I’m Dancing!
A couple of weeks ago I saw that Alyson Stanfield of I’d Rather Be in the Studio fame had recommended the book, Talent is Overrated– What Really Separates World-class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin. Well, when I went to order that book from Amazon, of course they recommended two more on a related topic, both by the dancer and choreographer, Twyla Tharp. I bit the hook and ordered those, too, so I am currently reading three books at the same time. Not unlike a kid who can’t decide on a candy bar, I unwrapped them all and I’m munching on each in turn. The Creative Habit- Learn It and Use It for Life and The Collaborative Habit- Life Lessons for Working Together are each inspiring for different reasons.
I recommend Creative Habit because it is a nitty-gritty book of creative how-to fresh from a world-class expert on producing complex dance productions out of her creative genius. Her assertion is (in my words) that creative genius is the ability to focus on the creative ritual and process long enough so that it is inevitable that something creative will happen. Instead of answering her interviewers with the story of aha! moments in the creative process, she answers them about her daily routine (which sounds stringent to me) that leads her to the artistic output.
The book includes details about how she physically stores her ideas she is working on. It includes her own exercises (not physical- mental!) to promote self-understanding and to promote good creative habits. She even has exercise suggestions for improving memory so that it can be used to serve our own creative purpose. Finally, the author give us a skills inventory of all the abilities that are necessary for high-level achievement, and she makes recommendations on how to promote those abilities in ourselves.
In addition to being generally inspiring by her choice of images and words, Twyla Tharp gives practical, doable suggestions for how to sustain our own creativity in any field. I feel like dancing!
Jazz Dancing
12″ x 12″. Copyright 2009 by Lynn Bridge.
Next time: a review of the Geoff Colvin book.
Hi Lynn,
I really enjoyed this post…so deisriptive: chewing each book like a candy bar…I love it! I read Twyla Tharps “Creative Habit” book a few years back, and was inspired. I may to to go to Amazon and order “Talent is Over Rated”. Thanks,
Susan
Hi, Susan. Like I said, I’m in the middle of reading each book- haven’t finished one, but the Colvin book has more the tone of a scientific study on why certain people excel, followed by recommendations on how everyone else can excel, too. Twyla Tharp is practical, but much more poetic in her thoughts and presentation. Having raised 3 children in the Suzuki (native-language learning) method of learning musical ability, Colvin’s book is intuitive for me. I will talk more about his approach in my next post. Thanks for stopping by and reading and encouraging!!!
Wonderful post Lynn! Your description of the books and how it relates to your art gave me insight and the curiosity to check them out.
Karen, thanks for reading and commenting! I rely on authors to keep me going, I really do.
Thanks for the great book recommendations. I laugh at your description of reading three books at once. My husband thinks I’m crazy cause I usually have multiple books I am reading at one time. I too am a kid in a candy store around books.
Well, we can be crazy together then. My husband is a high-tech entrepreneur and he went to a seminar last night in which the Geoff Colvin book was recommended. I told him we already have it right here!
Great post Lynn!
I liked this line “Her assertion is (in my words) that creative genius is the ability to focus on the creative ritual and process long enough so that it is inevitable that something creative will happen”
It sounds like “Creative Habit” is a book worth getting. Thank you for sharing!
I think that Twyla Tharp is very smart in a lot of areas and her encouragement through her books means a lot to me.
“Creative genius is the ability to focus on the creative ritual and process long enough so that it is inevitable that something creative”.. was something I always not do… I start off with something but maintaining consistency is the key… Love this post!
Twyla Tharp really dwells on how to maintain consistency. For example, she says that going to the gym for two hours each morning is not her habit- the hailing of the taxi cab in the morning is the ritual that starts the habit. If she weren’t going through the motions of hailing the cab, followed by the inevitability of the ride to the gym, the habit might not be there.
I love the Twyla Tharp book, but I didn’t know she has another. I often recommend “The Creative Habit,” and it’s mentioned in my book as well. I can only read two books at once if they’re very different.
The collaboration book is copyright 2009 and sounds extremely current in its economic comments. I’ll review it soon.
Lately every day someone is talking about Twyla Tharp’s book…I’ve known about it for a long while but coming over and reading what you have to say has convinced me to get it into my cart…thanks for the review!*
Oh, yes, if only we were all as disciplined as she is…..
Lynn, thank you for your post. It was inspirational–I’ll be adding those books to my Amazon wish list just as Iona mentioned. You’ve started a movement!
Hannah, you’re welcome. I think several people who have read this post are already ‘onto’ these books, but the reading was new to me and I’m happy to share anything that seems helpful.
Books are even better than candy 🙂
Great review, this really makes me want to check this book out for help keeping up my own routines. Thank you.
You are welcome- we need all the help we can get keeping those routines going.
Ok..I’m back and I really am jazzed over the way that you can set up three columns with three comment boxes…you truly are writing a magazine!! Very cool!
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