Tips on doing leans

[David Franklin]

They go the same way to initiate the move. The man then reverses his direction - he has to, otherwise he'll fall over.

The woman reverses her direction too - she has to, otherwise she'll fall over.

[David Bailey]

The woman reverses her direction too - she has to, otherwise she'll fall over.

Let's face it, someone's going to fall over at some point

[vic_s]

So far I have managed not to fall over. Fingers crossed I wont for a while yet

[cederic]

If you're being led into a lean and you're not confident about it (inexperienced lead, just not feeling good about it, anything) but still want to let the lead happen, you can stay safe.

Do the lean as normal, but step across with your outside foot* and stand on that leg. Your whole body shape except for that outside leg is exactly as the lean is led, but you have control over your own weight. Often the lead wont even realise you've done it**.


Apparently obligatory ascii art:

\X

(leader leaning left, follower leaning left but stepping across to hold her own weight, with a graceful latinesque hand raised)

*outside foot is the one on the opposite site to which you're leaning. So if you're leaning to your left, it's your right foot. If you're leaning forwards, you don't have an outside foot. Hopefully.

**as a lead I know this only because a: it's been taught in classes i've been in, and b: i've asked my followers whether they did it or not in those classes

[Prian]

Let's face it, someone's going to fall over at some point

Dropped the personnel manager for Wandsworth Council a week before asking her for a full time job.

And another lady who was newish and asked me to show her a drop.......

[jim]

A girl went kamikaze on me recently. So I politly told her that "I don't know many drops".
"That's ok," she responds, "I know loads, I'll show you some".

[FirstMove]

...You'd lead it the same way - take the follower off-axis and counterbalance the weight in the opposite direction. So creating a \/ shape

However, in practice I suspect most MJ followers would not automatically go off-axis that way, they'd probably simply step to keep on-axis.

The original drop-kick had the lady leaning forward with the man counterbalancing before the lady throws herself backwards and down. I've seen several ladies lean forward only to find the man isn't holding on.

A lady once decided to throw herself into a drop-kick when I wasn't standing behind her, apparently I'd signalled it. She was rather cross so I never did find out what signal I gave.

[Prian]

Saw a guy once dislocate a girl's knee while attempting a "ballroom jump." I have a feeling he was eventually asked to leave Ceroc as she wasn't his first nor his last.

[Minnie M]

Tips on doing leans

why are we talking about drops & jumps ?????????

[JiveLad]

Ummm... Not really. Normally, a lean is when a leader takes a follower off her axis, and counterbalances this by leaning against her. If both partners lean in the same direction they'll fall over

so it creates a /\ shape not a \\ or // shape

That might be normal for Tango, but in the vast majority of MJ leans, both parties go the same way.

They don't fall because the man is doing more of a lunge than a lean. So you get a shape more like:

    #  @
     \  \
      \  \
     --\  \
    |   \  \

After much consideration, I am leaning towards the Franklin-ASCII Model of leans (as opposed to the Bailey-Voldemorcada Theory of Leans).....

[Prian]

Tips on doing leans

why are we talking about drops & jumps ?????????

Well from me because I remember drops and leans being learned/taught together. And as for jumps, I was just going along with a couple of falling over posts.