones, friendship misunderstandings, illness etc, but at its most basic, a heart ache is an unfulfilled or unmet expectation.
The pain of unfulfilled expectations or desires can be very confusing and to state the obvious, painful. Yet there is tremendous power in pain and when we use its energy wisely, pain can become a life changing, a life enhancing and a life enriching experience! Ask yourself; how do you use the power of pain? Do you let it consume you and defeat you? Do you try to quickly fix or resolve your pain? Do you ignore it and “harden up”? Do you eat chocolate? Do you go for a jog? Do you dance? Do you listen to music? What do you do?
Here are a few basic principals to help you transform your pain into creativity that you can channel into your highest value;
1) A basic physics principal is that energy never dies it is only transformed. The same applies to people. When something leaves your life, something else will appear to fill the void.
2) Let yourself FEEL the pain without trying to analyse or resolve it. When you feel the grief, cry it out or express it. Any repressed pain can end up being expressed in your body through illness or injury. Let it out!
3) After you have cried start to identify what specific details you missed about that person; was it that they gave you attention? Was it their eyes? Write down every little detail of what you perceive you miss.
4) Use what you perceived you missed and express it through your highest value; for example choreographers might create a piece about love and loss. Dancers might bring more dynamics into their routines.
5) Identify the benefits of how you have transformed this energy. Does it give you more time to focus on your career? Family? Finances? Fitness? Creativity? Where are you feeling refreshed and enhanced from this transformation?
Your emotions are a part of you helping you to grow and integrate more of yourself into what it is that you love. Feel it, express it, make money from it and do it all over again!
Yours in Dance
Kate Histon x
www.katehiston.com
www.byrondancedynamics.com.au
© Copyright Kate Histon 2010 on behalf of Dance Life Australia. To copy or distribute any part of this article you must first seek permission by the author Kate Histon
