Managing With Passion: A Tango Subversion in the Waltz City

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Managing With Passion A Tango Subversion in the
Waltz City

• Paul Shrivastava
• Michelle Cooper

Prepared for the European Group on Organization
Studies Annual Colloquium July 5-7, 2007, on
Beyond Waltz - Dances of Individuals and
Organization Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Vienna,
Austria
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Passion Flower
Managing is rational, analytical, objective.
Little space for subjectivity, passion, intuition
(Gagliardi, 2007). Yet, Passion as desire and
creative flow is at the root of great human
feats (Linstead and Brevis, 2007). Tango offers a
way for cultivating passion (Dey Steyaert,
2007).
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Goals Feel Argentine Tango as a vehicle for
managing with passion.
Outline Getting into the body Concepts Argentine
Tango Demo Managing with Tango Lesson and
Community
Engage Body - Mime Introduction,
Icebreaker Engaging Mind, Body, and
Emotions Tango as a language
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Mime Communication

• Select a partner
• Mime Introductions No words
• Stand across (line up), raise hands
• Push, pull, raise, stretch
• Sequential, Orchestrated, With Music
• Count 20 (eyes closed)

Milonga Sentimental
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Three Concepts

• Embodied Learning
• Emotional Infrastructure
• Managing with Passion

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Concept 1 Embodied Learning
Cognitive/cerebral learning To Holistic
engagement of body, mind and emotions Brings
Focus and Clarity ----------------------------- Li
ght Music
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Concept 2 Emotional Infrastructure of
Organizations

• Organizations have an emotional infrastructure,
  much like they have a physical infrastructure
  (land, plant and facilities, etc) and a
  technology infrastructure (info systems,
  equipment, processes, patents, etc.).
• Emotional infrastructure expresses mood, work
  climate, culture, goodwill, beliefs,
  communications, mutual trust and authenticity

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Concept 3 Managing with Passion

• Passion involves danger, risk, creativity,
  enduring motivation, deep emotional engagement,
  and extreme actions. Passion engages with body,
  mind, and emotion.
• Managing with passion includes finding your
  passion, learning passion skills, living
  passionately in organizations and managing with
  your body mind and spirit/emotions.

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Argentine Tango as a Metaphor for Managing with
Passion Tango - Demanding physical movements,
connection, and musicality, Tango -
Simultaneously engages body, mind and emotions.
Tango - A dance, a music, a culture and a way of
life. It can be a vehicle for develops skills
in improvisation, risk taking, communications,
and team work, leadership, community building
Argentine Tango
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• Three forms
• Tango slow, steady four-count beats, danced on
  1 and 3
• Milonga - faster, simplified steps
• Tango Vals - 1-2-3 of waltz, but danced on the
  ones.
• Milongas The word has three meanings
• the dance milonga,
• the music you dance the milonga to,
• a tango dance party.

You can dance a milonga to a milonga (tune) at a
milonga (party). And that's a great thing!
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What Argentine Tango is Not

• NOT Ballroom or International Tango. They are
  different from head to toe, in posture, embrace,
  improvisation, movement, balance, steps, and
  music.
• NOT Stage Tango (also called "fantasia") which is
  more theatrical and exaggerated, done for
  audiences.

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Puzzle of Two Bodies, Four Legs
What is Argentine Tango Personal dance - a sad
thought that you can dance. It is thought in
musical motion, reflective meditative
dancing. Partner dance Improvisational,
walking, turning, and embellishments while
interpreting music and contrast, a puzzle that
gets put together differently Social dance
socialization and community.
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Summary Language of physical and emotional
communication. A reflective system of
interpreting music and movement.
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Short Tango Demo
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Tango Essence
Tango Aahs - Limitless surprises, make it so
addicting. The addiction is treatable, but not
curable. It takes two - isn't just the man
leading and the woman following. Interdependence,
teamwork, mutual respect.
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Tango Essence 2 No two couples are the
same. No two dances are the same.
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Tango Essence 3 Musicality

• Essence of the dance is in being musical,
• stepping to music, moving to the music,
• becoming part of the orchestra
• emoting with the lyrics
• Chris Bliss Juggling Musicality
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid4776181634
  656145640
• http//www.sonnyradio.com/chrisbliss.html

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Tango Essence 4
A culture of self-development, A social
community with mutual responsibilities
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Tango Lessons 1 - Individual

• Connection with self, partners, community
• Improvisation, Risk-taking
• Communication (with eyes, smile, torso, legs,
  arms, hands, - body language)
• Accepting diversity, difference, globalization
• Balance bodily mental emotional

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Tango Lessons 2 - Group

• Leadership - Leaders suggest, Followers embellish
• Teamwork, Mutuality, Reciprocation,
• Honoring traditions, Innovating
• Trust and community

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Tango Embodying Management Concepts

• Improvisation Realtime choreography
• Trust - Volcada
• Risk - Gancho,
• Communication body and e-motional language

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And Finally Community

• Lets begin creating one here and now
• 30 Min Beginner lesson
• Musicality listen to the beat
• Posture, Hold/Embrace
• Walk in-line
• Walking to the sides,
• Tango Dancing in Vienna

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Posture and Embrace

• A frame, tilt but on-axis, and balanced
• Awareness of partner comfort, weight, security,
  trust
• The Tango Gaze
• Open and Close Embrace, followers choice
• Flexibility of embrace

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Walking

• Line of dance, Traffic responsibilities
• Tango Ettiquette asking, accepting
• Tango Vocabulary steps, turns, pauses,
  embellishments
• Signalling Feet/Legs and Torso
• Steps Weight Shifts, in-line steps
• Walking on the sides
• The Cruzada or Cross

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Tango in Viennawww.tango-austria.com

• Thursday at Tangobar, 2100 hrs
  Deutschmeistersaal in der Albertgasse 43, 1080
  Wien Tel [phone]
• Friday 2200 hrs, Practica by Tango Almagro,
  Studio 0.1 (www.tanzstudio.at), Rienoesslgasse
  4a, 1040 Vienna Info 0676/318-94-68
• Saturday, 1930 hrs Milonga "El Firulete" at
  Österreichischer Touristenklub, Bäckerstr. 16,
  1010 Wien, 1.Stock. Tel. [phone]
• Monday Tango-Salon at the CIU (Centre
  International Universitaire), Schottengasse 1,
  A-1010 Vienna.Info (43)-664-13-19813

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Tango and Your Brain
News Item, November 15, 2005, USA Today

• Dr. Patricia McKinley, associate professor of
  physical and occupational therapy at McGill
  University, at the Annual Meeting of the Society
  for Neurosciences.
• Study compared Tango dancers with walkers among
  aging adults 50 to 80 years old
• Results
• Tango dancers got a boost in self-esteem right
  away
• Both walkers and Tango dancers had better scores
  on memory tests, but only the Tango dancers
  improved on a multitasking test.
• Tango dancers gained improvements in balance and
  motor coordination.
• Explanation Tango engages the mind, the body and
  emotions in complex and changing ways. It has all
  elements of neurologic rehabilitation forward
  and backward movement, side-to-side weight shift,
  one-legged stance, balanced turns, speed changes,
  walking in a straight line back and forth,
  increasing step length in all directions, and
  turning in a narrow space, traffic management,
  musicality.
• Tango satisfies the basic requirements for
  exercise adherence it's fun, it's a group
  activity, and it has a tangible goal that can be
  perceived not only by the dancer, but by family
  and friends.

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A One-Minute Arguable History of 100 Years of
Tango

• Late 1800s, Originated in Argentina - Gauchos,
  Spaniards, Italians, Africans, French,
  Prostitutes, and Gangsters all contributed to its
  development.
• 1900-20s, Gained acceptance respectability in
  Paris and then in Europe
• 1930s-45, Golden Age of Tango, Big orchestras,
  Carlos Gardel
• 1960s, Tango Nuevo, Piazolla and globalization
• 1980s, Broadway, Neo/Alternative Tango, and
  Resurgence in Argentina

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References

• Barsade, Sigal G. and Donald E. Gibson, Why does
  affect matter in organizations Academy of
  Management Perspectives, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp.
  36-59, February 2007
• Collins, Jim, From good to great. Why some
  companies make the leap.. and others dont,
  Harper Collins, NY, 2001.
• Dey, P. and C. Steyaert,The Troubadours of
  knowledge Passion and invention in management
  education Organization, 14, 3, 2007, pp.
  437-461.
• Fineman, Steven, Understanding Emotion at Work,
  Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.
• Gagliardi,P. The collective repression of pathos
  in organization studies Organization, 14, 3,
  2007, pp. 331-338,
• Linstead, S. and J. Brevis,Passion, knowledge
  and motivation Ontologies of desire
  Organization, 14, 3, 2007, pp. 351-372.
• Savigliano, Marta, Tango and the political
  economy of passion, Westview Press, Boulder, CO
  1995.
• Shrivastava, Paul Managing with passion. Manual
  for CAPS 497 capstone course, Bucknell
  University. 2007.
• www.tejastango.com