Another kind of writing: reflective practice and creative journals in the performing arts

This article is part of a process through which my colleague Cecilia Macfarlane (Associate Senior Lecturer in Dance and Arts in the Community) and myself are seeking to further develop a long-term investigation into the use of creative writing and mark-making within reflective practice in the performing arts. The investigation started with presentations given to PALATINE in 2002, and has involved a funded project, Another Kind of Writing (200405), in which students, staff and visiting artists within the School of Art and Design at Coventry University engaged in practical workshops with a visiting expert in reflective performance practice, the performer and choreographer Miranda Tufnell.

The article seeks to explore the manner and extent to which creative writing offers students the possibility to reflect on their practical work without interrupting the creative process. The suggestion is made that creative writing can play a valuable role in the development of reflective practice, encouraging students to develop a perspective on their creative work that enables them to make more confident objective analyses of their personal processes, as well as sustaining their sense of subjective engagement with the process as it happens. This is an important but complex mental balancing act, which becomes part of the performer's collection of professional capabilities. Helping students to develop confidence and competence in this kind of activity is seen as vital to their continuing success as artists after graduation.