You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical.
Interpretation
Ideas come to life through action and physical expression.
Twyla Tharp's quote emphasizes the importance of taking tangible actions to foster creativity and generate ideas. It suggests that true inspiration and innovation are not merely mental exercises; they require engagement in physical practices, such as writing or painting, to transform thoughts into reality.
In practice
In a workshop on creativity, you could use this quote to encourage participants to start creating.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative, it starts to affect our creative juices.
To be creative, a person has to internalize the entire system that makes creativity possible. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.
All the creativity books in the world arenβt going to help you if youβre unwilling to have lousy, lame, and even dangerously bad ideas.
Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.
A cautious creative is an oxymoron.
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