When I began this course in Soft Choreography, it is safe to say I was a little nervous. I wasn’t sure if I or it were the right fit for one another. I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted to do, or if it could help what I wanted to do. Six weeks later and it has given me an entirely new perspective on creative writing, and new ways I can approach and consider my own.

Last week’s Film Essay task proved that there can be significant creative freedom in approaching the form. Most prominent to me were the techniques in essay film to tell a story through structure and visuals. Structure implies a hook, a narrative thread, and a payoff. These devices are usually incorporated in fiction, yet can be applied in non-fictional essay films to engage an audience not just intellectually, but by satisfaction of the senses and a story coming together. Additionally, I learned that a lack of dissonance between script and visuals encourages more insight and participation on the audience’s part, piecing together the words with the symbolic meaning of the images.

The Poem Film task showed how I may use film to make sense of poetry. I have never actively sought out poetry or considered myself a poet. I can count on one hand how many poems have moved me to my core, and on one finger how many poems I’ve written that were actually half decent. So being able to examine a poem through the lens of filmmaking relieved the tension I feel around the subject. I could plant my own feelings and my humour into a piece that appears deceptively detached from me. In a way, the very art of the poem film is an example of soft choreography, since the audience may have autonomy in how they portray a poem through the visual medium.

I guess I should say that my intention throughout this course was to find ways I could tell a clear narrative through forms of soft choreography and non-representational theory. I proposed these thoughts in my presentation, and wrote up a piece of my own (albeit, one that didn’t end up adhering to NRT at all, just an excuse to write nautical language). I think then I was still floundering, and maybe I still am. But linking the theories to a film I enjoyed, ‘The Lighthouse’, allowed me to step in to the subject with a little more openness. Of course, old habits die hard. I’ve always been one to provide a clear point to stories I write. Maybe not stories with only one clear moral, I’m not a fan of those, but ones that inevitably invite discussion. And I do think that audience discussion is an important aspect to soft choreography.

So finally, to the answer the question I presented myself in week 1: “How do I intend to share ideas through work I write in the future?” I can’t say I’ve found a single answer for that, but I do know one thing. Whatever I write, an essay, a play or a film; I will ask what I can do to bring down the barrier between the narrative and the audience. That is to say, how will they become an integral part of the experience?

I want to write a story. A story with characters whose lives are affected by an audience being there. A fictional world that lives knowing it only exists with an audience being there. And prompt the audience to question what being there even means. I guess we’ll see what the next six weeks bring. But the things I’ve learned and been inspired by in this subject, I will be taking long into my career as a writer.

That is all.

Thank you.