I love the whole thing about art: the work itself, the creativity and creative process to it, and the story that inspired it. Sometimes the inspiration is another art work. So it is with Little Dancer, a new musical ballet, performing at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC through end of November.
Listen to Book Writer and Lyricist Lynn Ahrens and Composer Stephen Flaherty, and we see how each represents a separate thread. We know that they collaborated in the creation of Little Dancer, and no one can blame any of us for wondering which came first: the words or the music, as if creativity were a neatly laid out sequence.
Ahrens and Flaherty are artists in their own right, and the reality of their creativity process was much more woven, that is, non-linear, than our sequential musings may suggest. It seems to be human nature to simplify things and to believe that the world around us is simpler than it actually is. But these two talked, and talked a lot, and wove words and music in seemingly organic fashion.
Their talk reminded me of my own collaboration with a colleague. Fouad and I were slated to speak on Arab leadership style at a conference, and we wanted to do something very different than just one of us going to the podium first, then the other following suit. We talked about a lot of things, not just the presentation itself but also our work and background. So it made sense to us to present our stuff in conversation style on stage: He was at the podium, and I was seated, sometimes standing, by a coffee table left center of him. We recalled for our audience some of what we talked about, and they all loved it. We were up first on that day, and when we started there was only a scattering of people in attendance. But as we went on, it grew to about 200 people. Late in the day, they were still buzzing about our talk, complimenting us, and asking us about it.
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