Kinesthetic Creativity

A Master's Project By: Adela Vangelisti

Graduate Student

International Center for Studies in Creativity

Buffalo State College

I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t experience great joy expressing myself through movement. There was (and still is) nothing in the world I would rather do than dance. Throughout the years dance gave me a voice, and ballet shaped my character. Unfortunately, not all individuals are given the opportunity to be movers. Even though movement is as natural to humans as breathing, passivity starts early in schools. We are taught to sit still and in silence for long periods of time. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workforce, we have almost forgotten our sense of embodiment. This lack of movement is counter-productive, not only to learning but to the development of creativity as well.

I entered into the Master’s program at the International Center for the Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College searching for a way to enrich my self-expression beyond what I developed inside the ballet studio. I was looking to incorporate my creativity into a bigger picture. By the end of the program I became a creativity nurturer as well as a creativity doer.

Creativity, as it turns out, is not just for the artistic, it lives and thrives among people of all métiers. Body movement is also an innate human trait that operates at a pre-linguistic level; it is a type of visceral intelligence capable of advancing our creativity. Understanding through movement unleashes the unlimited creativity of our senses. Furthermore, creativity is, by definition, physical and pragmatic, because it utilizes thinking in a unique way that closely resembles action.

During my time in the program I was introduced to the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process. I was exhilarated to learn that there was a systematic way to capture and nurture our innate creativity. Furthermore, there was no reason why we couldn’t achieve brilliance on a regular basis following the four stages and guidelines of this process. However, the connection between movement and CPS came to fruition later as I began to explore this project.

At each stage of the process there is a variety of tools that facilitates our understanding. For instance, during brainstorming in the Ideation stage images are utilized to motivate connections and engage our visual sense. We are also encouraged to take guided mental excursions engaging our auditory sense. However, there is no tool that involves our proprioception sense and kinesthetic learning style. Thus, connecting my movement experience with CPS was the next logical step. For my Master’s Project, I designed a tool to recapture the joy and playfulness of movement. Furthermore, the tool seeks to improve kinesthetic intelligence and build a bridge between movement and creativity.

Throughout the investigation for the project I combined academic research on embodiment, metaphors, gestures, movement languages, ballroom dancing patterns, and children games. I conceptualized, laid out; prototyped, experimented, and evaluated a set of facilitator’s direction cards and participants mats, videotaping the final effort. Following are a few samples, to read the project in its entirety go to http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/creativeprojects/ and to watch my video go to http://youtu.be/0vSoegpp5ZI!

Drawing upon research and my own experience, I suggested in my project that the body has a mind of its own and that movement is one of human beings’ most vital and adaptive traits. Understanding how the brain, body, and senses work together, we can establish and strengthen our neural connections and nurture them to perform better. In addition, I proposed that creativity is a form of problem solving that differs from traditional analytic thinking, and, thus, it benefits greatly from innovative tools that are multimodal.

My hope is that my Master Project helps to clarify aspects about the often-misunderstood art of dance, shatters the myth that learning through movement is childish, awkward, and unnecessary, and brings awareness about the least understood sense (sixth/kinesthetic) to a wider audience.

Read the entire Master’s project paper in the ICSC Digital Commons. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A recent graduate from the M.S. program, in creativity and change leadership at the International Center for Creative Studies at Buffalo State College, Adela is a native of México City and a former ballerina and fashion editor. Adela’s diversified background provides her with a unique understanding of the issues impacting corporate as well as educational organizations in the 21st century. She is certified as a Strategic Play LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™, Creative Problem Solving (CPS), Neuro Design Engineer, as well as Technology of Participation facilitator. She is fluent in Spanish.