The Duality of Eldership: Refining a Practice

By Jeff M. Poulin

A few weeks ago during our Quiet Week (learn more about this practice here or listen to our podcast episode on the topic), I spent my time immersed the way I always do the final week of June: transforming hotel ballrooms into theatres and surrounded by young dancers of all ages making powerful and entertaining performances. 

See, when I was just fourteen, I got involved with a dance education organization, Dancers, Inc. Known primarily for its competitions and convention series, the program that had the most impact for me was their national title program which recognizes well-rounded dancers for their abilities on and off the stage as the next generation of leaders in the dance industry. I was recognized in 2016 as Mr. Dancers, Inc and had the opportunity to tour the country and hone my skills as a performer, teaching artist and arts manager on-, back-, and offstage.

Today, I work with this same company with different groups of young dancers and their fellow performers year-after-year all around the country re-producing the same transformative program which so deeply impacted my life. As we wrap up our series on redefining eldership, I can’t help but to draw connections between my own experience as an elder of this program (I’ve been involved for almost 20 years!) and the ideas presented in our series.

One of the things that I love most about my time with Dancers, Inc is the intergenerationality of it all. From the very start, we work as a team regardless of our age and experience. We have directors who have few years of experience and directors who have decades. At every juncture, we are training, upskilling, and imagining new possibilities of how we work with crew who are still in high school and others who have been roadies for since before I was born. As an elder, I spend my time teaching all sort of things: some very technical like how to run the lightboard; others fairly pragmatic, like the proper way to roll marley to make it last as long as possible; all while supporting a cadre of performers and teaching artists working together to put up days of performances with folks whom they have never met. Through it all we build community for our team, the young dancers and their families, and the years of alumni who continue to give back.

That is the power of intergenerationality and the generosity of eldership: It is not about knowing the right thing to do, it is about doing the right thing together. 

In the origins of this work, we, at Creative Generation, first heard the call to redefine eldership as part of the “Redefining Leadership: Results of a Global Study on Leadership in Arts & Cultural” as part of the 2020 Young & Emerging Leaders Forum hosted by the World Alliance for Arts Education. In this study, we heard from study participants of all career stages that eldership is a vital role in our field of practice and must be redefined. One participant stated, “Eldership is about understanding the multiple possibilities of truth” and it is through that lens that this series was explored. 

In my own contribution to this series, I reflected on my own examination of the actions and attributes of elders throughout my career (so far!) and realized a few things:

  • Inclusion Should be Radical;

  • Power Hoarding is the Enemy; and

  • Young Activist Staff are the Best Possible Addition to Your Team.

From my vantage point as the Managing Director of Creative Generation, these are powerful affirmations and wonderful reminders that should be written on sticky-notes for me to read daily. 

My colleagues added depth and texture to these ideas, specifically amplifying the underlying assumption in my letter: there is a duality to eldership that leads us to balance. Balance between generational power, inner-balance, and a balance between histories and futures.

Several of my colleagues wrote about the dichotomy between different facets of relationships, like eldership, mentor, and from those who are not with us:

Some of my colleagues gave insights from their specific work witnessing eldership in specific communities, like the Queer community, working in a senior living community, and in higher education:

Others provided practice insights to serve as guideposts as we navigate the complex relations of eldership and intergenerationality:

As we close out this series and I continue to contemplate what I learned from my elders ans from those to whom I am an elder in the dance world, I am forever grateful for just that - the learning. Intergenearationality, if for no other purpose, is about teaching and learning. Eldership, for me, is a duality of both, together.