Notes on the choreography of experience: brandstories, the art of dance, life and business entwined.
A long and complex titling, that is; but it’s the title for an exploration on the alignment between dance and fire, and movement, and life, and love, and passion.
All that.
I would venture that the idea of some link between the concept of dance, the movement of design, the calligraphy of concept, the gesture of ideation — and inspiration, in all — would be easy. Dance is a movement through space, a swinging slide of the concept of imagination in the demarcation of invention. It’s a storytelling that’s alive. Brand, as story, as fire, is alive. The proposition is hardly inspirational; it’s more about the truth of the work. What a dancer does is move, in interpretation, in story, myth legend, inspiration, magic — the arc of invention.
Like a patterning, it’s a carrying through. The dancer is carried through, the viewer is carried — it’s a transport. And being alive, it’s on fire. A portal to another dimension. Rich brands can be like that — deep, stories, relational, layered. And they can be on fire, if there’s passion.
I’d been asked to give a talk as a fundraising event for Seattle Dance Group — an interesting performance and fledging creative operation. And it worked, along with the auspices of the Ruins, as a place of performance, along with a musical intrigue by Simple Measures.
But the challenge was interesting. Can you come and talk about dance? And then raise some money for our organization? Sure. But then, what?
There are symbolisms in the context of dance, the drawing, the strategy of guiding a sweeping movement, sliding and gliding a visioning of imagination, going some place. Being carried some place.
Where to? Dream. Capture. Captivate.
That wander began with something that I’ve not done in a bit — drawing a poem, in the movement of the Gymnopedie of Satie.
Like this:
a v i d e o
That sets the pace in the string of ideas — movement, a scribing, a de-scripting, a signature of place scrawled from space, and made whole — in another dimension.
I walk on. I dance on.
Anything that we do is about the story. It’s about entanglement — the fabric of the person, the story, the performance, the dancer — this is the art of the experience — the entwining between the beauty of the telling, the meaning of the gesture — the dance — and the audience of perception. What’s scene, what’s seen, what’s told, what’s bold?
So, for me, for Girvin, for our clients, the idea of a metaphoric link between the notion of the creativity of the gesture of dance, let alone the spirit of the person, is one that scents of the being of brand.
The interlinking of elements — sheerly the spirit of creative work and passion — twines these together. And indeed, like many of the components of experience design that we explore — it’s always about what lies beneath: what’s the action that is at the surface of things, the point of touching obvious conditionality, and the psychic expressions that are closer to heart, soul, meaning and memory.
I’d break the concepts of creativity in expressing the story — the action of the string of experience — into these components. The passage of metaphor. The concept of fascination — what binds me to performance of story, even nature, movement, beauty in designed “movement” in context? Dance, what meaning found?
So what of the metaphoric expression — here, as elsewhere — the exploration of the allegory is about the “carrying” of the concept, it is about the gesture of an idea being passed along — as in the movement of a portal. What that means in our personal lives (and the human brands that we might be) is that we are holding — that our psychic condition, holders and embracers of story and memory — and carrying the threads of our memories forward.
Fascination, to the compulsion of witness, is a bewitching; it’s a magical captivation. Magic leaps from spellbinding — chanting the spirit of enchantment. And in our lives, our work, our explorations, we’re going there — to tell a story that is sufficiently capturing — that our relating, our carrying of context newly shifts. We’re newly balanced. We see something differently.
Dance gathers that swing, that movement, the arcs a motion that takes us from merely seeing, to feeling, from hearing, to touching — as observers — we taste a renewal of spirit. We are changed.
From the opening — the convergence — of this journey, we are brought to the point of connection, the nexus. This is where the song sings, the art emerges — the ringleader — guides us to the center of attention; we see the opening movement, the gyration, the swirling mysteries. And the story begins with what’s in the center — and extends — outwardly.
That poetry brings me to the concept of the holistic experience of brand — to the person, to the enterprise — to the completeness of the telling. And the bigger picture; it goes out to life and meaning. And that’s the beginning of the bridge — from art, spirit, to dance — story, brand. It all goes to feeling. What feeling, felt, wholly?
That idea of seeking inspiration from the craft of the dancer takes me here — to each of these people, and to each, their relationship to me. Relating. Carrying. Moving through.
Each of these artists has a phrasing that relates to the mystery of translation — of carrying an idea — through the portal of imagining.
Each then, an interpretation in construct:
reflecting clarity — simple messaging, with feeling:
passion: as a brand lover, stepping out to shout:
brand and commitment, stay there, believe: gathering evangelism — finding tribe:
the center of the world is the vortex of the stage: finding the heart of the person, the story, the brand, is the opening of the being:
it’s never about the obvious, but it’s residing in what isn’t seen — at scene — it is, instead a hidden tongue that can be translated:
the cohesion of the relationship is a long running study; there are trends, movements, cultural shifts — motion from one statement to another; you, as the teller, will have to find the message that is right, for now:
Walk on. Dance on. Be: on stage.
What’s learned — in this examination — this symbolic treatment? The outcomes of the presentation for the Seattle Dance Group speaks to these simple measures:
Some Girvin strategies about rethinking brand, relationships and community. Look back into the heart of the words that you use to rethink the meaning and context of their character to you; going back, you’ll find more in the meaning of what you say, what you are. And to that modeling, brand isn’t only about corporate modeling in messaging strategy, it’s about fire. Fire up.
In the psychic space of messaging — believe in the idea that most messages, most communications, begin the place of the deeper level of experience. Messages are like waves — the vibrate outwards — but they are felt as instinct first; intuition grasps, first.
Any movement starts with a party of one — the leader is just that, the one person up front; from there, there are the others — on the team — that either own in, are connected, or are not. Bring them on.
The narrative mind is the string of experience where by we newly count the threading of our lives. Process that as a foundation for how you live, how you tell your story — and how you, as a brand — or your enterprise has a layering of chronological notations. Sequences are live, felt — not factual.
Who are you, any way? What person(a) expressed?
It all is about community. Who are you talking to, and do they really care about the swing of the dance of your message?
Your connection — one to another — is about the power of the bond, what level of adhesion, that might be cohering the link between you, your story, the community?
In the reflectivity of connection, what relevance — the relativity — what resounding recall — the brand echo — that might be heard?
Go forward in love — think about the movement being a dance of love, in your life — that could be your brand, it could be the management of your tasks, your writing, your explorations — but keep it in love. Love what you do, do what you love.
Like anything, it’s the capture — the captivation — that gathers memory, beauty and the recollection of unforgettable encounters.
Capture is reflective — you love what you do, you share your love with others, you capture others in your story. And that story spreads…
Like dance, the movement just might make others do the same.
When you see dance, you don’t know what to make of it, music rising and roiling, and the action — it’s a call to action. A carrying. And in that, the alarming adrenalized sense of surprise — that’s an ancient sentiment — one that goes back to the psychic wellspring of our beginnings.
The start, when we first danced, back to the heart of our first discovering.
tsg
….
Brands | love | humans
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