Principles


Reading about Martha Graham in Trajal’s class moved me immensely as I am a big admirer of her and the work she has done in the dance field back in the day. It really reminded me of the years back when I was in primary school just starting to learn about her and her dance technique in my modern ballet classes. The experience I had then resonated greatly with what I experience in Trajal’s class. The reason for that, I assume, stems from how empowering were the words written on that paper all of us read from,but at the same time, as Trajal’s pointed out, those words can also mean nothing to us and even turn out to be inefficient, useless as they might not  necessarily help us get in touch with our own creativity. This observation Trajal made struck me – more specifically, the gesture of crumpling the piece of paper,unfolding and flattening it,than repeating the same actions over and over again as a metaphor of how the message written on the paper can always be thrown away if it does not resonates to us or kept as a source of guidance/inspiration. At the end of the day, this is how I understand and interpret it while bearing in mind what Trajal told us.

His opinion on why people assume/believe artists to be ‘narcissists’ is another thing that got to me. The fact that people of art are simply connecting to their inner world of creativity where haven and peace of mind can be found without losing and giving them in to the outer world, was one of the most  compelling observations I’ve heard so far on the topic of a person’s creative side. Even though, quite a lot has been written and said about creativity and how no one can really take it away from you, listening to Trajal’s words made sound even more truthful and meaningful than ever before.

In conclusion, the conversation we had in class with Trajall really refers to Jonathan Burrow’s words which state the following:  You are you, and you can only make what you can make. ‘You’re going to make the piece you’re going to make, whichever way you choose to try and make it.’( choreographer Rosemary Butcher). At the end of the day, it all comes down to your own personal principles of where your creativity lies,how to tap into it even if it is still not its time to shine (as Trajal mentioned in class) and be true/authentic to yourself as the most crucial principle you should ever have in life.