Community leadership
Been reading a book on leadership lately. One of the key tenets of quality leadership, as advocated by the author, is credibility. In his words, credibility is the process of “earning the right to lead through character”. Reflecting on events over the past few years, this really struck a chord with me. In order to be a leader in the community (of anything, besides tango), one needs to operate with integrity and compassion. While “competence” (or skill) is another necessary quality of effective leaders, the starting point for those whom you ask to follow is to earn their trust.
Come to think of it, on a microscopic level, this is not unlike the interplay between partners in that 3-minute dance!?
Bad dancing is not a style
I happened upon an old post from one of my favourite bloggers Debbi “It’s another style..stupid”. After re-reading the post, I just could not shake off a sense of dejavu; it is amazing how what Debbie observed is applicable even two years later. 😉
Here’s a “classic” quote from this particular post:
“What is it about tango that people make so many excuses for it? When badly danced, they say it is another style.”
As a postscript, just to add a twist to the story two years on, nowadays a few trendy ways of dancing seems to be in vogue around the world, each proclaiming to be the “authentic” style from Buenos Aires.
A simple tale
This is a true story.
A few years ago, a small dance studio began a fortnightly milonga. Months later, once the attendance started to stabilize, a larger studio which opened later promptly decided to hold a competing weekly milonga on the same night – despite already running a weekly milonga on the following night.
Could the organisers of this fledgeling milonga have kicked up a big fuss under the circumstances? Certainly it was an option. However, seeing that both studios were supposed to be serving the same smallish tango community, the owners of the first milonga decided that it was unhealthy to create divisiveness in the community, so instead doubled their efforts to create a friendly and conducive environment with excellent danceable music. The rest, as they say, is history. Dancers voted with their feet and the new milonga remained largely empty on the nights when the “small” milonga was running, which was also unofficially known as the milonga for experienced dancers… 🙂
Moral of the story? People are intelligent and sensitive enough to see when you care about them and not trying to make a quick buck. It is not by coercion (if it is even possible?) or otherwise, but by delivering good services and, of course, a demonstrative passion for tango that you earn the respect of the community.
Andrea Missé
2012, like all new years, is supposed to start with a bang. Unfortunately the tango world has lost yet another of its stars – and a great personal teacher – Andrea Missé. Having hosted a couple of her previous tours to Singapore with Javier Rodriguez, no words can describe how saddened I am by this tragic news. Thank you for your guidance and generosity. RIP.
My prayers go out to her family, some of whom I understand still remains in intensive care at this moment.
