Originally Posted by
David Bailey
Right, first off, here's the simple rule.
Never, never, never give advice during a freestyle.
It's off-putting, it's inappropriate, and it ruins the flow of a dance. There's an otherwise-lovely lady in Tango who does this with me, by occasionally pointing out some of the many flaws I have whilst leading - OK, fair enough, it does help me dance in a way, but it also messes up my enjoyment of the dance.
So, just don't do it. If you really feel the need to give advice, simply talk to them afterwards.
Secondly, there's the more complex issue of "advice during a class". I generally don't give advice, because that's not what I'm there for. In addition, as I usually auto-compensate for most follower problems during an average Ceroc class, it's not often clear to me what a follower is doing wrong.
However, in some circumstances, it's appropriate to give advice. For example, I did an AT class last night, and one or two of the women were applying a lot of downards pressure with their left arms. As we were working for 5 minutes or more each time, I knew I'd have problems with an aching shoulder later, so I suggested to them how they could adjust their hold appropriately. Similarly, I spent some time in that class working as a follower (with a female lead), and I was dispensing non-stop advice then, simply because that was the ethos of that situation, and because I knew that's what my partner wanted.
Bookmarks