Feeding my creativity.

Being a dance teacher requires a constant supply of creativitiy.

For example...this year, there are 45 dances in our recital. I'm responsible for choreographing 40 of them. I also have 30 solos, 8 duets, 1 trio and 13 group dances to do for competition. That's 92 dances to choreograph and make each one look unique, different and special.

It's...complicated.

I also am responsible for set design, program design, tshirt design...if it needs a picture, graphic, layout or idea...I'm in charge. I get input from dancers, but for the most part it's all me.

Having to be creative is straight up difficult at times. I picture my creativity like a gas tank. Reading books, watching movies and dance performances, seeing inspiring artwork or pictures, that all feeds my creativity and fills the tank, if you will. As I work, create, teach each week, I use up some of my supply.

And this time of year, as is often the case, my intake is not matcing up with my output. I can feel myself getting drained. I'm repeating too much in class, feeling my ideas are stale and am ready to change recital music. (Which, by the way, rarely works out. Usually my original decisions is my best decision!)

How do I remedy this situation?

Well this year, thanks to teaching a bunch of Saturday morning sessions, I'm taking myself and Dave for a long weekend to Disney World. It's like the ultimate creativity gas station for me. I understand a lot of people think it's straight up bananas for adults to be in love with Disney the way I am (and Dave too...though he'll never admit it) Think about it this way. In my life, I am constantly outputting creativity. There isn't one day a year where I am not creating some kind of dance. The same way I draw upon my faith and belief in prayer to get through trying times personally, I need the respite and reflection that a trip to somewhere filled with creativity and inspiration brings me. I crave being surrounded by ideas. I crave being surrounded by other big dreamers.

And Disney gives me that. No one there shys away from attempting the impossible and I don't either. Heck last year, my dad and I put a scale model, with a field of depth perception, of a 1920's style town on stage! Big ideas don't scare me. They make me  better. The challenges, the pushing of boundaries...that's life, man. ;)

What inspires you? What feeds your creativity gas tank?