A decade before filing for my LLC, Brianne Sanchez Collaborative Services, I saw the celebrated dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp speak at Drake University. Her talk that night centered on practices that foster creativity, and her insights extended far beyond the realm of performance.
“When you set out to do something and have trouble getting started because you know it won’t be perfect, you should think of the egg," Tharp advised. An egg, she explained, is a work-in-progress. By seeking progress over perfection, our work can develop, grow and evolve.
I stuck around for Tharp's post-lecture book signing, and brought home with me "The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together," published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. When I launched my business in 2021, I knew I wanted the spirit of collaboration to be at the heart of my approach. Tharp's book called to me from its spot on my shelf.
The book collects Tharp's philosophy and approach to collaboration, incorporating stories and lessons from her own remarkable career and those of other well-known creatives.
The stories Tharp shares include setbacks and surprises. She owns her mistakes but remains optimistic because she recognizes the value of trying and learning and bringing her hard-earned wisdom into the next undertaking. She shares credit for her successes and wants the reader to learn from her challenges. Presciently, Tharp devotes an entire chapter to remote collaboration and the potential it opens up for creative partnerships. Her advice here is a hybrid approach we've all come to know so well.
The Collaborative Habit is inspirational and instructive, with highlighted "life lesson" statements that serve as quotable key takeaways:
A clearly stated and consciously shared purpose is the foundation of great collaborations.
You need a challenging partner. In a good collaboration, differences between partners mean that one plus one will always equal more than two.
Collaborative projects offer tutorials in reality. And that tutorial always presents the unexpected.
Tharp divides her chapters based on the differences in partnering with people, institutions, and communities, and lets us behind the scenes on bringing together some of her biggest projects with some of the boldest names in music and dance. I appreciate how Tharp's commitment to certain routines and habits demonstrates discipline and rigor and establishes a framework for her practice. It allows her vision to hold up against "the chaos of reality," as she puts it.
Unfortunately, we don't get to hear much from her collaborators' points of view. But the book's breezy, double-spaced layout seems to invite the reader to make notations within the white space -- essentially collaborating with Tharp's text. I wish I had written notes on my first read-through, so I could gain perspective on and from my past self.
Re-visiting the book after a decade of experience in community engagement roles in higher education and philanthropy, I found Tharp's "field guide" to collaboration applies to the social sector as strongly as the creative spheres she inhabits. I'm interested in finding that overlap where, by bringing together partners' ideas/perspectives, a new and more vibrant way emerges. I've found that getting to that meaningful meeting place isn't always a direct route. Partnering is always a dance.
The dust jacket of my copy had come off long ago, so I wasn't aware at the time of creating my own logo (in collaboration with my husband) that the cover of The Collaborative Habit also features a Venn diagram. To me, this symbol of overlap speaks to the transformational potential of a strong collaboration.
After re-reading Tharp's book, I am even more energized to learn from collaborators, present, future, and past. Her encouragement to seek out growth experiences remains relevant to us all:
"Like creativity, collaboration is a habit...At first it may seem unnatural to show up and care more about a collaborative project than about your personal advancement, but once you start ignoring your comfort level, you're on your way... It's like playing tennis; you improve only when you play above your level. So, if you have any say in the matter, gravitate to people who are smart and caring. Watch them, learn from them. And see if you don't soon feel that, far from being burdened with a partner, you're beginning to find new options and new ways of thinking." -- Twyla Tharp, The Collaborative Habit (2009)
When in doubt, think like an egg and get crackin'. It's the only way to realize your potential.
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