Certificate In Leadership in the Performing Arts

Introduction to over all course:

Welcome to Equal Arts, Certificate in Leadership in the Performing Arts, created especially for women working in, or aspiring to lead within the performing arts sector. Developed as part of the KA210-VET small-scale partnerships in vocational education and training, Erasmus+ initiative, this course brings together real-life industry experience, practical tools, and forward-thinking strategies to help you grow, lead, and thrive. Whether you are stepping into a management role for the first time or deepening your existing leadership practice, this program meets you where you are. Each unit is designed to be completed in short, focused sessions that fit around your professional life. This program is built around three focused units. Each unit is bite size is self-paced, and built to fit around your professional life. There are no lengthy lectures, just focused, meaningful learning you can apply right away. Your journey starts here in Equal Arts. Let’s build the skills, confidence, and connections to shape the future of performing arts together!

Unit 1 Jenny Villa

Title: Sustainability & Professional Development (Who Leads? Women, Voice, and Leadership in the Performing Arts, Spain)

Introduction Unit 1.

How do you take an artistic vision from its inception to reality? A body of work that crosses borders. And still stay true to that vision while navigating bureaucracy and decision-making at all levels?

This unit explores women’s leadership and professional voice through the lens of women working in the performing arts. You will hear from Jenny, a creative producer, lighting designer, and founder of an independent physical theater company based in Majorca, Spain. Over more than 25 years touring across Europe, Australia, and beyond, she has navigated a sector where women are routinely placed in supporting roles such as producing, administrating, enabling while the decision-making and the credit flow elsewhere.

Her experience raises questions that go beyond the stage and the rehearsal room. They are questions about who gets to lead in the performing arts, what it costs to find your own voice inside structures that were not built with you in mind, and what it means to keep going when passion alone is not enough to pay the bills.

This unit invites you to examine the systems that shape who leads and who stays invisible, and to begin imagining what your own leadership voice might look and sound like.

Course Overview on Unit 1:

To build a resilient, long-term career with sustainable practices and personal growth strategies created by Association InDance International. This unit creates the foundation for your learning development in Performing Arts Management.

Unit 1

Title: Sustainability & Professional Development (Who Leads? Women, Voice, and Leadership in the Performing Arts, Spain)

Learning Objectives

In this unit you will:
1. Recognize the structural barriers that women and others face in accessing leadership roles within the performing arts sector
2. Reflect on what leadership looks and feels like from the inside, including doubt, instinct, and the process of finding your own voice.
3. Identify at least one pattern from Jenny’s experience that resonates with your own professional context.
4. Begin to question which narratives about success and leadership you have inherited, and which ones you might choose to rewrite.

Meet the Artist – Jenny

Meet Jenny, a creative producer, lighting designer, and founder of an independent physical theater company based in Majorca, Spain. For over 25 years she has built and toured large-scale work across Europe, Australia, and beyond, producing immersive and visual theater while navigating the financial and structural realities of running an independent company largely on her own terms. In this unit, she reflects on what it took to step out of someone else’s shadow and trust her own voice as a leader, what the myth of meritocracy has cost her and others like her, and what keeps her going when passion alone is not enough.