This past week on Monday, October 17th, a new event was happening on campus in the Performance Lab at Trinity Commons. This event was called The Creativity Jam and was led by Anton Ovchinnikov, guest artist in residence, and Peter Kyle, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance. They first met in 2016 when Prof. Kyle was in Ukraine on a Fulbright Fellowship, and have collaborated several times since. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Ovchinnikov started to use the arts and his creativity to help him through the difficult times. He believes that “creativity helps us stay human”, and this was prevalent throughout the Creativity Jam.
Going into this event there was little known about how it would be structured. Because of the lack of structure, I felt a little anxious and curious while in the room. As soon as some stretching was done, we were no longer in the dark. The unstructured nature of the event started to mold itself into something that didn’t leave anyone behind. Little by little students started participating and letting loose emotions and actions that seemed to be held back. Some students were dancing with each other, spinning and twirling. Others were writing things on paper and making giant paper airplanes. Some made a huge paper ball and started playing volleyball. The most popular activity was definitely dancing.
The thing that got everyone going was the live music being played in the background. The instruments being played were two drums, a violin, and some other small instruments that needed to be shaken to make noise. The tempo of the music was the driving force behind the way people moved and acted. When the music got loud and fast, everyone followed, as it slowed down and became soft, everyone followed suit.
I feel that this event was a release of emotions, a display of them to everyone in the room. There was a lot of laughing and being goofy. It was really an event that required you to be there to absorb it all. I was glad that I went to it. There was something about it that became welcoming after the stretching was done. You could literally let your imagination run wild!
One thing that I learned was that everyone has creativity in them, even if it’s very little. When everyone comes together the creativity level goes up and no one is left out. I totally recommend anyone to attend something like this. I don’t know when this will happen again, but the fun you can get out of this is worth coming out of your comfort zone.
