Gerry i have led you and been led by you, nought wrong in either case mate.
Some ladies are great leaders, Trouble, Snow White, Tor (exceptional), and everyone else I missed.
If you can lead and follow you must be a better dancer just by the fact that you swop during the dance and have fun fun fun.
DTS XXX XXX
Aside from all the other great things that have been mentioned, I find that as a follower I need to pay a lot of attention to my partner, and this is a useful skill as a leader too.
Does dancing as a follow do any harm? I've only just started dancing as a follow, I am well aware that I'm at the < 6 week beginner stage with it! I dance the occasional part track and full track, I did my first full beginners class as a follow last night.
At the very least I've found it useful just to see things from your followers perspective, I think I have adjusted my lead technique slightly already as a result of the experience.
Can anybody see any reasons why I should not dance as a follow sometimes?
I personally think that all teachers should be able to do the opposite role too, otherwise they are just teaching half the class.
So if a lady asks the teacher during freestyle 'How do I do this' he should be able to show her.
If a male teacher is only teaching the leaders and not the followers, then he is only teaching half the class.
But if a lady asks a teacher how to do something during freestyle and the teacher show's her - he's only teaching one person, which is even worse than only half the class!
Fortunately, most teachers are lucky enough to have a (presumably) competant and experienced partner who can go into greater detail than the teacher could regarding their role should it be required.
Of course, the most sensible thing to do IMO would be to recognise that both people on the stage have something important to contribute and call them both teachers
I don’t think I have met any teachers who cannot follow and lead
Seems to be part of the job
IMHO yes and no, I have never been a follower in a Ceroc class, there are times when I am totally mistified at what I have been led to do and when I have totally f%cked it up.
When I have waited and kept my frame I think I have followed OK, you can tell me if that is so as you have led me, by the way our dances are allways a blast as I haven't a clue what your going to have me doing, which is why its so much fun.
When my frame dissappears lots of mistakes appear and I am all over the place.
When I have done Ceroc classes I find half of the women have led themselves, I become very frustrated as I find I am not allowed to perform my function of the dance which is to lead.
I find that most Ceroc classes do not take the time to reinforce how important the frame is for them to be able to follow and to be led.
While framework is not being reinforced it is important for the followers to be taught the moves to at least understand what could be coming up.
Sorry its late and its seems to be a bit of a jumble, hopefully i have made a few pertinent points.
Over and out
An appreciation of drawing the follower into a move on the correct foot, is often overlooked.
I spent a couple of years sharing a place with a female MJ dance teacher and we used to work out moves for our lessons together (even though she worked for a different dance company to me) - for the routines, we always swapped roles of lead and follow and gave feedback.
The biggest thing I learnt was to "correct foot" the follow. To make it flow.
Following on, I am now very aware, when a class routine does not give the follow "recovery time" or "stuffs up natural ballance" or "makes the follow fudge the footwork".
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