Writing and reading vertical dance as innovating organizations

The economic and financial crisis stressed the focus on innovation as a key process, imagined to support organizations facing the problem of how to produce value in a radically changed milieu. Given this context, the management literature has been looking for innovative practices, investigating those contexts where words such as change, subversion of traditions and innovation have been given a strategic role. This happens, among the others, in artistic productions, where the artist’s creative process is deeply innovative in its nature. The present study aims to investigate the processes of value creation taking place in one of these artistic organizations: Il Posto, an Italian company of vertical dance founded by Wanda Moretti. The choice of Wanda Moretti as an object of observation has a double meaning. As a dancer and a choreographer, her creative process is made of creative thinking and action, such as thinking and action are the main components of the managerial perspective. Secondly, her artistic project is an innovative project in the perspective of modern dance and we aim to observe and identify the innovative dimension of her language. More specifically, the research explores a number of processes taking place during the normal activity of Wanda Moretti. Adopting a qualitative approach and using an interpretative approach based on a narrative model, the case study has been followed by three in-depth observations, where three main activities of the choreographer have been put under the lens of a conceptual microscope in order to analyze the relationship with different contexts and audiences. We then approach arts organizations to read and write innovative processes and understand organizational meanings and practices. This could be an action of resilience in times of crisis, but also a strategy of growth.