Developing Musical Creativity Through Movement: Navigating the Musical Affordance Landscape

Schools too often undermine creativity, said Ken Robinson, an educationalist who has changed thinking on schools. In his famous TEDtalk "Do schools kill creativity?," he argues that the undermining of creativity results from being too focused on children's heads rather than on their bodies. In line with Robinson's observation, music education has been criticized for a lack of creative approaches, and a focus on disembodied learning experiences. In our view, the development of creative and embodied approaches to music education needs a deeper understanding of the embodied processes that underlie creativity, especially with regard to the use of the body in music learning. Using a dynamic, relational, and action-oriented perspective on creativity, we connect creativity to the concepts of affordance navigation, metastability, and cognitive flexibility. Next, we elaborate on how body movement may support creatively exploring the musical environment and developing a deepened musical understanding through purposeful affordance navigation.