Dance Lessons

I’ve always loved to dance. You know that little girl at a wedding out twirling on the dance floor? That was probably me. I have memories of dancing in front of the television to any music show that happened to be on. From Porter Waggoner (country) to Lawrence Welk to American Bandstand, I danced to it.

I started dance lessons at age seven or eight, but it didn’t last. In those days it was always a combination lesson – ballet, tap, and tumbling. I don’t know why I quit though there’s a high possibility that it was because of tumbling since I never could manage a backwards somersault. It’s also possible I didn’t like the lessons. After all, at the beginning while learning the basics, it doesn’t feel much like dancing.

Through high school and some of college, partner dancing was simply standing across from someone and moving independently. It was fun, but when disco arrived, I discovered how much fun it was to match steps with a partner or in a line with a group. For law school I moved to Lubbock and learned to dance to country and western music. And then I found ballroom dance. Technically, there are set dances included in ballroom, but most dance studios teach a wider array of dances including country and western, salsa, and, where I live, regional favorites like merenque, cumbia and Tejano Polka. I love them all and I’m glad to be back at the dance studio.

I’ve tried various at home dance programs – usually exercise based, but they just aren’t as fun. I like the energy of the studio and the challenge of the classes where we switch partners regularly and so learn to dance with multiple people. I like preparing for and then performing or competing.

And as many of you know, I’ve learned a lot about leading and following while dancing and have taken those lessons into my leadership. In my current work, I particularly enjoy the parts that are analogous to my dancing. I like working with a ‘partner’ in coaching and working with a group of people as I facilitate workshops. For all that I’m an introvert and like time to myself, I find working with other people both challenging and energizing and therefore fun – just like dance.

What lessons have you learned from a hobby? Some time ago, I developed a workshop about creative leadership and challenged groups to develop leadership workshops based on the hobby they drew from those submitted. Everyone came up with at least the bare outlines of a workshop (raising prize chickens was tricky since no one knew anything about the topic) and some could have been presented with only a little refinement (the group who drew karate even had some demonstrations and the group who drew reading, came up with an interesting book list).

One of the best skills I developed in the latter half of my career was to bring into my work things I loved doing and learned from that were outside of my work. Lessons from dance and from yoga both informed my leadership over the years. It made work more fun and interesting and, I like to believe, made me a more effective leader.

We need leaders who can dance with different partners, who can change dances when the music changes, and who know how to dance within a group. But there are other skills we all need and we can find opportunities to learn and practice those skills in surprising places. If you aren’t already doing so, I challenge you to look outside of leadership and outside of your current organization to see what you can learn that will help you be a more effective leader.

Happy dancing,

Gage

PS: My books sharing those lessons, Shall We Lead? Leadership as Partnership and Sustaining Leadership: Finding Your Path Through Self-Care, are available through Amazon in paperback or on Kindle.