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Recently I have been reviewing technique, then I came across this line and I couldn't help but sharing it with you all:
A lot of nonsense is often talked about leading. Leading, contrary to the popular image, is not a case of the man making the lady dance a particular figure or move. Rather, a good lead from man merely makes clear his intention to the lady, who then follows.
Can't agree anymore.
It is in fact not the first time I learnt about it in leading, several years ago I heard in one of Bryan Watson and Karen Hardy's teaching of basics. A man's job is to give clear information to the lady as how and which way he would like them to go and the lady had the final decision to choose if she would like to follow or not. It has been quite a long while I haven't heard people talk about leading in a sensible way.
Social dancing is a social activity, it usually stresses on 'social' rather than 'dancing', but one can dance well, it is a bonus. Social means everyone gets to know each other, they convey, they communicate, they discover a common interest or they compromise, then they either go together towards the same direction or they keep exchanging ideas until a decision is made.
This is exactly social dancing. Social dancing is mutual. It is never man leads and put his lady to wherever he wants her to, neither is it the man leads but the girl does not follow then one of them should have done wrong, nor it should be like lady only needs to follow and not be productive in floorcrafting. No, no, no, all wrong.
In social dancing, man needs to make his signal or intention clear, the lady has the freedom to choose to follow or not. From here we can derive several situations:
1. When a lady intentionally does not follow if there is clear enough signal, no body is doing anything wrong;
2. When the signal is not clear enough so the lady can't follow, then the blame is in the man;
3. When the signal is clear enough but the lady doesn't know how to follow, then maybe both need to sharpen their skills.
1. When a lady intentionally does not follow if there is clear enough signal, no body is doing anything wrong;
2. When the signal is not clear enough so the lady can't follow, then the blame is in the man;
3. When the signal is clear enough but the lady doesn't know how to follow, then maybe both need to sharpen their skills.
The lady in the first case should be an advanced dancer since normal dancers do not even know that lady can show their intentions. The man in this case should take the lady's intention carefully- she is probably giving signals subtly for the man on what to do on the next move. While some of the men I know quite enjoy the challenges from lady's 'sabotage', many I know think the lady is too ignorant. Anyway, a man should be happy when the lady dares to charge him, this is usually a sign of admiration, as ladies do not charge any one easily.
In the second case, man you really need to improve yourself.
In the third case, surely the lady needs some improvements, especially the frame and weight, footwork comes next. Usually, if a lady can carry herself well, she has the finest texture like the best and lightest silk hanging on the man's arms and thus he has no difficulties at all to carry her and glide across the floor. However, the man also needs to sharpen his skills in leading especially on the frame too. Usually when a man has a firmly enough frame the lady only needs little effort to follow even that is a complete beginner.
It is always good to know the correct leading and following technique, even though most people you dance with are type 2 or 3.
And I know even a type 1 lady often choose to follow, it only means that she hasn't met a man she would like to have more fun with; these ladies will sometimes choose to dance as a man so that they can always have the fun of being in control.
I know it because I know many type 1 ladies.
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