We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jingqiu Guan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jingqiu, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
Whether you are an artist or not, we are all creatives in different aspects of life. Thus we all experience creative blocks at times. To overcome it is to first acknowledge that this experience of not knowing is a completely normal part of the process. This acknowledgement allows us to no longer fear the blockage of creative flow but to embrace it as an opportunity for a breakthrough.
I believe I became much better at overcoming my own experience of creative blocks after becoming a mother. I sometimes think about creative blocks as the pain experienced in childbirth. I remember during the laboring of my first child, my midwife told me that this pain was a good kind of pain and that I got to lean into it rather than resisting it so I could relax my body, which would then facilitate the progress of labor.
This empowering experience of childbirth provides a vivid reference point for me. It shows me that when creative blocks arise, shifting my attitude towards them is the first and foremost step. After leaning on the seeming darkness, I would then draw different strategies from my toolbox that I have developed over the years to navigate the maze. Depending on where I am and what I have access to, I would choose different activities to help me generate ideas. For instance, some activities include taking a long walk, journaling in a garden, writing on a board standing, drawing pictures, using sticky notes, thinking about the project while falling asleep or during shower, meditating, reading a book, watching a movie, seeing a performance while simultaneously having the project in mind, etc.
When creating my new choreographic work in the last two months, I also experienced creative blocks multiple times. I would then take a long walk at a garden and then sit down at a bench after the walk to write down as many ideas I could think of at the time. I tried not to judge any of these ideas so they could flow. Then I would try them out in rehearsals and see what works and what does not work.
In documentary film Stutz directed by Jonah Hill, psychiatrist Phil Stutz used an illustration of the sunlight above clouds to show Jonah that sometimes we only see thick gloomy clouds, but the sun is always there just above them. The clouds will eventually open up, and the sunlight will shine upon us again. It is a beautiful image to keep in mind when we think about overcoming creative blocks.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a choreographer, filmmaker, dancer and scholar. I currently teach at Duke University’s Dance Program as an Assistant Professor of the Practice. I make interdisciplinary performance works and movement-based films that prioritize the corporeal mode of knowing and knowledge production. Intersecting dance and film, my work highlights voices and expressions of women, immigrants, people of color, as well as people of disabilities. I explore themes of cultural identities, social memories, motherhood, and address issues of racial justice and disability justice in my dance and film works.
I believe what is most exciting and special about being an artist is the power we hold in shifting culture through the work we are making and through the space we are creating. I feel strongly that being an artist is charged with responsibilities. I am interested in the process of dance and filmmaking as a productive practice to engage with social issues and create changes. I think that is why I am drawn to incorporating documentary aesthetics in my films and live performance works to create a more visible connection between social reality and artistic inquiry.
Most recently, I created a new multimedia dance work Points of Arrival inspired by poems carved on the walls at Angel Island Immigration Station with a group of incredible students at Duke University to reflect upon the racialized and discriminatory history of Asian American immigration to the US and its relevance and connection to larger narratives of immigration. I am also creating a solo multimedia installation piece on the same subject matter, exploring how the technology of motion capturing and the use of projection can facilitate corporeal dialogues across time.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I believe an intentional development and shaping of mindset has been the most impactful for my personal journey. I realized that mindset is like a muscle that needs to be continuously exercised and built upon. It is not something you can achieve and then forget about. There are three aspects of mindset that have been the most influential to my personal growth.
The first one is a belief that is passed down to me by my maternal grandmother. Growing up, she always reminded me with a line in a Chinese poem – “The fragrance of the plum flowers comes from the bitter cold.” This verse has taught me that to arrive at something beautiful, it takes effort and discipline. Nothing comes easy. My grandmother role-modeled for me what it meant to persist and persevere in order to live a fulfilling life.
The second lesson I learned from a young age is we can always find creative ways to turn what is perceived as mistakes into opportunities. Growing up in China, we were taught to write with pens instead of pencils, which means that if we make a mistake on a page, it would be visible and cannot be erased. What I would do is to create a drawing out of the typo so it could still look beautiful. I believe this habit of thinking has impacted me as a choreographer and filmmaker. I learned to be more open to encounters that might be different from my original expectation. I see these
perceived mistakes or accidents as creative opportunities to push a work beyond what I originally imagined as possible.
Finally, Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset has been an important reminder for me that we can always be better if we are intentional and put in the hard work. At the same time, we need to be patient that it will be a journey before arriving at where we desire to be. We are our only limit. If we do not limit ourselves, what can we all become?
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
That’s a great question. It is important to first acknowledge that feeling overwhelmed is part of the journey. How we respond to this feeling when it arises determines how fast we can move into action and eventually dissolve this feeling. I will mention three strategies that I practice often when I feel overwhelmed.
1. Return to Our Breath: Lately, I’ve been very into Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh’ s books. He mentioned repetitively the importance of returning to our breath when we feel overwhelmed, uncentered, disturbed, or out of control. I completely relate to his point and find it very helpful.
2. Thought Dumping: After finding peace through breaths, I then would dump all the messy thoughts, ideas, to do lists on a piece of paper. The act of dumping helps release the tension physically and metaphorically. It is like a process of letting go of the weight I carry. Then I would look at these thoughts and circle the one thing that I can take immediate action on. By stepping outside of my thoughts and examining them on a piece of paper is a very clarifying process. It allows me to see what is indeed urgent and important, so I can better prioritize these tasks. I believe, the faster we can turn into action, the sooner we can feel in control again.
3. Honest Assessment: The strategies that I mentioned above are useful at the moment of feeling overwhelmed but oftentimes there is something deeper that is going on. After catching up and feeling more in control, I would take some time to have some honest reflection and assessment with myself, asking the questions of whether I am committing myself to too many things, how I can stay more focused, what my priorities are at this stage of life, and what I can say no to.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.jingqiuguan.com
- Instagram: jingqiu.guan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jingqiu.guan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jingqiu-guan-49510533
Image Credits
Wil Weldon (first five images) and Chris Charles (last two images).
