This paper examines the complexity of relationships between choreographer and dancers by examining interview data collected from 25 professional dancers participating in the re-mounting of a professional post-modern dance work. The research focuses on the tensions between choreographic leadership and the group dynamic of the dancers performing in the work. The dancers often saw their relationships with each other as equal in importance to the choreographer in structuring the process, and many reflected that it was the collective atmosphere in the room and the choreographer's sensitivity to seeing the group dynamics and their ability to navigate them, which made for a successful process. The collective atmosphere often depended on the dancer's expectations of leadership, and its intersection with the choreographer's working style. The implications of these findings are that dancer expectations and understanding of the choreographer role is equally important to the choreographer's skills in navigating the group dynamics of the experience, and that both are more relevant to leadership than specific intrinsic qualities of the dance's leader.