How Do Creative Experts Practice New Skills? Exploratory Practice in Breakdancers

Abstract

How do expert performers practice as they develop creatively? This study investigated the processes involved in the practice of new skills by expert breakdancers. A great deal of evidence supports the theory of "deliberate practice" (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993, Psychological Review, 100, 363) in skill acquisition; however, expert creative performers may emphasize other forms of practice for skill development. Four case studies collected through fieldwork and laboratory observation were analyzed to evaluate expert dancers' practice processes as they developed proficiency in new, specific skills. We focused on three aspects of learning: the degree of skill acquisition, the content of skills included in practice, and dancers' stated purposes for practicing. The results showed that dancers' practice improved skills (as suggested by deliberate practice) and engaged the exploration of new, original skills, along with coordinating skills within performance. In their practice, these dance experts went beyond deliberative practice to highly exploratory processes for skill development.

The Process of Art‐making and Creative Expertise: An Analysis of Artists' Process Modification

“…Regarding these questions, using in‐depth analysis of dancers’ practice, Shimizu and Okada (2018) revealed that expert breakdancers engaged in “exploratory practice” to generate new and original skills. They claimed that “The dancers practiced with multiple goals, that is, not only to improve the quality of the skills but also to develop original and flexible skills that fit well into a performance by varying aspects of domain skills and by combining those domain skills with other domain skills.…”

“…They claimed that “The dancers practiced with multiple goals, that is, not only to improve the quality of the skills but also to develop original and flexible skills that fit well into a performance by varying aspects of domain skills and by combining those domain skills with other domain skills. Thus, the expert breakdancers practiced by employing a highly exploratory and creative process” (Shimizu & Okada, 2018, p. 2392). The importance of the integration of knowledge and skills in other domains, encounters with the outside, inspiration, and serendipity in creativity, has been discussed (see Austin, 2003; Duggan, 2007; Ishiguro & Okada, 2018, 2020; Okada & Ishibashi, 2017; Roberts, 1989; Stokes & Gibbert, 2019).…”

An Approach to Aligning Categorical and Continuous Time Series for Studying the Dynamics of Complex Human Behavior

“…The dynamical methods (e.g., recurrence analysis) are also expected to reveal the creative process in detail using more advanced techniques (e.g., the windowed sliding method; Coco and Dale, 2014;Kodama et al, 2018). We also aim to apply the framework not only to experimental situations but also to more ecological situations, such as the practical field of artistic performance, natural daily interaction (D'Ausilio et al, 2015;Dale, 2015;Sekine and Kita, 2015;Shimizu and Okada, 2018) and clinical interaction in psychological and medical fields (Zivotofsky and Hausdorff, 2007;Nagaoka and Komori, 2008;Ramseyer and Tschacher, 2011;Goldstein et al, 2020) involving speech-motion coordination in the future.…”

Exploring the Potential of Art Workshop: An Attempt to Foster People’s Creativity in an Online Environment

“…For example, a study of novices' art creation showed that by incorporating others' perspectives by copying others' artwork, people can change their own perspective of creation and generate novel works (Okada & Ishibashi, 2017). As for the third component, studies on the development of creative expertise suggest that the long-term exploratory process plays a critical role in the creative expertise development (Okada, Yokochi, Ishibashi, & Ueda, 2009;Shimizu & Okada, 2018;Yokochi & Okada, 2020). We have previously mentioned the details of this component.…”

“…Among the various aspects of creativity, we focus on supporting the process of developing creative concepts and visions connected firmly to the participants' own lives and values. Studies investigating the development of the creative expertise of dancers suggest that they exploratorily generate various types of expressions that expand existing repertoires of expression in the domain (Shimizu & Okada, 2018). Moreover, they develop their own interpretations of expression through this exploratory process (Shimizu & Okada, 2020).…”