Title of Inquiry

'WHAT LEADERSHIP SKILLS ARE NEEDED AND USED BY DIFFERERENT CHOREOGRAPHERS/DIRECTORS IN THE DANCE INDUSTRY?'

I chose this line of enquiry because I am very interested in seeing the different approaches  of choreographers and directors with dancers working for them. I feel I will benefit from this for potential future career paths as a choreographer or company manager as I can research which skills are useful and which ones work well together to ensure there is a creative but hard working atmosphere.

Module 2

Since working with Chrysalis London over the past eight months I have learnt a lot as well as found new interests and struggles. I have become a lot more interested in the creating side of the company. I am so used to just being taught choreography rather than creating my own. Recently in rehearsals we have been given a lot more freedom to create movement on ourselves. To start with, I really hated it. I had the mindset of ‘My ideas are so boring and no one will like it’. This WAS the case by the end, not because I am not a creative person but because I had such a negative way of thinking that of course I wasn’t going to create something I was proud of. I was restricting myself.

 I prefer choreographing movement on other people because I can work with their strengths and I feel more positive about what I am creating. I also enjoy working with the dancer’s ideas and inputs rather than solely my own.

 As well as being the director of Chrysalis, Jodie also teaches and choreographs at Tring Park School. A few weeks a go I went to a rehearsal for their graduate show to help and shadow Jodie. I really enjoyed the process. I feel I have, and will learn a lot from him and his way of working as choreography is something I would love to achieve after my career as a dancer. In the past when I have choreographed and had to ‘be in charge’ I found it really hard to take control. Being authoritative and taking charge is very difficult for me. I always admire how Jodie has a level of authority but doesn’t abuse his power of being the director of a company.

I am interested in enquiring about how different choreographers and directors work with their dancers in the creative process of a piece of dance.