Teamwork: the dance way

Writing again after a real long time.  

And in this period, have had the chance to grow. Grown in understanding dance and dancers, as well as grown in my profession. Both areas have impacted each other, yet again. 

In the last 3 years, had the possibility to perform as a team more often, and I must admit here, for a bunch of perfectionists we were, we didn’t really get it perfect, but we just managed. Again, a complex group of differing ages, strengths, stamina and understanding. 

In the last 3 years, also had the possibility to work on some creative and challenging topics in my profession, which also meant challenges not just as an individual, but also the team. A complex team with varied skills, temperaments, geographical distances and cultures. 

My attempt here to apply my learning on either sides to team-work. 

1. 
   
2. Understanding the vision collectively as a team

• A teacher/choreographer has a certain vision of the dance they are choreographing. Everything needs to fall in place for this vision to become a reality. It’s a teamwork of not just the dancers, but the costume makers, the lighting and sound experts, the music, the stage, everything. Any of these lacks any small nuance, and the performance can miss the mark.  
• A project also kicks-off first as an idea probably in one person's mind, a vision that needs to be made into a reality by a group of individuals. But first it needs to be understood by everyone. The vision of a huge banyan tree, could turn into a shrub as per one person's understanding, a coconut tree in another's and a bunch of grass in someone else's. 
• Continuous reinforcing and explaining and constantly detailing out and bringing the team to a common understanding is a must in a team. As much as it is the visionary's exercise to make the team understand, the team also needs to constantly work on the detailing, ask the right questions, link each other's pieces to understand what they are going to build/perform. 

Balancing the varying strengths 

• Each individual has their strength, be it fluidity, stamina, expressions, flexibility. A group choreography works well, only when these strengths are used in the right way. An energetic, flexible individual is the right person to portray Shiva, whereas a person strong with fluid movements can be Parvati. If everyone was more fluid, then the dance of Shiva would fail. (As dancers we learn to diversify our skills, but inherent strengths always reign supreme 🙂) 
• Every team needs to bring in a bunch of individuals with diverse skills and strengths. But if an architect were to also do project management, we have an stressed out individual in the team, and the outcome heads close to zero. 
• A good team is always a balanced team of differing skills. Complementary skills need to come together for the vision to be reached. Same skills on a project would only stress the individuals taking the project to no end and inducing attrition. 

Being an “individual” in a team 

• As mentioned above, every individual needs to utilize their individual strengths and skills to play their part well in a choreography. They have been placed in that role for a reason. Suppressing their strength can impact the meaning of the composition. 
• It doesn’t help in a team, if the lead or operations constantly over-rides the working of the developer, or vice-versa. 
• The individual strengths have to be used in the right way and also applied by the individuals in the right way. Every person has their part to play in a team. 

Not being an "individual" in a team 

• But what happens if the choreography needs every member to exactly do the same piece? What happens now if everyone sticks to their strengths? A messy piece with hands at different angles, legs at different angles and no symmetry. Dance relies a lot on symmetry of an individual and every single dancer together. The dancers need to match their body language putting aside their strengths to create a beautiful symmetry.  
• What happens if the dependency deliverables are not understood by a team, and not delivered on time? A project that misses deadlines, scopes. A project that misses quality endangering everything that it was meant to be, as a correction will only mean compromising on time, scope or quality again. 
• Its very important in a project, for each individual to put their differences of strengths, opinion aside and come together to understand their delivery scope and deliver together on the same. Only then a stability, symmetry can be met. The strengths as mentioned before should be used complementarily with the other members to reach a common goal, and not against your own team member. 

Unspoken Communication 

• A group performance relies a lot on unspoken communication. Adjusting the positions, movements always relies on the judgement of the dancer based on their partial vision of their partner's position and body language. No one can really speak out there and have to rely on vision alone, though partial. 
• In a project team, there is a lot of stress on communication management, especially in large projects. A lot of meetings, status calls, get set up. Why do still some project fails with reason being communication failure? 
• A team work also is based on a lot of unspoken communication, which comes in the form of empathizing with your team member, "listening" to every individual's views and statuses and not just hearing, understanding the culture across, helping in challenging situations. And not just on status calls. 

Learning in a team

• Learning dance never ceases. You are always learning something new, observing something new in your team members and trying to also inculcate that in your dance. You learn from your seniors (especially the art of expressing, I would say 🙂). You learn to enjoy. Classical dance forms especially are a treasure house of styles, expressions, movements, stories, values. You learn from every one in your team, including what not to do 🙂  
• Though you are an individual who is assigned in a role, a project, a challenging one at that always gives you the chance to observe your peers, seniors and learn from them. You can always learn from them without over-riding them in their tasks. You can learn new technologies, new roles, but most importantly new ways and better ways of working as a team. 
• Learning never ceases and should never cease. The day you think you know everything, you could as well quit as you would fail soon.