Rules of Thumb for Followers

1. Trust your partner.
2. If in doubt, do the basic.
3. If you don't feel a lead, then just do the basic. Don't do anything unless the leader leads it.
4. Try not to move yourself.
5. Follow your hand. (Very useful for turns)
6. Keep an eye out for your partner's hand.
7. Don't let go, unless you are in danger.
8. Leave your hand where the leader puts it.
9. Learn the music, but follow the leader's timing.
10. If the leader is off-time, ignore the music and count HIS timing in your head instead.
11. Keep your frame and tension/compression.
12. Don't over-style.
13. Let the momentum carry you through the moves. Don't stop yourself. Make the leader do it.

PsychoSalsaGuy said:

Hiya!

I'm trying to compile some rules of thumb for followers.

So far I have:

1. Trust your partner.
2. If in doubt, do the basic.
3. If you don't feel a lead, then just do the basic. Don't do anything unless the leader leads it.
4. Try not to move yourself.
5. Follow your hand. (Very useful for turns)
6. Keep an eye out for your partner's hand.
7. Don't let go, unless you are in danger.
8. Leave your hand where the leader puts it.
9. Learn the music, but follow the leader's timing.
10. If the leader is off-time, ignore the music and count HIS timing in your head instead.
11. Keep your frame and tension/compression.
12. Don't over-style.
13. Let the momentum carry you through the moves. Don't stop yourself. Make the leader do it.

Do you all have any thoughts about my list or suggestions for new items?
I'd like to keep the list as concise and easy to remember as possible which means each entry needs to be short. I know I need to trim my list already, but I'll do that later on.

Oh, and I also know about this discussion. It helped me a lot.

I also have two other discussions:
Rules of Thumb for Dancing
Rules of Thumb for Leaders
So if you want you can click on the links and discuss my other lists.

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alemana said:

hm, we recently had a thread on the same topic.

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