Elder Neal A.

Maxwell, in an article in the New Era regarding creativity, stated the following: Righteous work is our love of God and of our neighbors being made manifest! Creative work is a special expression, a more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31), of showing that love. Creative expression can also represent the celebration of our gratitude to God for our gifts and talents. I live in a universe which I believed to have been created through upmost divinity, by a great and supreme Creator. Everything which surrounds me, is above and below me, is a blatant result of artistic creativity. Without creativity, the world would cease to know newness in anything. I can contribute to the ongoing creations through my involvement in dance. Although the creative process of developing and sculpting choreography can be strenuous and frustrating, the end result of a powerful enough product makes every moment of the hard work worth it. One of my favorite aspects of developing creativity is the moment when, as a creator, the truest workings of your heart and soul become manifested outwardly. In that first gesture or first step when you feel a piece of yourself being revealed, the movement feels so natural. It can make you feel vulnerable to be so exposed, yet the feeling is to liberating at the same time. This is pure honesty. You can choreograph your truest opinions on life experiences or social and political events. You can choreography your unadulterated feelings on what you are going through in your personal life. As Elder Maxwell said, you can express your appreciation to God through your creative works. This is certainly applicable in dance choreography. The feeling of choreographing and performing movement that illustrates a part of your testimony of the Savior is indescribable. With the honesty of movement comes the necessity for integrity. In N. Eldon Tanners talk Integrity, he explains that a man should be whole with himself and not have to debate which version of himself to follow. I know that personally this becomes a challenge for me in everyday life when I focus more on trying to please everyone else and am not concerned enough with what I know is right. At that point I prevent myself from being whole within myself. This could be applied to dance when the choreography becomes more concerned with what others want to see instead of what they feel should be incorporated into the dance. For example, if a choreographer is creating a piece for a competition and tries only to put in as many tricks as are physically possible, there is far less room for movement sequences which are more meaningful. Those are the sequences which viewers can emotionally connect to the most. Those are the sequences which can make a viewer leave thinking I felt this way when the dancers I am sure that the more engrained integrity is for a person in his or her everyday life, the easier it is to have that integrity and honesty in the creative process. When we are capable of creating something with honesty and integrity, we are in a position to allow the Holy Spirit to be present with us. Elder David A. Bednar gave a talk entitled That We May Always Have His Spirit to Be With Us. Elder Bednar spoke a great deal in this talk about the importance of honoring the covenants which we have made, as well as striving to renew those covenants every week by partaking of the sacrament. To honor those covenants we should actively strive to be able to allow the Spirit to dwell with us. This is hard for me at times when I want to watch or listen to something that might not be very appropriate, so I know that I need to work on avoiding these situations just as Elder Bednar advised. I know that if we are worthy enough for the Spirit to be able to dwell with us, we have a greater potential for good and to be ready for inspiration and revelation in any form. That

inspiration can definitely come during the creative process of developing choreography. I do not know how other dancers feel, but I would love to be worthy of inspiration when I am trying to create a new dance. I would also love to be able to have the Spirit with me throughout the process. Surely it would be much easier and the movements would be more powerful to behold. Creativity is truly a divine power. Artists have the power to formulate what has never before existed, that which could impact countless numbers of people. Honesty and integrity are characteristics that a creator might possess, and these characteristics have the potential to greatly enhance the meaningfulness of the works which are created. Also enhancing the creative process is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Such presence can open the eyes of the artist to entirely new possibilities. I am grateful for my understanding of the creative process, with special regards to dance, and the spiritual implications which are often overlooked. I hope that I am able to continuously use those understandings in the many years to come that I hope to spend choreographing and teaching dance. It is also one of my sincerest desires to instill my love and appreciation for creativity in my dance students at a young age. I anticipate the day when I will be able to see my students find joy in the creative process of dance choreography.