Introduction

Abstract

What is dance leadership? Who practices it, in what setting, and why—to what end? How is it carried out, how does it work? What does it do? These questions first arose out of the practice of an independent artist/scholar, moving in and out of leadership positions in a variety of dance settings, as performer, teacher, choreographer, director, administrator, writer. An initial discovery was the paucity, even complete absence, of work investigating dance leadership. Aimed toward understanding leadership in dance—what it looks like, what responsibilities it confers and to whom, what its goals are, what best practices are, and above all, what it does—this volume begins with a description of how a beginning theory was created, and proffers an invitation to read forward.