Performing Leadership: The Pedagogical Impact of the Studio Owner as Community Leader

Abstract

This article by the owner of a private dance studio in the independent sector conceives of “studio owner” as a unique and pedagogically powerful role within dance education and beyond. In addition to often serving explicitly as an educator in the role of a classroom teacher, the studio owner also potentially serves as an implicit model—teaching by example, perhaps even unknowingly—for a wide audience of dance students, dance families, and the larger community. Viewing teaching as performance, the article argues that dance studio owners can use their positionality to exert positive influence, advocate for change, and empower others. Examples of such opportunities are provided in the form of autoethnographic narrative and reflection and a mnemonic device called “the Five Es.”