Passing on LeadershipBack

Passing on Leadership

In the meditation dance of the BOWING performance there was a series of mudras, Indian gestures made with the hands and the gaze, each with its own meaning, which we performed around the São Teotónio fountain. Maitri, a young Indian woman, corrected everyone's hand postures and movements so that the meaning of each gesture was conveyed correctly. When in doubt we looked at Maitri. Her brother, Meet, conducted the opening moment of the performance in which he led the audience and the cast into a meditation journey. The responsibility for starting the performance fell to Meet and, although he was quite nervous, he felt it was one of the happiest moments of the process. We found that responsibility is proportional to happiness: the more tasks we gave the participants to lead, the more enjoyment they gained from the experience. Taranpreet taught her choreography to the entire cast. Manpreet taught the Bhangra dance steps. The young people who climbed the garden tables in the ‘Forest of Incomprehension were teachers of their languages, teaching the audience how to pronounce and write the words. During the first two years the meetings were mostly led by the artistic team, but there were times when we handed leadership over to participants. In this third year, in BOWING DOC, we took the next step and inaugurated ‘Raga’ classes with Inderjeet as the teacher, during which time he is the leader and our presence is no longer necessary, thus establishing a practice of sustainability. While projects with only one leader are dependent on the presence and energy of one person, the passing of leadership awakens the communication and confidence potentials of all participants. Thus making the work grow and branch out creatively, full of strength, leading to many unexpected moments.