Originally Posted by
Moondancer
I would really appreciate it if someone could explain the differences to me between “backleading”, “hi-jacking” and “playing”. [Is it one of those irregular verbs? “I play”, “You hijack”, “She backleads”?!].
Also, after reading the various threads about leaders and followers in class, I’m a bit unclear now about what I should do in class when we are being taught new moves. If the man I’m standing with on the rotation hasn’t got a clue and I know what I should be doing, should I do it anyway, or should I just stand there because he isn’t leading it? And if he leads me wrong, should I go with his lead, or not? Once, in class, the teacher said "If the lead doesn't lead this, then followers, stand there until he does" and there were a lot of women who didn't move! Unfortunately, the teacher only said that the one time.
I find once we get to freestyle some men expect me to get the taught move right even if their lead has been unclear, and if I don’t get it then they tell me it is my fault - obviously, because I’m a beginner so it’s always my fault! It's not that I'm not listening to what other people are saying about the follower having to be led properly for it to work, but out there on the dance floor, surely I have to do more than just be led well in order to get on and dance?
I'm confused about this because I know I can get loads more moves right with good dancers, but I want to be able to get it right with other dancers too - is this a case of getting to understand particular men's signals and knowing their favourite moves so I become better at predicting what their leads mean, or is there something else I should be doing?
With some men, it seems like I am constantly having to second guess what they are doing because their lead is more of a “waft”, or because the move we learnt in class could actually lead to any number of different moves, but could be presumed to be that particular one because that’s the one we just learnt…But if I correctly guess what my partner is trying to do and then I do it, isn’t that as much backleading as if I guess wrong about what he is trying to do and do something else by mistake?
I wouldn’t yet have the nerve to deliberately try to do anything except follow, so at what stage does the follower start to make an active contribution to the dance, and how does one go about learning how to do it properly i.e. to “play” rather than “backlead”? Sometimes I feel a bit frustrated if I can hear a break coming up in the music and my partner just dances through it and misses the musical point – is this the kind of feeling that leads to hijacking?
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