Lead & Follow Workshop - Notes

[DavidB]

Lead and Follow
Part 1 – Basic techniques
Dancing is usually taught backwards – you start with patterns, and eventually learn the basics. But it is the basics that let you do the patterns. It is the basics that let you start ‘dancing’, rather than just doing a ‘dance’. Leading and Following is probably the most important skill you can learn to help your dancing. It is not difficult, but it is very easy to do badly.
Definitions
Leading: The leader indicates to the follower where to go, how to get there, and how fast to do it

Following: The follower puts into effect what your partner indicates he wants you to do
If you don’t lead the lady, she won’t do anything. Or she will do whatever she wants.
Ways of leading & following
• Verbal leads – literally telling your partner what to do. This is used in Carolina Shag, Square Dancing, Salsa Rueda
• Do a Routine. If you always do the same routine, you don’t have to let your partner know what is coming up. You might still have to help though
• Signals. A pre-arranged visual code understood by both leader & follower
• Closed-frame connection. Used in ballroom dances and Argentine tango. The lead comes primarily from the movement of the body.
• Open-frame connection. The lead is a combination of body movement and hand movement. This is what we are used to in Modern Jive. It is also used in Latin, Lindy, ECS, WCS, etc.

With Verbal leads, routines & signals, the follower knows exactly what to do for the whole move before she even starts. But with connection leads, the follower only knows the move after it is finished.
Connection
Neutral position. Get the correct separation – you should be able to move both closer and further away without any problems. Feel the weight of your partner’s hand, not the arm. Still a slight bit of leverage even though not leading.

Pistol Grip. Index finger along the side of the lady’s palm. Hook with the other 3 fingers. This allows more control, especially moving side to side.

Frame. The arm is toned, but not tense. About the same tone as holding a pint.

Compression & leverage. Basic push/pull exercise. Key feature of MJ – it alternates from compression to leverage and back. You are able to move the lady either by moving yourself, increasing the leverage/compression, or by moving your hand.

Pressure. The follower should match the pressure in the leader’s hand.

Follow the hand. This allows the man to move the lady from side to side. This is the first part of following that requires some knowledge, and is not a natural reaction.

Leading
The Lead comes before the Follow. They do not happen at the same time
The hand closest to the centre does the leading. The closest you can get is with a hand on the lady’s back.
The closer the hand is to the centre, the less time the lady has to react

Flashlighting
A torch on your Solar Plexus. The closer this torch is to shining at your partner, the more connected you look and feel.

Exercises
Yoyo with only leverage
Yoyo with only compression
Basket
Basket Unwrap
Basket walk – both forwards & backwards
Indication and Invitation Leads
These are two types of lead. Most leads are indication leads - the man indicates to the lady what he wants her to do. The lady does not have a choice about doing the move - she does it. This doesn't require any force or strength - just understanding of what the roles of a leader and follower are. If I lead a First Move, I don't expect the lady to think "I'll decline that lead, and do a Basket instead". It also requires a lot of trust on the part of the follower. If she has no choice on doing the move, then she has to trust that the leader will not do anything inappropriate or dangerous.

Invitation leads are when the leader invites the lady to do something of her own. These are typically used when improvising to the music. The lady can do whatever she wants - including declining the invitation, extending the pattern, or hijacking the lead.

Some leads are a combination e.g. a Freespin. The man indicates to the lady that she is to spin, but invites the lady how many spins to do. Others can change depending on how you lead them - a return can be a simple indication to do a single return, or an invitation to lift up your arm and do something different.

In many moves you don’t have to actively lead the lady at every point in time. Eg in a return, once you have got the lady moving and turning, you just need to maintain connection, and not keep leading a turn. Once you are not indicating what you want the lady to do, it becomes a type of invitation. This invitational part of a normal move is sometimes called a Window of Opportunity.

A key part of partner dancing is getting the balance right between indication leads and invitation leads. This depends on the man, the lady, the music, even the time of evening.

Part 2 – Common problems, exercises, & ideas

Separate the ‘partner dancing’ and ‘individual style’.
If your style affects your partner, it is just bad dancing. Consider the absolute minimum you need to do to lead & follow. Anything extra you add is only to make it look or feel better. The quiet lead is the minimum. Salsa adds the rhythm of the music to the lead, and this suits the salsa style of dancing. It also works because both the leader and follower expect it.
In jive, some beginners need an indication of the beat in the lead - otherwise they drift off time. But once you are comfortable with the beat, it is unnecessary for your partner to constantly remind you. It no longer makes it feel better. And given that your leads have to be big enough to be noticed over this background 'noise' it can make it feel a lot worse. The only thing left is whether you consider it looks better to constantly shake your hand up and down...

How much pressure?
Driving a Merc, not pulling a rickshaw. She has got an engine, brakes and power steering. Use of the airbags is to be kept off the dance floor.
The hand is an amplifier. You do not physically move all her weight from one position to another. You indicate where she is to go, and let her do the work! It is not a tug of war - let her dance! In return, the ladies should also control their own momentum, and not use the man as a brake.
Dancing with a £5 note – leverage, compression and flat hands

Physical vs visual connection
Non-visual leads - Dancing blind
Visual leads - Dancing without touching.
Don’t confuse the lady with different leads

Conversation
Leading and following is often thought of as a conversation. A quiet lead could be compared to having a private, almost whispered conversation. A rhythmical, salsa-type lead would be more like singing over a backing track. But the cocktail-shaker lead of some jivers is more like shouting to be heard at a crowded nightclub.

Hijacking
When can you do it – only when the leader lets you. Either in an invitation move, or in a Window of Opportunity.
Bam-Bam move

Momentum
Maintaining & redirecting momentum

Connection not restricted to hands
Lady’s back & shoulders – Alternating triple

Body leads vs arm leads
Isolation
Advanced leading / advanced following
Leading too fast - Follow your own lead

Defensive dancing
From other people, and from your partner
Look where you send her. If someone is being dangerous, the man should position himself to take the hit, and not use the lady as a shield.
Self protection – Elasticity in the connection

Leading depends on the follower
Dancing with a beginner – emphasize clearly defined leads. Precision is the priority.
Dancing with an advanced dancer – allows more subtlety
Don’t try a subtle lead with a beginner – it is not fair!

Hand Grip
Different grips for different things - Pistol Grip, Fingertip grip, Strong wrist grip, Closed position
Squeezing is a natural reaction when your partner is about to hit someone.
Absolutely do not place your thumb on the back of the lady’s hand

Arm Tone
Think tone, not tension - As much tone as you would use to hold a drink.
Should be more tone side to side, and very little tone up and down. Support the weight of your own arm.
The arm should never be locked – either by fully straightening the elbow joint, or by locking the muscles.

Compensation
Watch the lady – however good she is. You can only lead what she is capable of following. That may mean she is not able to do the move you wanted. With more advanced ladies you need to see if they are doing more than you lead. Give them the time to do this, and take the credit for ‘leading’ it.

Physics
It is not ‘Force = Mass * Acceleration’. It is Positive feedback for the lady, and Negative Feedback for the man.

Signals
Not really leading. But it is useful for beginners – lets them get dancing without knowing too much
3 problems:
• assumes your partner has seen the signal
• assumes your partner knows what the signal means
• possible to do a signal without knowing about it.
It is far safer, and looks more professional, to learn how to lead, rather than learning semaphore.

Turns
Lifting the hand is not a lead for a turn. It is a lead for the lady to lift her hand. There should always be something else in the motion of the hand that means ‘turn’.

Semi-Circle with the hand
This is a pretty ingenious trick to get men to start their lead at the right time, and without too much force. However if you want to be really subtle and be able to control exactly how far the lady goes back, then the semi-circle can get in the way. I try not to think of pulling and pushing - with a good follower, all it takes is a slight compression, or even just a reduction in leverage (it is interesting to lead someone away from you when the only pressure is pulling her towards you.)

I also find from a visual perspective that I can't distinguish 'semicircles' and 'bouncing' with the hands. All I see are the hands constantly going up and down

Who minds if you miss a lead
The more experienced a leader gets, the better he is at covering up if the lead gets missed. So the less he worries about it. But the more experienced a lady gets, the more frustrated she gets if she misses a lead.

Floorcraft
It is up to the man to check if there is room for the lady.
If there is no space to go into, then the lady should stop following!
If the lady is spinning, and someone looks like they are going to hit her, then try to lead her away. If possible stop the spin first.

[Gadget]

I know that you advocate this as the 'standard' grip because it allows better connection for latteral leads, but I'm struggling to find any examples of moves that would benifit from better latteral guidance:
Take a simple turn/return; since the lady should be following her hand, the subtle latteral element that the fore finger could be used for is over-ridden by the 'leverage' element in the connection used to raise the hand.
The only example I can come up with is leading the lady in a 'hip-sway' style walk.

[DavidB]

I never want one lead to contradict another. I want them all to be working together to lead the same thing. So all parts of the lead - the movement of the hand, the pressure on the hand, the body position etc should all be saying the same thing to the lady.

Although I tell the lady to 'follow her hand', I don't necessarily have to 'move' the hand from one point to another. Just by rotating her hand, I can get the lady to move in a circle. Or by combining rotation and lateral movement, I can get her to twist on the spot.

I'll use my index finger when leading a First Move, to guide the lady to my right shoulder, and then to start the twist out. I'll release the pressure to reduce the chance that she might twist out too much. (This lets me lead a first move without using my right hand - a move I frequently do to slower swingier music. And if I decide to use both hands, then one lead complements the other, and makes it more obvious to the lady what she should do.)

After the turn under the arm, my hand tends to be in a different position, with a overhand grip instead of a pistol grip. I now have no part of my hand on the outside of her hand. But I can now use a slight legerage on the other side of her hand to control her. I use this leverage to stop the turn, and keep this leverage to guide the lady past my right shoulder in a return. Then when I don't use any leverage, and with a slightly different body position, I can guide her under my left arm.

If I had led a free spin out of the first move, then I will catch the lady with all of my fingers on the outside of her hand, just to make sure I catch her.

Turns do involve a lot of guidance. Very rarely in freestyle does anyone do a turn or a return on the spot. The lady is almost always travelling. When leading a turn it is important to lead the size and the direction of the travelling before leading the turn. So the lateral movement does not get 'overridden' by the raising of the hand - it happens first.

I also use a lot of 'lateral guidance' to guide the lady out of the way of other dancers.

David

[Gadget]

Originally posted by DavidB
I never want one lead to contradict another. I want them all to be working together to lead the same thing. So all parts of the lead - the movement of the hand, the pressure on the hand, the body position etc should all be saying the same thing to the lady.

makes sense. I think I need to practice/develop it a bit more to get a proper 'feel' of latteral leading with the fore-finger (Although I do now adopt the 'pistol grip', I don't use the fore finger - which is kind of the point of the grip )

I also use a lot of 'lateral guidance' to guide the lady out of the way of other dancers.

Generally I use a sharp pull to stop her short of iminent collissions (when the lady travels a bit further than expected) or re-direct her momentum to a clearer area. I think that I would need a stronger finger to do this with just the lateral lead.