Enhancing creativity and managing perfectionism in dancers through implicit learning and sensori-kinetic imagery

Ballet training is designed to develop creative, expressive artists. However, an explicit approach to technical instruction may not assist in the development of individual creativity and may encourage counterproductive perfectionistic goals. This paper describes a five-day intervention designed to enhance creativity in thirteen adolescent vocational ballet students at an elite ballet school in Stockholm, Sweden. The intervention focused on implicit learning and sensori-kinetic imagery. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests indicated significant increases for creativity perceptions and implicit sources of evaluation, and reductions in perfectionistic cognitions. Case study interviewees, representing the most and least perfectionistic students, reported heightened creativity, enjoyment and, in some cases, a strengthened sense of autonomy and self-regulation. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data forms a convincing case that even a short intervention based on implicit learning strategies and sensori-kinetic imagery can enhance perceptions of creativity and reduce perfectionistic cognitions in ballet class.