Creation

Creating work means following feelings as far as one can as well as using accumulated technique to express those feelings.  There is an interaction between the feeling and technique, and each feeds the other.  Unless it is a set classical piece, learned technique may not match the feeling/meaning/expression that is desired.  So, one has to experiment.  For me, the starting point is in the classical training I received.  Because the expressive range is so rich, I feel that it is better for me to start from there.

The alternative is to try movement without that grounding.  I know that other choreographers like the alternative better and I don’t criticize that – there is profound and important work based on that approach.  But for me, the difference feels like using a language I know (English, Indonesian, Javanese, Sundanese) to try to say something I haven’t said before, or starting from no language at all to try to express it.  The technique I know is the language I know.  I’m greedy to learn other technique and to be able to extend my range, but if I don’t know French, how can I create anything in French?