Leadership Through The Arts: Alvin Ailey, Ballet Russes, and The Fly Girls

Innovation within the artistic community is fascinating. It shows us that leadership and entrepreneurial qualities are found everywhere. Alvin Ailey, for instance, created his own brand and style of dance company…in part, to have the freedom to create culturally-infused dance. Ailey trained and mentored Judith Jamison, the company’s star dancer, who took over as artistic director upon Ailey’s passing. The Ballet Russes was the first company to pair ballet with well-known classical music, and basically launched Igor Stravinsky’s career. The company’s costumes were designed by artists including Matisse and Picasso. Rosie Perez was featured recently on BET’s top 25 dancers of all time. Why? She was the architect of The Fly Girls, on the show “In Living Color” in the 80s. Rosie Perez took a physical, urban, and historically-male style of dance and taught it to women. Then those women were on national TV and a ripple effect began. While not all of the artists mentioned above are women, they are all innovators. This is a message to entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs everywhere to go ahead, take a risk, test your idea no matter what your industry. Go out there…connect…collaborate…bring your idea to life.