Explore and Experiment

when i was starting out in street dance

i love to freestyle and play around even

though i know very little about dancing

and looks like a fool for most of the

time however

the longer i study dance and the more

techniques i acquired

the more creatively trapped it and

burnout i feel

and i noticed the same pattern with my

drawing animating

and other creative practices there was a

time in both my art school and dancing

life

where i was solely focused on getting

the lessons right

and stick very closely to the rules from

my instructors

whenever my instructor asked me to

experiment i feel i’m not ready

and i don’t know how to i had a hard

time convincing and allowing myself to

be playful with the knowledge i had

this fear of creative experiment always

pulls me back

to repeating the same old boring stuff

and i start to feel ashamed of my own

work

why does allowing myself the freedom to

experiment feel so hard

how can i get out of this creative

desert i asked myself

and my mentors from different creative

fields interestingly

they all gave me the same answer explore

and experiment but

where do i start what do these two words

even mean

aren’t they the same thing if so why

repeat it twice

so does anyone know the difference

between explore and experiment

i came across the answer one day when i

was at a dance workshop

the instructor asked us to explore how

to move like seaweed

and this is what everybody in the class

did

and then he asked us to experiment how

siri moves under strong current

and how seaweed moves on the beach

i remember feeling at ease trying out

unfamiliar and stupid things

because the instructor used the word

explore

instead of experiment out of curiosity

i looked up the two words in the

dictionary and realized that

actually explore is abstract and

idea-oriented

on the other hand experiment is physical

and method oriented

the word explore means to collect data

of an unfamiliar area

there’s no expectation of outcome with

exploring

whereas experiment means to conduct a

test

which usually based upon an objective

and aims to acquire some measurable

outcomes

actually the common fear of creative

experiment comes from a misconception

that we have to be knowledgeable

the catch here is that you don’t need to

be an expert before you start

experimenting

we can explore along the way when we

experiment

just like you don’t need to know

everything about life before you start

living

so what is there to be scared of