Work, Creativity and Reflection in Performing Arts
Professor Norman Jackson Surrey Centre for
Excellence in Professional Training and Education
Introduction
This working paper was created during a Professional Training Development Day at the
University of Surrey on Friday 18th January 2008. It was created using a questionnaire and a
voting system during the introductory presentation of the day.
Thirty five people participated in the process: a mix of final year music and dance students who
have been out on placement working with major dance and music organisations (mainly in the
subsidised sector, and a few music publishers and recording studios). There were also
placement students, and a mixture of people (mostly alumni) who work for a range of music and
dance organisations, mainly in the dance and music subsidised sector (so they get public
funding) and several freelancers/sole traders. There were also a few members of University
staff.
Views on self
In response to the question, ‘how do you describe yourself in the context of your work?’ Participants
used the following descriptors.
Creative thinker and realism balance.
Hardworking!
Learning the field building experience.
A way to approach my life – not just work.
Freedom, it’s a whole lifestyle –work, play, food, clothes, words, thoughts, feelings, just the way I am – I
love it.
Busy, dedicated.
Organised, friendly.
General administrator, running the office side of a record label.
Assistant to help others produce work and produce basic work on the side.
Writing music, thinking outside the box, arty and neat presentations.
Hard working, aware.
Daring.
Bored.
Views on Creativity
What does being creative mean to you? Any context..
More exiting than other field’s reason we stay in the job.
Variety, interesting.
1
Passionate, express yourself.
Problem solving making links, new thinking, building relationships.
Imagination. Generating ideas. Lateral thinking. Thinking outside the box. Freedom to change plans. Job
satisfaction.
Being flexible, new ideas, new approaches.
Creating new things, using your imagination.
Creating ad finding problems and taking steps to solve them (even if they can’t be resolved).
An opportunity to express yourself, finding new ways to overcome old challenges.
Making things, drawing, cutting and sticking, but also creative thinking.
Working in a unique different way. Using other methods to look at your work.
Applying your personal knowledge /skill to a particular task.
Imagination, unique, active, personal, express, important to self, self reflection.
Seeing a better way of doing something visualising, and being able to act on a new idea.
Writing music, creative ideas, presentation of ideas.
To develop a sense of enjoyment, visually or musically. Being stimulated to create and engage with the
task set.
Being free to use any ideas to get a job done. Getting below the surface or round a problem.
Experimenting, engaging, expressing, thinking.
Taking risks.
Experimenting.
Creating something new, collaborating with different art forms, expression.
Problem solving, bringing most out of our people or resources, late night thinking.
Having and idea and realising it.
Doing something differently, perhaps in a non-traditional way- in more engaging, exciting and
interactive, perhaps multi-sensory way. Innovative.
Using your imagination, using an idea to be original, personal.
Using your imagination. But for me it has to be with some limits. i.e designing a piece of print for a tour.
Being creative is my lifestyle.
Being able to make my ideas, reality . Having an impact.
Individuality, different perspective.
Being able to express myself/opinion/make an influential difference, get lost in my head.
Sharing ideas with others. Responding to ideas of others working with others to create new things.
Making sure I don’t sit in my office staring at a computer, thinking, using my brain, making exciting
entertainments programme.
Series1
Series2
Series3
Most participants felt
that creativity was an
important part of their
identity (only 3% did
not think so).
0%
Strongly
disagree
3.10%
Disagree
3.10%
Don’t
know
Agree
Strongly
agree
80.00% 65.60%
60.00%
28.10%
40.00%
20.00%
0.00%
Series4
2
Series2
Strongly
agree
Agree
5.60%
But most (nearly
90%) felt that some
people are more
creative than others.
Strongly
disagree
2.80%
Series3
Series4
Most participants
believe that it is
possible to develop
your creativity if you
are given the
opportunity to do so.
54.30%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00% 2.90%
10.00%
0.00%
34.30%
Series2
Series3
Strongly
agree
Agree
Don’t
know
5.70%
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
2.90%
Series1
Series4
37.10%
20%
But a significant
minority 17%
believe that
opportunities
for being
creative are
constrained in
some work
situations
17.10%
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Don’t
know
0%
Agree
Strongly
agree
Series4
Disagree
Strongly
agree
Series1
Most (80%) felt that
creativity was not a
rare gift that only a
few people have.
0%
Series3
2.80%
Agree
52.80%
60.00%
50.00% 36.10%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
40.00%
30.00%25.70%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Don’t
know
Series2
Don’t
know
Series1
14.30%
5.70%
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
80.00%
62.90%
60.00%
40.00% 17.10%
20.00%
0.00%
Series1 Series2 Series3 Series4
3
Nearly 50%
disagreed with
the idea that the
more complex
and challenging a
role the more
scope there was
for creativity.
40%
28.60%
20%
Series2
Series1
Series2
Disagree
Don’t
know
Agree
Strongly
agree
50.00%
38.20%
40.00%
29.40%
30.00%
14.70%
20.00%11.80%
10.00%
0.00%
Series3
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Series3
Series4
And only just over
40% of people
believed that the
more autonomy
you have the
more scope for
creativity.
5.90%
Strongly
disagree
Series1
Don’t
know
8.60%
Agree
Strongly
agree
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00% 2.90%
0.00%
Series4
What being creative means to participants in their field of practice
What does being creative mean in your work?
Facilitating others keeps interest in job through the less creative aspects seeing results.
Being able to help and influence others and provide them with a variety of options.
Essential, part of the job. Can get in the way if not allowed to be creative.
The art of allowing the main “creative” work to happen! Requires me to be creative and flexible – time
and approach.
Being creative in one way I move and think.
Helping clients realise their ideas, improving current systems to make work practice easier, helping
others develop and overcome challenges and personal development.
4
At Uni making things, at work marketing creative and innovative solutions.
Putting my ideas on paper, freedom of thoughts within the organisations regulations.
Knowing what jobs to do first & making that decision myself. Thinking problems through to find the best
solution.
Learning, images, colour, developing.
Finding solutions, using information that I have better, playing better.
Assisting in others people’s writing.
To be able to inspire my fellow peers to perform well in a concert. To be able to construct a well written
essay when given no constraints.
The permission to be creative gets me up in the morning. I’m lucky enough to have line managers who
respect this and trust me.
Finding new ways of doing, thinking/perceiving things. Sharing ideas with others on whatever level. Open
minded.
New choreographers that you believe in creating new work. Supporting them and their ideas.
Finding solutions to complex problems, being alert to differences and enabling others to flourish.
Providing as many opportunities as possible to allow the creativity of others.
Being creative means avoiding boredom.
Coming up with and putting into action new ways of delivering dance in Education. Trying ideas out to
find if they will be successful or not and working to improve on them.
Choreography for classes and shows. Teaching.
Designing print/blogs etc, creating ways of working within education, ways of encouraging students to
take part in activities.
Developing new ideas.
Expression, exploration.
Find solutions and answers, expressing things in different ways.
Communication, working together, being inspired by the people and things around you.
Pushing the boundaries, trying new things, original ideas.
Importance of reflection in creative practice
46.90%
6.20%
Series2
Strongly
disagree
0%
Disagree
Not sure
Agree
12.50%
Series1
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
80% of people
believed that
reflection was
essential to their
creative
performance but
6% disagreed.
34.40%
Strongly
agree
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Series3
Series4
When faced with a significant
challenge over 40% felt that
they worked iteratively
between problems and
potential solutions rather than
following a linear data
gathering to solution pathway
53.10%
37.50%
0%
6.20%
3.10%
Strongly Disagree Not sure
disagree
Series1
Series2
Agree
Series3
Strongly
agree
Series4
5
Important features of creative practice in performing arts
Previews studies in six disciplinary areas (Jackson and Shaw ) has shown that there are number of widely
recognised cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural features associated with creativity

Being imaginative – generating new ideas, thinking out of the boxes we normally inhabit, looking
beyond the obvious, seeing the world in different ways so that it can be explored and understood
better.

Being original. This embodies:
 the quality of newness for example: inventing and producing new things or doing things no
one has done before;
 being inventive with someone else’s ideas or products – recreation, reconstruction,
recontextualization, redefinition, adapting things that have been done before, doing things
that have been done before but differently; in performance this is improvisation;
 and, the idea of significance – there are different levels and notions of significance but utility
and value are integral to the idea.

Being curious and having an enquiring disposition – willing to explore, experiment and take risks i.e.
the attitude and motivation to engage in exploration and the ability to search purposefully in
appropriate ways in order to find and discover. It is necessary to work in an uncertain world and
often requires people to move from the known to the unknown.

Being resourceful – using your knowledge, capability, relationships, powers to persuade and
influence, and physical resources to overcome whatever challenge or problems are encountered
and to exploit opportunities as they arise.

Being able to combine, connect, synthesise complex and incomplete data/situations/ideas/ contexts
in order to see the world freshly/differently to understand it better and solve problems.

Being able to think critically and analytically – its not enough to generate lots of ideas we also have
to be able to evaluate them in order to distinguish useful ideas from those that are not so useful and
make good decisions about how to act.

Being able to represent ideas and communicate them to others – the capacity to sell ideas and show
people possibilities, opportunities and solutions in ways that make sense to them and capture their
imagination.
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00% 5.90%
2.90%
10.00%
0.00%
Mostly
Mostly
irrelevant
relevant
but not
very
Series1
44.10%
Series2
47.10%
Mostly
relevant
and quite
important
Series3
All are
important
Series4
6
These features associated with
creativity were endorsed with
over 90% of people believed that
most of these characteristics
were important or all were
highly relevant. One participant
noted that this profile matched
the perfect Arts Manager!
Another that this totally
summarises my way of working!
Additional features mentioned included:
 Being resourceful
 Relationships
 Thinking big – visioning
 Being able to change plans
 Enabling others’ creativity through my own work
 Being reflective
 Being given opportunities for personal and professional development within my work
contexts and organization
 Being assertive
 Learning
 Using instinct
 Differing perspectives

Creativity and work
Where I work has an important
influence on my creativity
Series1
18.80%
6.20%
Series2
Series3
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
3.10%
Don’t
know
Agree
Strongly
agree
60.00% 53.10%
50.00%
40.00%
18.80%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Series4
7
Over 70% of people felt
that the places where
they worked was
important to their
creativity. But over 20%
felt that the work place
was not a significant
factor.
62.50%
Series1
Series2
Series3
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
6.20%
Don’t
know
Agree
12.50% 12.50%
Strongly
agree
80.00%
60.00%
40.00%
20.00% 6.20%
0.00%
Quite clearly work is not
where people feel most
creative. 70% felt it
wasn’t. This is an
unexpected response
given that most people
are working or studying
in creative enterprises.
Series4
Individual creativity
When are you at your most creative?
Making an idea into a viable project.
When under pressure.
When I’m well and ill too when I’m busy, when I move. I give myself space, at the last minute with others
or on my own in nurture when I’m angry, when I’m fighting for something and when I free too.
In discussion – digging.
When I’m planning work and can think of what to do best.
When I am designing a flyer.
When I least expect it.
Watching a performance/rehearsal, talking and sharing ideas.
In a Studio.
Work projects, when I am stimulated and excited by what I’m doing.
When I am most engaged and excited in something and truly believe in what I am working towards.
When I feel inspired.
When an opportunity presents itself to make something better by using my creativity.
After seeing something that inspires me (e.g on the stage).
As soon as I have space and music. Choreographing is when I am creative but also when ever I have
paper and a pen! I am creative through my writing and designing anything.
When left to work independently.
When I’m enthusiastic/ passionate about something.
When I am walking and having good conversation with a friend/lover!
8
Where is your creativity primarily focused?
Where does your power to create reside?
Focus for creativity
30
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Series1
20
Series2
Series3
15
Series4
Series5
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Additionally foci for creative activity included:
 Creating and implementing new systems and tools at work
9
Sources of creative power
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Series1
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Series2
Series3
Series4
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Series5
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Additionally sources of personal power come from:
 Encouragement from others
 Working with others
 Other people
Who judges your creativity?
The people who recognise and judge my creativity are – in order of significance to me.
My students, members, Arts Council.
Friends, Clients.
Me, peers & other managers.
My partner, family & work colleagues/clients.
Myself, my manager, my tutor, my family and friends.
My manager.
Myself, my parents, my peers, my employers.
Myself, my family, my friends.
My students I teach, my boss, work colleagues, audiences.
My Peers, work colleagues, parents, tutors, audiences.
Family & friends.
10
Immersion
32.40%
Series1
32.40%
26.50%
Series2
Series3
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Don’t
know
2.90%
Agree
Strongly
agree
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
5.90%
10.00%
0.00%
While 38% of
participants felt that
immersing themselves in
a problem or challenge
enabled them to access
their creativity a similar
percentage 35% did not.
Series4
Things which discourage/encourage creativity
Discourage
Encourage
What discourages/encourages you from
being creative in your work environment?
Things that discouraged people me from being creative in their work included
Lack of funding, fire fighting mode, lack of support.
Nature of the job, what the boss wants, stress.
Doubt, constraints, time, financial.
Negative people/Clients, stress, time.
Stress, timescales, other people/structures.
Having deadlines needing to get things done.
Fear of failure, overloading.
Lack of Forum or channel through which to discuss my ideas, organisational politics, daily pressures, e.g.
admin, phone, email.
Time, opportunities, branching.
Company guidelines, people with restrictive view of my ability, time constraints.
Things that are routine/have to be done., work atmosphere, time.
Repetitive/low effort tasks, lack of challenges, my own apathy.
Rules & boundaries, no recognition of previous creativity.
Restrictions, guidelines and rules.
11
Not being respected or trusted, feeling of institution doesn’t deserve my effort and good ideas.
Fear of failure, time restrictions, stress.
Time restrictions, myself, fear of failure.
Time restrictions, space (bad).
Workload, too many people working on the same thing.
Too many tasks, tiredness.
The nature of my work, very factual, not inspired, using others peoples work.
Lack of excitement, lack of interest, lack of motivation.
Funding budgets, restrictions.
Too much to get alone, when I have to be creative, when I’m tired.
Too many limits or boundaries, sometimes not enough resources.
I don’t know a lot about the industry compared to my colleagues.
Bad work relationships, travelling, lack of enthusiasm.
Diversity, discussion, passion about context/subject happiness.
Rules, health & safety, manners/protocol.
Time limits, financial limits, fear of failure.
Time limits, money, stress.
Things that encourage and facilitate creativity
Meeting creative people, time & space.
Self respect & achievement, helping others.
Freedom, access to all, space.
Positive people, making beneficial links, getting results.
People, Real life situations, time.
A little pressure- but not stress, being well organised, peer learning & discussion.
Being encouraged to be creative, working alongside others.
Positive feedback, deadlines.
Good venue- great product, every day is different, positive feedback.
Participants, outcomes, enjoyment.
The people I work with, my challenges, my aspirations.
Variation, my own initiative.
Encouragement from colleagues, personal belief.
Seeing problems & imagining solutions.
Diverse stimulus, organisation, no time constraints.
Colleagues that trust me, complex challenges with no easy answers, experience of knowing my creativity
has had a positive impact.
My mind, my peers/work colleagues, people, discussion, variation, challenges, real life situations,
organisation.
Bodies, music.
Reflection, other people.
Enjoyment of project, good working relationships, variation.
The people around me, the opportunities available, the projects taking place.
Recognition, appreciation, good communication.
Enthusiasm from people we teach.
When I teach an enthusiastic class, when I have discussions with my colleague, when I feel passionately
about something.
My imagination, my confidence, the responsibility given to me.
Feedback – good & positive on things I have done, thinking that my colleagues were once where I am
today, I am still learning.
12
Independent working, challenges, organisation.
Lack of support from others, time, not feeling comfortable.
Supportive/sympathetic colleagues, freedom to manage present work load, Cake!
Other people, Variation in my role & responsibilities, passion.
Students, line manager, myself
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all participants for generously sharing your knowledge and beliefs.
The help of Phil Sampson is gratefully acknowledged in putting this paper together in the space of 4
hours. Please forgive typographical errors.
16.15 on the 19/01/08
13