What qualities of focus are required to be a creative and effective person? How do dancers attend to the space within and around them, using focus to direct the viewer’s attention and to give shape to their environment?
Being able to direct or manipulate our focus and that of others enables us to understand, connect, express, create, and accomplish. Though related as elements of dance, working with the quality of focus as a spatial effort is distinct from shapes and shaping that move through dimensions and pathways in space (though I have lots more resources about that!), it is distinct from detailed and specific traditions of meditative practice (though I do have yoga, pranayama, visualization and meditation content about that and it will continue to be fertile ground for future exploration), and it is different from the element of time: flow, management productivity, and organization(though I love all that, too!).
Rather, I specifically want to explore here our ability to direct our focus and therefore form space in particular ways and how we are able to develop facility in doing so with precision and effectiveness for practical and expressive purposes in dance and in life.
Focus, or directing attention in the ways the Laban Movement Analysis system refers to as the Space Effort, has to do with translating our intent into action. In the book Making Connections, Peggy Hackney clarifies: “The Space Effort deals with how you give attention, not the place in space. Both Direct and Indirect approaches to paying attention are active. Indirectness is not the same as being ‘spaced out’ or out of space; it is giving active attention to more than one thing at once. Both types of Space Effort relate to thinking.” (emphasis mine)
As Questlove explains in the book Creative Quest, certain approaches to focus serve the creative process best: “Creative things happen to creative people, especially when they let themselves go to the Zen of the moment, when they don’t allow themselves to be paralyzed either by overthinking or by laziness. They have to be in the sweet spot between the two. [...]There’s lots of noise all around, and as a creative person, you’re being asked to find the signal. But to truly find it, you need some sort of internal check or monitor. You need moments of silence where you can hear yourself.”
In Living Your Best Life, Laura Berman Fortgang asserts that "Nothing is a better partner to taking action than being still. Stillness allows the most effective action to emerge, helping to settle the chaos and uncover the action and direction that will do the most good."
When we are present to our purpose and priorities or that which deserves our focus, we are freed to act in ways that serve us, our communities, and the planet.
What is the quality of your focus?
What states of focus and approaches to space will enhance your dancing, creativity, and life experience?
Stay tuned on my YouTube Channel and Blog for more!
Blythe Stephens, MFA
she/her or they/them
A Blythe Coach:
move through life with balance, grace, & power
