Mmm, garlic.
Regardless of who I'm dancing with, most of my moves are simple beginner moves. The "dumbing down" or "tailoring" happens with the remainder. This is what works for me - your dancing may vary.
I generally simplify my move selection somewhat when dancing with advanced women. When a girl can make a side-by-side look jaw dropping, it seems kinda silly to be saying "oh yeah? Well I lead this double pretzel walkaround sway!!". Dancing with advanced women is much more reactive, and I'd rather not be busy recalling which hand starts the Accordion Comb Pull Crab at a critical moment.
Moves that are not advanced, merely complex, work well for unreconstructed intermediates. Advanced stuff tends to get a failed lead/follow, and an optional glare. This is a good opportunity to try to remember whatever pointlessly over-complex configurations of arms and legs teacher have come up with this week.
Improving intermediates get a lot of simple advanced moves. It's a good opportunity for me to experiment with some lead/follow concepts, some elements of musicality - that kinda thing. Because they're improving, when I invariably mess up they're not stressed about it. This is where I'd try out a "FOOFAB", for example.
Beginners it's harder to generalise about. Some want to do the class routine a few dozen times. Some want to learn a hundred different moves on their first night. Some want to actually dance. Some are only pretending to be beginners. Regardless, I don't worry too much about being scary or confusing, because I regard that as somewhat inevitable.
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