Founder’s Keepers – Moving Beyond Founder’s Syndrome

• •  
  • Presentation speakers
    • John Malashock, Artistic Director, Malashock Dance
    • Ruby Lockhart, Executive Director, Garth Fagan Dance
    • Joanna Haigood, Artistic Director, Zaccho Dance Theatre

  Panel

  Established dance companies that still have their Founders at the helm face a unique set of issues, opportunities and challenges. Founders play a key role in every aspect of a dance company – both internally and in terms of public perception. They carry the company’s history, continuity and relationships, and are often the bedrock of their organizations. They are pioneers, but they can also leave their organizations stuck and unable to progress beyond their singular point of view. It is often not easy for the Founder to go from being ‘the one’ to becoming ‘one of’ a team tasked with carrying an organization forward. For a dance company to remain current, vital and relevant, strong creative leadership is needed to complement the Founder’s skills while honoring and supporting their unique role. Founders, for their part, must develop deep personal insight to help empower those around them.

  This panel will bring together long-term organizational Founders as well as long-term administrative and artistic partners who have worked closely with their organization’s Founders. They will discuss ways that Founders can be most effective for their organizations, while minimizing the limitations that can come with being many years in the same position or dominant leadership style. Each organization will give examples of challenges that have arisen around Founder-related issues and share practical and creative ways that they have dealt with these issues. This topic will require some serious soul-searching and honest self-reflection by the panelists, but should reveal deep-seated truths about leadership in this most autocratic of art forms.

 

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