Welcome To Dance Your Story

Creating a new story is fun, but sooner or later, everyone has trouble coming up with a new idea, and that’s no bueno.

 

Traditionally, ballets begin with a preexisting story, like a folktale, but…is this the only way to start? No, nyet, nada, nil! Here’s an idea that might get your creative juices flowing again. Begin with music.

 

Here’s what you do.

 

Create a new project, give it a dummy title, like “Cool Story 387.9,” add your name, and click save. If the music section disappears, return to your main projects page, and reopen your newly created project. To see a model of this, go to the featured projects and open “Very Cool Story, 9.8.000a.”

 

Next, begin listening to (audition) the music and find a piece that you like. It might be the tempo that catches your attention, or it could be an instrument. Once you’ve found one, drag it to the music spot next to the empty text field, and click save.

 

Now, it’s time for you to brainstorm.  *Begin by listening to the music with your eyes closed. Once the piece has ended, get a piece of scratch paper and a pen/pencil/marker/crayon. Play the piece again and as you listen, jot down thoughts, feelings, characters, places, an era, etc.

 

At this point, you may know exactly what you want to write. Perfect. Go write.

If this isn’t you, here are some things you can do.

Look at what you’ve written and select one word or short phrase and begin to expand on it. For example, the word might be warm. To expand on this one word, ask yourself…

Nouns (Person, place, thing) 

1) Who was warm?

2) What caused ____ to be warm?

3) Where was ____ warm? (Geographically or bodily)

4) Why was ____ warm?

5) How did _____ become warm?

Your answers to these questions will give you a scene for one character/place/thing in your story. To make this easier, use the scene to begin your story.

Now, answer these questions:

1) Who is with _____? (Other people)

2) What is near ______? (Things, buildings, etc.)

3) How does _______ feel? (Why? What are the circumstances?)

4) What does _______ want or need?

5) What prevents _____from getting what he/she/it wants or needs?

As you think about and answer these questions, playing the music may help you discover more ideas about the story. Remember, each scene in your story will increase the tension of the overall storyline.

Enjoy,

Dr. Mark

 

*Research suggests that closing your eyes helps the mind focus on sound because it limits the amount of information coming into the brain.