Ledarskapspraktik i koreografiska processer

Sammanfattning: Leadership in choreographic processes have not received enough academic attention. An unwillingness and unfamiliarity to use the concept of leadership can be discerned in artistic contexts, despite the impact leadership has on, for example, learning and socialization into the roles of dancers, students, choreographers and teachers. The purpose of this study was therefore to contribute with knowledge about leadership practice in choreographic processes. The study was based on a process-ontological perspective on leadership practice. Such a perspective can encompass many of the desires of decentralizing approaches to leadership/artistry that have emerged through the reading of previous dance theoretical research. The perspective means that leadership is seen as a process, localized to the practice where it occurs through social interactions that, moment-by-moment, generate direction and clearing for action. Clearing for action is to be understood as an action (to clear for action) but also as a space (a clearing for action) from which certain actions becomes more or less possible and/or limited. The direction might be going in different trajectories, in relation to the moment-by-moment clearing for action. The study was based on a qualitative research approach. Four case studies were chosen for examination. Each case corresponded to a choreographic process in a project aimed at creating dance for the stage. Semi-structured interviews were the main method for compiling data. The interview guide was inspired by the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) because leadership, as defined from the chosen perspective, could be clearly studied during critical events. The interviews were conducted with a choreographer and at least one dancer for each case. A deconstruction was made of the critical events identified in the stories of the respective choreographic processes. The definition of leadership was operationalized by examining constructions of positions (constructions of persons or groups based on how they were supposed to be or what they were supposed do), positionings (how the positions related to each other), issues (constructions of issues that directed the attention of the group) and artifacts (constructions of concrete and/or abstract objects) created and adopted through the choreographic processes, as they were narrated. The result was then presented in the form of theoretically substantiated stories that highlighted how these constructions were created and changed through the critical events. One insight based on the results was that resources of different kinds affect the leadership practice that emerged through these choreographic processes.