Dubai, 2012: In conjunction with The Market of Everything, Traffic Gallery is holding various workshops for kids and adults. I chose to go to participate in the workshop titled: The creative block is a loser. It has come at the right time for me especially since I found out that for me as a creative professional, I need to get rid of creative blocks through spontaneous artwork (with my  non-dominant hand), spontaneous dancing (through 5 rhythms). So I was interested to see how meditation and yoga would enable me to go one step further in creating (whether writing or creating jewelry). You can read my art therapy journey at my jewelry and mixed media blog.

The workshop was conducted by Jamal Iqbal (the SugarDandy man and a creative wizard of sorts) and Dharam Veer Sood (corporate trainer, triathlete and theatre performer). It was conducted in a way that I would never have expected – a non traditional approach to breaking through creative blocks. It really appealed to the creative side of me. In fact at some point, we were required to act/perform out the characters off people’s stories in a spontaneous manner.  A part of me that I have repressed (namely the acting/performing) when I entered the corporate world has now come alive. So if you are like me and have varied interest in the arts, find a way of actually using the other non-dominant talents in order to hone the main talent/skill that you use on commercial terms. You will not be disappointed. I’ve never been a fan of yoga (chiefly because I’m too inflexible for most of their postures), but now I understand that some of the postures actually help in clearing stagnant energy.

The workshop started with the students standing around in a circle, taking in deep breaths and letting go. Jamal Iqbal kickstarted the workshop. We were then encouraged to write spontaneously based on a simple subject. Whilst we continued to write, Jamal introduced various influencers such as incense, strawberries, music, lights off, as well as rock like chocolates. After a while we finished writing and shared our stories in pairs.

 

The 2nd part of the workshop incoroprated various yoga postures that were supposed to clear energy blocks and tensions in muscles as well as creativity and communicating. Some of the postures were quite tricky considering that I am a yoga novice.

The third part of the workshop involved coming on stage and actually reading our individual writings (most of the photos taken demonstrate this). We then had spontaneous acting and characters performing. In a span of 15 minutes I was the ninja, the strong but unemotional mother etc.

 

By the way, The Market of Everything continues to take place. Sadly, I’m missing the other workshops in the performing arts, but that is something I’m going to keep on my to-do list when I return from my travels.