As the first...eh. I want to dance different ways to different music, and with different leaders. Some days, I want alternative and close...other days alternative and big and open...other days, shared weight to traditional music. It's just a mood thing...no way to form preferences.
I didn't say fixed preferences -- you can (and actually confess to having) preferences that are mood-dependent. There you go, you're not a beginner.
As for the second...definitely not! Although I find it hard to really add my own personality and dance differently when I don't get much personality from the guy.
And the same actually holds for leaders (as some of my earlier posts suggest).
Some followers are obsessed with "not making mistakes".
They then develop into "advanced" followers obsessed with "looking good", sometimes at the expense of the connection to the music and the partners (if it's not at the expense of the connection to the music and the leader, I consider their obsessive compulsive disorder harmless --at least to me
).
Some of these will then only dance with leaders they know and music they know, to be sure to only do steps they know in a rhythm they know with a step length they know, etc. Because it's "safe" and they will be in control and Look Perfect. Some of them do Look Good, too. As it's someone else dancing with them when you can watch them, they're often pretty to watch (they usually have very good mastery of adornos although there often is something subtly amiss with the timing of their boleos, as if they weren't being led properly even when they are).
"No guts, no glory" is more my motto. And 'guts' is not the temerity to launch yourself in a complicated sequence you've learned at the El Grande Meastro workshop #23 with a follower you haven't even started to connect to properly, it's the guts to let the music and the flow on the dancefloor dare you to take a step into uncharted territory, just because you can and circumstances urge you to.
And for followers, the guts to trust, the guts to actually follow without worrying how you'll look (but worrying how you
feel) and the guts to try to explore the freedom the connection with your partner gives you, what feedback you can give and what spice you can add to the dance.
