The fieldwork produced a wide range o f evidence regarding constructions o f creativity at the Cloud Gate Dance School as shaped by and for students, teachers and leaders.
The themes that emerged as the fieldwork progressed, and during the subsequent analysis, are now explored drawing on the actions and words o f those at the School and its curriculum consultants. Not every aspect o f creativity within the organisation or every possible relationship can be covered. Rather, what follows details, and analyses, those aspects o f the teachers’ and leaders’ perceptions o f creativity that I considered salient and that were most frequently evidenced in their words and actions, both inside and outside the dance studio.
In this chapter I consider what happens before and at the start o f each class, and the extent to which this reflects an attempt to encourage students’ intrinsic motivation or those personal traits that may encourage their creativity. Not surprisingly, given the ubiquitous nature o f the concept in the creativity literature and its pre-eminence in these classes, in doing so I examine the use o f play and playfulness. I then move on to consider the extent to which studio practice at the School indicates a belief that
creativity in dance can only emerge once students have acquired a certain level o f dance or movement skills. The framework for the analysis is provided by Amabile’s (1996) model of creativity, (see Chapter 3), and its three cornerstones o f intrinsic motivation, domain-relevant skills and creativity-relevant skills, all o f which she believes to be essential if an individual’s creativity is to be developed.
In this and the following chapters, many comments and reflections by teachers, especially Chu, are incorporated into the text. These were made both in formal discussion and in numerous informal conversations before and after lessons. As such, they are not referenced individually.
5.2 Play
In Chapter 3 , 1 noted how scholars have generally agreed there is a link between play or playfulness and children’s creative development. The majority of the research linking play and creativity has focused on pretend play, in which one thing is playfully treated as if it were something else (Russ, 2003,291). At the Cloud Gate Dance School, make-believe was sometimes used in Life Pulse level 5, such as in lesson 12, when the students experimented moving like animals and making animal sounds; and in lesson 13, when they performed a short dance-drama where they took the roles of animals in the forest (see section 6.2). Non-pretend student play was very much in evidence both before and during lessons.
At the School, students are allowed to enter the studio before lessons begin. Although unsupervised in the sense that the teacher is often not in the room, he or she is likely to be nearby as are the reception staff. Pre-professional course students are given a stretching exercise to do but Life Pulse students are free to play.
In the lessons observed this almost always involved playing together, usually a
version of tag. At the beginning of the game the students decided amongst themselves who would be ‘it’. The chosen one then had to chase and tag the others by touching them somewhere on the body. The tagged student then became ‘it’, with the former
‘it’ joining those trying to avoid being tagged. Occasionally the students used the whole studio with no safe ‘base’ where they could not be tagged. More often it was played in a much more restricted space, using just one side o f the studio, with the studio wall as a ‘base’. The students were regularly observed leaving the base and moving to another position, thus making themselves vulnerable to being caught as they did so. Chu Kuang-chuan, the class teacher, later explained that there was an unspoken rule that only allowed them to remain in the same place against the wall for five seconds; a rule all the children appeared to follow. The game was always played with great energy and enthusiasm, and lots of squealing and shouting as the children dared to get as close as possible to ‘it’ without being touched.
Children’s activities are influenced by the physical as well as the psychological environment. I consider the nature of the pre-lesson play was, in part, a response to the students having a large, safe place in which to engage in a physical game such as
‘tag’. As noted in Chapter 1, space for play at home is usually highly restricted.
However, their play was equally directed by the lack of objects or decoration in the studio.
According to Haight et a l (1999), Taiwanese children typically engage in pretend play at home. This frequently includes the use o f objects. Pretend play is commonly cited as facilitating the development o f children’s divergent thinking skills by their using objects to represent different things and by role-playing different scenarios (Russ, 2003,293). While not precluding pretend play, I consider the lack o f objects in the studio made such play more unlikely. The lack o f objects did, however, encourage the focus o f the play to be on the body. Learning about one’s body is a stated aim of the School. Although not part o f formal lessons, the children were, even in their play, being directed towards sanctioned activities. I consider such non-object based play also removes any possibility for conflict over access and ownership of materials, and the objects they might symbolise.
Although the children did not need any encouragement to play, Chu not only
encouraged the activity but recognised its value by actively supporting it and using it as part of lessons. Before the lessons she said it was useful for “releasing [the
students’] energy and forgetting the pressures of the world outside.” Ho Hsiao-mei, the Life Pulse level 5 curriculum consultant, similarly commented that play was “a way into the class,” adding that the short period of meditation that always came early in lessons helped them understand the difference between play and the creative or other work that followed. Meanwhile, Wen Huei-wen, the School executive director referred not only to pressures outside the School but also those in the studio. She explained that being creative suggests a sort o f pressure because you usually have to do or produce something. Play is the “best learning way because there is no pressure.
Then, from play comes creativity.”
Ho’s and Wen’s comments indicate a clear dichotomy is made between play and learning. As observed in Chapter 1, the idea that learning involves only acquiring knowledge and skills from structured, given tasks, is a view widely held among Taiwanese teachers and parents (Chang, 2003,277). Ho’s comment in particular suggests a belief that creativity requires a similar structural base. Ho and Wen’s comments further echo the view o f Craft (2000,50) and others that, while play is not the same as creativity, it can facilitate it.
Play and affective processes, self-confidence and self-expression
Russ (1993,2004) proposes five categories o f affect that are important in the creative process and notes the increasing link made between creativity, play and affective processes. While access to affect-laden thoughts is primarily concerned with fantasy in play, openness to affect states, affective pleasure in the challenge, affective pleasure in problem solving, and the cognitive integration o f affect, are all relevant to the children’s play observed.
Openness to affect states includes tolerance to anxiety, passionate involvement in the task, comfort with intense effort, and mood-induction. These were all in evidence in the various tag games at School. The games were always played with great intensity and most of the children were anxious not to be tagged. They were not only
completely involved in the game and gave it their fullest efforts, but their shouting and facial expressions indicated that they took affective pleasure in the excitement and tension of the challenges it presented. The person who was ‘it’ often appeared to take deep pleasure in problem-solving. Not once did a student give up on the challenge and on several occasions paused if a strategy was not working, his or her face suggesting he or she was deeply in thought about how to proceed, then lighting up when a new approach was devised. Although it seems likely that the students’
affective processes were at least subconsciously aiding their critical thinking skills, what Russ (2004) termed the cognitive integration of affect, the extent to which this was happening is less clear and more difficult to determine.
The students’ freedom to express themselves and lack o f pressure to achieve during the games also encouraged their self-confidence and self-expression. A willingness to express oneself and having the confidence to do so are personality traits associated with creativity (Feist, 1999). As Ho (2007) noted, these are often underdeveloped in the Taiwanese context where experiences at home or in public school mean children are reluctant or nervous to do so. She explained that most children in Taiwan live in small apartments. Furthermore, large public spaces are limited, so most o f the time they cannot express themselves physically by running and shouting.
While Taiwanese parents consider expressions o f joy important in play and
playfulness, less importance is given to physical spontaneity and humour (Li, Bundy and Beer, 1995). Ho (2007) confirmed this, saying that when children visit the park, you can always hear their parents say things like, “Don’t get your shoes dirty,” or, “Sit still.”
Such parental behaviour was evidenced in lesson 11, when the parents came into the studio to participate in the lesson with their children. One parent in particular spent most o f the lesson telling her son to calm down and not be so physically enthusiastic.
Her actions reflect Newman et a/.’s (2007) findings that Taiwanese parents are not only controlling, but tend to direct children to activities they deem appropriate and away from others they are deem not. Why the other parents showed no such inclination is not clear, although it may reflect that Taiwanese middle-class and higher-educated parents tend to be more influenced by Western culture, values and methods (Chen and Luster, 2002,415). The cost o f classes at the School means that most parents are middle and high earners.
It was the affective aspects o f play that Chu focused on most in discussion. She explained that fulfilling lesson and course outcomes was important although this was most likely to be achieved, and the students were more likely to be expressive, if they were happy and sensing the lesson to be fun; in other words, if they are feeling playful.
She said, “If they have this feeling, they are more likely to be creative and take a full part in the class.” Play was a way of achieving this. She added that the use o f the children’s tag game or variations on it was a deliberate strategy to encourage just such
feelings. This was sometimes done, for example, by reintroducing an element from previous classes, such as freezing in a high or low position when tagged. Sometimes children perceive activities as work and are less enthusiastic, she said, but if they see them as play, and a play they recognise as being in part their own, that they know and enjoy, they are much happier.
Building each student’s confidence to express his or her individual movement ideas was also an important element in other lesson activities. While some activities began using imitation, each quickly developed to encourage the students to explore concepts for themselves and to be creative. Chu always gave regular and fulsome praise and encouragement as activities progressed. Only rarely did she feel the need to criticise or suggest that any student outcome was inappropriate, which in her terms meant the defined activity objective not being met, even if some other learning may have been achieved.
Although the direction Chu was looking or the nature o f her comments (for example,
‘Wow, look at that, so high... ’) suggested they were directed at certain outcomes or students, she also never gave remarks by name. I consider that doing so may have raised the self-esteem of class members, especially those less confident in their actions.
As Chou and Ho (2007,365) observe, such an approach is common in other educational contexts in Taiwan, and is typical o f collectivist societies.
Taken as a whole, the evidence supports British researchers Howard-Jones, Taylor and Sutton’s (2002) conclusions that the experience o f free play has a significant positive influence on the creativity of young children in subsequent activities. They describe free play as that initiated by children and engaged in with no outsider
direction (p.2). It is, however, unclear what the essential elements were that supported creativity at the School. It may have been the transfer of a playful mindset, an
exploratory mindset, or the intrinsic motivation from pursuing an activity o f their own choice; that the children were more relaxed; or simply that they were more awake.
The students’ pre-lesson play also had the important social function of enhancing a sense o f the class as a social group. As Craft (2000,117) observes, children are much
more likely to express themselves and promote new ideas in an environment that they consider to be non-threatening. While some o f the students knew each other from earlier Life Pulse classes, others were new to each other, and two were new to the School. Initially, the pre-lesson play was slow to form, with some students apparently shy and reluctant to participate. Eventually, this reticence passed as I observed
friendships being formed across the whole class, with no-one left out.
Chu made little reference to this, although she did comment about the positive mood the game created amongst the students. She felt that it made them want to work together and as a group. Research into mood-induction and creativity has mostly been with adults, but does suggest that positive affect facilitates motivation and
performance. The evidence from the School indicates it has a similar effect on
children’s creativity. In a study o f American university students, Erez and Isen (2002) found participants in a positive mood performed better, were more persistent, tried harder and reported higher levels of motivation than did those in a neutral mood.
Furthermore, it also facilitated creative cognitive processes including flexible and effective problem solving, decision making and thinking, and evaluations o f events.
While their findings correlate with other researchers cited, they caution that the effects o f positive affect appear to be far from simplistic. For example, it seems significantly more likely to influence performance and outcome when there is prolonged effort in excess o f ten minutes, than when there is less. In another text, Isen (2002,61) also noted that positive affect has much greater effect in situations that are perceived to be safe and enjoyable, as at the School, than in those that are seen to be negative or threatening. This suggests the nature o f the activities themselves are as important as the affect induced or created beforehand.
A further benefit of the pre-lesson play in particular was that it informed the teacher of the mood o f individual students prior to the lesson proper beginning. I have always considered that correctly judging the mood o f dancers is an essential facet o f effective teaching. Chu always made a point of being in the studio a few minutes before the start o f the lesson so she could observe the children playing. She used this time to talk to some o f them but primarily she watched them at play. She explained that this
allowed her to assess their mood both individually and as a group. For example, if a student was not participating as usual, it may suggest there was an issue about which she needed to be aware. She could then talk quietly with the child or with a parent if they were still present. She said she sometimes changed her teaching strategies if the children seemed quieter than usual, for example she might use play more than planned.
Her comments and approach echo Hanna (1999, 135) and Erikson (in Russ, 2004, 8), who both suggest that play can be a used as a diagnostic tool to tell us about the child.
Play and cognitive processes
Besides its positive effect on the students’ affective processes. Ho and Chu also considered that the pre-lesson play had important carry-over benefits regarding their cognitive processes. The importance Chu attached to play was demonstrated by the way she used it in her teaching strategies. Sometimes, as in lesson 3, she took the tag game directly, but other times changed it. In lesson 6, for example, she gave the student who was ‘it’ a ball o f rolled up tape, and said that rather than touch them with a hand, they should do so with the tape. The first child who was ‘it’ quickly realised the task was now more difficult since she could no longer extend her reach by using an open hand. Indeed, at first she dropped the tape several times as she attempted to tag the others. After a moment of standing, apparently in thought, her solution was to take aim and throw the tape at her target; an outcome that was extremely effective until Chu narrowed the activity guidelines and asked her to keep it in her hand.
In lesson 8, another variation required the students to freeze in a ‘down’ position when they were tagged, which the students all took to mean kneeling or in some way lying on the floor. Two versions were played, one where they could not be released by being touched by student who was untagged, and one where they could. In both cases the object was for the person who was ‘it’ to catch everyone as quickly as possible.
Then, in lesson 12, in what was essentially a version o f the game British Bulldog, the students were required to run across the studio and reach the safety o f the other side without being caught.
Finally, in lesson 13, Chu used two variations on the students’ game. First she asked them to freeze in any position when tagged, although they could now be released by being touched by one o f the other students. Then she greatly reduced the space. As in all the Cloud Gate Dance School studios, there was a circle marked with tape on the floor in the centre of the room, approximately 3 metres in diameter. The child who was ‘it’ had to remain outside the circle while those inside could not step out.
This presented both the individual and the group with a new problem. The highly restricted space and the fact that the child who was ‘it’ could very quickly run round and change the direction o f approach meant those inside the circle found it much more difficult to avoid being tagged. In response, they started to work very much as a group, moving as one, which was also necessary to avoid falling over each other.
They even called instructions to each other as to which direction to move. As soon as
They even called instructions to each other as to which direction to move. As soon as