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Thread: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

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    Registered User Phil_dB's Avatar
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    Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Obviously to those who can do both:

    What do you prefer? Or, which aspects of each do you prefer? And why?

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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    In order to teach/taxi one has to or ought to be able to do both.

    But I learned to follow before there were taxis and the thought of teaching had not entered my head. A then Ceroc guru explained that all men should learn to follow. He said there were 3 reasons. Firstly it is just fun. Secondly it makes the men better leaders (and vice versa for the ladies), learning what your partner is going through. And thirdly a man can easily sound facetious and condescending when trying to explain to his partner how to do the move right and or that she is doing it wrong. But it looks and sounds better if he can show her how it is done.

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    Senior Member Minnie M's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I prefer to follow - you don't have to think too much


    --ooOoo--
    Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter
    Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)

    Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
    That date is recognized as her official birthday.

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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I like both - I normally lead, being a man, but am happy to follow too (and will wiggle with the best of them as various people will testify ). I think if I was following all the time I wouldn't enjoy it so much, but it makes a nice change maybe once or twice an evening. I like leading because I'm not bad at it and with a follow who's actually following (experience level irrelevant) I can lead her for a really enjoyable dance.

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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by Phil_dB View Post
    Obviously to those who can do both:

    What do you prefer? Or, which aspects of each do you prefer? And why?
    I like both; my normal mode is as a follower, which is my relaxed and not too much thought mode. If you dance with a guy regularly you normally know what they are going to do but then they may throw in something new and shock you. The dances that are the best to do as a follower is where you end up in a position but you don’t know how you got there.

    Leading has help me appreciate that it is not as easy as it looks for the guys:

    • you have to think
    • you have to remember
    • you have to do all that and listen to the music

    When I lead I like to do moves that I enjoy and throw in a couple of drops hopefully in the right place. I tend to only lead my friends, so they are probably quite forgiving. The guys I lead are normally more critical and difficult to lead. I would not want to lead all night but a couple as lead is always good fun

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    Registered User emmylou25's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I do both but definitely prefer being a follower. For starters, for me personally I prefer dancing with a male, and it's nice to be at the mercy of someone else's decision making. I enjoy being able to just respond to the different leaders in different ways depending on their style, the music & the different moves that as a leader I just wouldn't be able to achieve. Ok, so that could be achieved dancing with a female leader, but it just doesn't do it for me - it's too clinical, I can't get emotional about dancing with a female (leading or following)

    I lead largely because I taxi and have to. In classes I'm happy to lead, and if i'm not taxiing I'll help even numbers out in the freestyle bit if needed. By learning more as a leader, it's helped keep my interest in continuing to go to class nights - once you can follow, there's only so much you can learn, whereas as a leader it's more of a challenge, and I know I'm improving my lead everytime i practise it.

    In general freestyles I'll only lead friends to either great 'must dance to tracks', or if we're short of men and we just fancy a bit of a muck around. It's great fun, especially if we swap the lead between us, but i'd only want to do this a couple of times a night. While I want to be a good leader, I don't yearn to be a great dancer when I'm leading - musicality is the least of my worries; I just want to provide a good safe and hopefully fun dance for the person I'm leading.

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    Registered User Phil_dB's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I've only followed a few times, but have found following to be fantastic fun.

    I agree with Minnie, there's less to think about..! So you can enjoy yourself more!

    It's also fun not knowing what is going to happen next.

    In WCS the actual physical movement (body flight I think they call it) "whoosh!" - you get from swinging from one end of the slot to the other, also feels good, - much more fun than stepping in, out & around a slot.

    Some advantages to leading I think is that you get to do moves that YOU like, and never have to suffer the ones you don't. And physically, I think it's safer to lead, as I think as a follow you're more vulnerable to injury, depending on who's leading obviously.

    At the moment, I'm thinking that Followers have the better deal! But maybe thats just because following is a novelty to me....

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    Basically lazy robd's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I haven't followed very often but when I have I find that I can hear the music and react to it much, much more easily than when leading. It's a completley different experience to leading which is a little odd given that you are both listening to the same track but that's how I find it.

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    Registered User Phil_dB's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by robd View Post
    I haven't followed very often but when I have I find that I can hear the music and react to it much, much more easily than when leading. It's a completley different experience to leading which is a little odd given that you are both listening to the same track but that's how I find it.
    Is that because, as a follower, it is you who is the centre-point which is being used by the lead in order to express the music (most of the time), as opposed to the opposite?

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    Basically lazy robd's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by Phil_dB View Post
    Is that because, as a follower, it is you who is the centre-point which is being used by the lead in order to express the music (most of the time), as opposed to the opposite?
    No

    I am hearing and reacting to the music pretty independently of the lead (which means it is 'bad' following I know )

    Just surprises me how much more aware of the music I am when following than when leading.

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    Registered User emmylou25's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by robd View Post
    Just surprises me how much more aware of the music I am when following than when leading.
    I agree.

    I think there's just so much more to think about when you're leading vs following. You have to think moves, safety, floorcraft, enjoyment for your follower, capability of your follow, probably followed by musicality as a lead.

    A follow has to concern themselves predominantly with responding/following appropriately, maybe a bit of style and floorcraft (unless they're technically proficient and good enough at following to go exactly where the lead tells them to go), so listening to the music can come a lot higher up their list than for leaders

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    Registered User Tiger Pants's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by robd View Post

    Just surprises me how much more aware of the music I am when following than when leading.
    I agree with this completely. I find that there's much more to play with when following. I think I react more quickly to the music when following and when leading I have a tendancy to 'over-think' the music and especially the pattern of the music.

    I have very little experience of following but when I get the chance to do it I do get a buzz.

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    Senior Member Minnie M's Avatar
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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Quote Originally Posted by robd View Post
    .........Just surprises me how much more aware of the music I am when following than when leading.

    Totally agree - IMO that's what it's all about - just wish beginner ladies would understand this. Drives me mad when I Taxi lead after a class and the followers have no regard to the music at all


    --ooOoo--
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    Leroy (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982)

    Mickey Mouse's girlfriend, Minnie, made her film debut, along with Mickey, in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928.
    That date is recognized as her official birthday.

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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    Following definitely!

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    Re: Leading or Following? What do you prefer?

    I remember being at a party about a year after starting Ceroc. For the first time saw a man following (a friend who had begun the same time as me), it was also the first time he had followed. When he finished he said to his lead "!@@#$, is that what we make you go through?"

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