Dancing involves leadership
Regular readers will know that I enjoy dancing. When I dance, I am a leader with a single follower: my dance partner. In life I am a leader with many followers: at work, church, and in other areas of life.
I’m going to tell you some things about being a leader on the dance floor. It’s up to you to figure out how far these things apply to the rest of life.
As the leader of a dance partnership:
- it’s my role to think several moves ahead
- it’s my role to create opportunities for my follower to look good
- I need to lead confidently and clearly or my follower cannot follow
- I am responsible for my follower’s well-being
- the dance is limited by the risks that I’m brave enough to take
- I need to be creative and take initiative
- I must tune in to the rhythm and tempo of the music, or I force my follower to choose between following me and following the music
What do you learn from dancing that you can apply in your life?
To complete this article, I leave you with some lyrics from Lord of the Dance.
They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.
—from Lord of the Dance, by Sydney Carter