Inquiry questions Respondent 2

Interview questions BAPP Arts Inquiry

Respondent 2 has worked for the company for eight years and started out as a head dancer, she then went on to choreograph extensively for the company and now looks after all twenty four head dancers who work for parkdean.

Please discuss your experience as a head dancer and the challenges/accomplishments you have come across.

One of the main challenges in my opinion is working with different individuals and finding ways to get the most out of each person. As a head dancer you cannot teach everyone exactly the same, you need to find out different individual personalities. Some people you can push a bit harder and that will ensure you get the most out of them, however others may be more sensitive and switch off to a strong personality. Accomplishments for me include seeing people grow and watching them improve. I know that I can dance and I know what to do as a head dancer so my accomplisments come out of what others achieve on my team.

What skills and attributes do you think a head dancer should have and why?

Obviously, dancing skills and technically trained is important because its difficult to teach others if you do not have great understanding of the movement yourself. They need to have people management skills, which goes back to understanding different people. You need to be able to speak to people on all levels and have great communication skills. Also being able to lead by example.

Where can the skills you have acquired in this job be used when making a career transition?

As a head dancer you acquire the skills that enable you to lead a team of people and working in a team as well. So teamwork and being a leader will help in almost any job. Communication skills again will help when trying to acquire a job and also in any customer care type work it will only benefit you. As a head dancer you always need to be enthuasiastic which again will help just in general life.

An emotional intelligent leader primes good feeling in those they lead, how do you think this type of leadership could help/hinder a head dancer?

I think if someone was really upset and it was apparent in a rehearsal I would try to make the rehearsal a bit more fun and probably not give them as many corrections. I might do a silly warm up just to uplift the whole team rather than centre in on one person. As a head dancer as well its your job to bring the team up and motivate them which is a hard skill to achieve.

Is it important as a head dancer to adapt to the 'situational leadership' style whereby you fit your style to the needs of the individual and to the situation at hand?

It is definitely important to work on the individual. There are a lot of people who have got so much enthusiasim but are actually not that great performance wise and then they can get disheartened if you are constantly giving them negative feedback, so you have to balance it out. With the people who have a high competency for the job but lack enthusiasm I would try to give them a challenge to keep them motivated. With the person who is a level 1 I would be working more on their technique, I would be giving them challenges that suit them.

Discuss this statement 'To be a head dancer you need to be an exceptional dancer as well'.

I would like to agree with that because that is what I would like, and I like to employ head dancers that are exceptional dancers as well however it is not the case with everybody, but that is what I strive to have for the head dancers of this company. But I dont always necessarily think that being a great dancer will make you a great head dancer. For example I think there are alot of other qualities that are necessary to be a great head dancer like being able to break things down, work as a team and lead people. As a head dancer you need to work to make the team dance in sync and help to bring your team up to standard.