Contemporary Dance: Diagnostics for Leadership

I’d like to share my experiences with contemporary dance.

So? Did you enjoy representing a flower or capitalism through weird body movements?

Actually, we didn’t do any of that.

Did you throw steaks at a wall?

What?

I’m serious, I went to a modern dance show. At one point, they threw raw steaks at a wall.

What a waste.

Imagine how the cow must feel.

ANYWAY! I didn’t do any of that. We did some exercises. I’d like to talk about one of them. It was part of an audition for-

Wait, you auditioned for contemporary dance?

Yes, they were looking for musicians willing to dance while playing. The artistic director had a clear and simple idea about what he wanted to do.

So, what’s the exercice?

It’s deceptively simple. We were supposed to walk in straight lines. We could only turn in 90° angles. We could only turn when our straight path was blocked.

Here’s the cool part: Whenever you’re going in the same direction as someone else. The one who’s the most forward is the leader, the others have to copy what the leader is doing. So whenever a turn or change was needed because of a wall or other dancers, the leaders and followers would change. The dancers sometimes had to walk alone.  There were also moments when the dancers hesitated about who is the leader and who follows.

I can’t really imagine it to be honest.

I don’t think you have to. What I didn’t understand then, is that he chose exercises to see how each of us behaved individually in a group setting. Are we natural followers? Leaders? Rebels? Organizers? Helpers? Promoters? Etc.

All those exercises brought out something different from the participants. He contacted me a few days later. Here’s what he said: You’re not comfortable with leading and breaking away from the group when needed. So he didn’t take me.

I don’t know if that’s such a bad thing to be honest.

Who knows? Maybe I could have been… the next Martha Graham, Lester Horton, Merci Cunningham or-

Did you just google those names?

Well… Maybe… Look, It doesn’t matter really. There’s the what-if? those are just potential universes hanging out in other dimensions. A dimension where François is still doing modern dances all around-

Sorry, dude, but leadership?

Yes, yes, sorry, you’re right, Thank you!  The story doesn’t end there. I did a training in facilitation and one of the exercises was a simplified version of the exercise I had done for the audition. I didn’t remember it at first. About 10 years had gone by.

I noticed a difference. I was more comfortable leading and being and breaking away on my own. When I remembered it, I felt a clear difference to the audition. I also noticed other things.

When leading, people are behind you. You can’t see what they’re doing. If you want the exercise to work and have the whole group doing something cool, you need to be clear and simple. The group effect will make it seem awesome. You basically have to trust that they will follow.

And what about breaking away?

This was also interesting. I noticed now that I was also totally fine with following my own path. I was comfortable doing my own thing away from the group.

What’s so interesting? You’re just saying you’re comfortable with everything.

Yes, yes, wait for it. I’ll have to be a bit technical.

So you’re walking in a straight line and sometimes it happens that you will walk straight into someone. The exercise wants you to turn 90° instead of bumping into the person.

So you actually see the person who’re going to have to meet. You have two choices, go left or go right. In that eye contact, a lot is happening but no words are said.

SLOW MOTION TIME ! The last foot goes next to other one. François stands, the other right in front of him. Will the person go left? Or right? Should I initiate? Should I let the person initiate? Should I be nice and follow? Or should I do my own thing? How will the person judge me afterwards if I just lead? Do we have to walk? What is the point of my life?

This is a reflection of what is happening in my body in that moment. It usually happens to the other person too. As a reminder, nothing has been said about following or leading too much or too little, just go left or right. Yes in that moment, these doubts creep in and start to be shared between me and the other person and we end doing this weird thing. Should I lead? Should I follow you?

This kills the flow of the exercise. And here is the interesting part.

FINALLY ! Get to it, the euro cup is starting soon.

Okay, okay. So I noticed that in those moments, which on first pass I wrote as conflicts, I tend to follow. I still had this tendency to follow.

When the person hesitates too much, I will just choose myself. And here’s another thing, I feel relieved whenever these doubting moments are over. When my position is clear, Life is simple, I don’t need to think. I’m either following, making my own way and while making my own way, I might be leading as well.

So what’s your point?

I guess it would be something along the lines of: It’s the transitional moments that were difficult for me. The lack of clarity of where to go.

I notice it in my life. Once I’m in a routine, I feel fine. It doesn’t even matter if the routine is good or bad. As long as I have my routine, I feel fine. I know where I’m at. But in those moments where everything is possible. I used to just to follow whatever others said.

Great so you’re saying that now you don’t?

No, I don’t think I’m over it. I’d like to share a sentence the teachers at the facilitation course said to me:

“It’s very important that you follow your own path, how else can people follow you in those new directions only you can see?”

And maybe that’s what leadership is all about. Believing in something enough that you follow it and inspire others to follow you. Maybe it’s also about following someone crazy who’s following their own path and maybe it’s about trusting other people will follow you.

So what am I supposed to do with all of this?

• dance in groups
• follow a comtemporary dance class
• Start feeling what your emotional state is in a group
  • Especially in different types of situations
• What role do take the most? Examples
  • Crusader, Helper, Achiever, Rebel, Thinker, Observer, Believer, Loyalist, Energizer, Leader, Protector, Optimist, Utopian, etc.
• Play with other roles
• Hang out with different people of different roles
• Follow crazy people with cool ideas
• Do the things that excite you and share them and who knows? your passions might lead you and others to amazing things