Have you ever had to make decisions for a group? What’s it like to lead when not everyone is on board? How important is it to err on the side of caution?

Leadership comes with a price. It’s called responsibility. Folks who follow your lead trust you to make good decisions and depend on you to distill all the available information, forecast the possibilities, and take timely action.

Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. You might be the head of a family, the founder of a business, or an elected official. Or you simply have yourself to decide for and your own self to lead. Regardless, you’ve got a compass in your consciousness and it’s up to you to trust your own True North.

Decision making, especially in times of turmoil, is a balancing act. On one side is your gut, your beliefs, and your best guesses. On the other is whatever body of information you have at hand, which is hopefully fact-based . Add to that any extraneous motivations you may have one way or the other, and watch out for the twin tricksters of panic or denial.

This weekly newsletter goes out to around 10,000 people like you around the world. Many of you are facilitators, trainers, teachers, or some sort of guide. In other words, a lot of you are leaders. And you’re not just leaders of any field, the world of conscious dance and somatic movement is predicated on connection, touch, and contact.

So the idea of ‘social distancing’ is anathema to the ethos of the movement world, and our field has never had to face anything quite like this. There is a plausible chance that the coronavirus may reach levels approaching that of the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu epidemic, the history of which is explained in detail in this article in The Smithsonian.

As leaders, we can first, of course, cross our fingers and hope not. Meanwhile, we have no choice but to make decisions and take action. Yesterday I ran across this bit of advice from the folks at Sequoia, one of the largest venture capital firms in the tech industry.

“Having weathered every downturn for nearly fifty years, we’ve learned an important lesson — nobody ever regrets making fast and decisive adjustments to changing circumstances… In some ways, business mirrors biology. As Darwin surmised, those who survive “are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.”

The key takeaway is that it’s wise to adjust quickly in times of flux. And as dancers, we inherently understand the value of adapting to change. I would add that holding the value of love high in your heart when thinking about the welfare of the folks you lead is a good idea as well.

This is all hitting close to home for me. As you probably know if you’ve been reading Monday Love for long, I’m currently the host, resident DJ, and baton-carrier for Dance Jam, one of the longest-running ‘freestyle-ecstatic-barefoot’ community dances in the USA going back to 1976 every Friday night in Berkeley.

After the dance last Friday I had an exchange with one of our dancers that was a wake-up call. I was voicing some of my concerns about the coronavirus in general and the impact on our community in particular. In reply, I was told, “What? That flu that’s going around? Do you think it’s a big deal? Is it really a problem in other countries? Wow, that’s depressing!”

That’s when it hit me. I realized that a lot of good-hearted and well-meaning members of our community exist in an entirely different information bubble than I do. Talking further with some of the other folks at my dance I was surprised to learn that it’s actually fairly common for people to pay absolutely no attention to the news or current events at all, let alone discerning between valid scientific information and click-bait headlines that downplay the dangers.

In normal times, this is understandable and even admirable. A ‘low-information-diet’ can be helpful to folks on a spiritual path or those simply seeking peace of mind. But in the context of a conscious dance where the whole point is to physically connect with others or do contact improv, having one person who ignores their symptoms or chooses not to wash their hands could be disastrous for the entire group.

Adding to that the fact that probably a third of the regulars at our dance is over the age of 60, the highest-risk population for Covid-19, and I find myself at the crux of the balance between ‘wait-and-see’ until it’s too late or exercising an abundance of caution and pressing pause on the dance until this blows over. Out of love for my community, I choose the latter.

So without a crystal ball or a time machine, there’s no way to know how this plays out yet. I hope that within a few weeks we can all relax and get back to normal and that I’ll look back on my decision to halt the dance as overly cautious. On the other hand, it may well be that the lack of a weekly dance is the least of our worries, and we’ll be supporting one another in other ways as we collectively get through this.

In the meantime, the least I can do is to continue playing records and sharing my music every Friday night. I will set up a live streaming link on the Dance-Jam.com website and deliver a virtual DJ set from my home studio from 8:30 to 11:30 pm PST directly to your living room, laptop, or mobile device. The silver lining in this is that anyone, anywhere, will be free to tune into the virtual jam regardless of location, so put a reminder on your calendar and get your dance on with me.

May you be healthy and safe, my love and gratitude go out to you…

Much love till next Monday,

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight shines  on Melissa Michaels and the Golden Bridge Team! Melissa is a social artist dedicated to promoting collective renewal through the liberation of the creative spirit. She is the founder of Golden Bridge, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving and empowering people through body-centred initiatory processes, mentoring, and community action. A first-generation teacher of the 5Rhythms®️ and a Registered Somatic Educator and Therapist, Melissa holds a doctorate degree in Education, Leadership and Change.

Melissa’s work with Golden Bridge has focused on mapping the journey from trauma to dynamic well-being using the expressive and social arts to establish the body and heart as resources for authentic expression and diverse community connections. Rooted in rhythm and spirit , Melissa’s work inspires the sacred union between spirit, flesh, psych, and deed.

Golden Bridge works on an individual and community level, healing as they help to move into collaborative service and leadership. The foundation of each program is grounded in somatic, dance-based processes focused on educating people to renegotiate trauma within their body and express themselves in an authentic, life-serving way. Each Golden Bridge team member is dedicated to providing a meaningful and spiritually guided somatic experience.

With regularly scheduled events in Boulder, Colorado, Melissa and the Golden Bridge team offer a variety of movement-based workshops and classes. The Sunday Movement Mass joins each member together in celebratory community, guiding participants to connect with their vulnerabilities and their vast creative intelligence. These masses take place in the Avenue Ballroom or the Boulder JCC, both in Boulder, Colorado.

Other upcoming events include the Revival Spring Dance on Friday, April 10th and the Rhythms 5Rhythm Movement Experience on Friday, April 10th and Wednesday, May 6th. Join Melissa for a night of deep dancing and live music at the Revival Spring Dance, where participants will be encouraged to revive, recharge, and renew in the spirit of spring and new beginnings. Looking for something a little more regular? The Rhythms Experience is a recurring monthly event dives into the rich landscapes of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness movement as developed by Gabrielle Roth. Come as you are and experience movement in a creative and freeing environment.

More information on Golden Bridge and Melissa Michaels can be found here.