I originally wrote this on July 2, 2015. I just let it sit around, but the photo above reminded me again of my feelings about different types of collaborations, so it's time to expand and share.
There are good collaborations and there are great collaborations. Who do you collaborate with and why? You like somebody's work, they like yours, you needed a musician and so-and-so was available..... who knows!?! Some reasons are better than others and a lot has to do with chance.
The majority of my creative work has been collaborative. As an improvisor this seems quite inevitable. Any improvisation is collaborative..since each person involved is contributing her/his own ideas rather than executing the choreographer's or composer's score.
For me, a great collaboration is one that goes beyond one talented artist contributing her stuff and combining it with another talented artist's stuff. This "stuff" could be dance with music, a model with a photographer or painter, a singer with a pianist, etc. The image that came to me for an average "good" collaboration is a soft-serve ice cream twist. You see the chocolate and the vanilla separately, you taste each, but that's that.
In a great collaboration, the vanilla isn't vanilla anymore and the chocolate isn't chocolate. In a great collaboration, something absolutely new comes out of each artist because of the presence, energy and essence of the other artist. It is not a hybrid, it is something distinctly "other". Of course an artist has their style and technique, so it may not be that the artist does something that is unrecognizable, but the artist goes outside of their domain or does something different within their own domain because of the essence and presence of the other artist. The artist is at least slightly changed by the presence of the other. As the participating collaborative artist, your approach and contribution of "your part" is different than if you had created in the presence of another. When it is at its best, each artist's strengths are magnified and this births something more powerful than either artist working independently. This is exciting. This is the alchemy of collaboration and this is the kind of collaboration to perpetuate. A new work is created and each artist has discovered something new about her/himself as well as his medium. The work created also reflects this new territory and awareness. While the experience and knowledge remains with each individual afterward, the full manifestation of it requires the presence of both creators.
Much love and gratitude to all my collaborators throughout the years. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's great, but it is always worthwhile.
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