There was a story in Zen or Sufi anthologies about a student who couldn’t understand what their teacher was talking about so they just imitated them and then something that was previously missing was found. When I worked with Henri Chislo I was so impressed with his piano style which was very different than me. I flail all over but he was still. I tried to imitate his body language and very different experiences ensued. Wouldn’t have had those insights otherwise. After, I concluded for all our conversations about music it might have been quicker to just imitate his posture. Maybe that’s similar to painters sitting in front of older paintings copying them. Not that imitation is the goal but it sure can position you  elsewhere.