"Lead-and Follow" -- morphs to "connection"?
- Thread starter Smooth Dancer
- Start date
West Coast Swing embraces the concept of "suggestion" more than any other partner dance. WCS can actually go completely the opposite direction when the follow hijackd. Perhaps that changes at higher levels than I dance but is seems to me that most other partner dances, especially ballroom styles, are more rigidly "lead-follow".
GGinrhinestones
Well-Known Member
Nope. Lead/follow becomes less and less important (in many ways, of course it always exists in some form or fashion) the higher you go in ballroom, too. Having danced all of the above, I'd say WCS is a bit more "connection" focused from the get-go, but it doesn't take long for ballroom to get to that same level. Of course, I didn't start dancing WCS until I was already working on "connection" vs. "lead/follow" in ballroom.
In GOOD ballroom, lead/follow is pretty much always "suggestion". No matter your level of dance, if a leader is "sending" or "putting" you where you need to go, that isn't lead/follow - it's "placing." Kind of unavoidable and important when you first get started and have no idea what you are doing, but I really prefer to dance myself, not have the leader dance for me.
And for the record, the ability to hijack is one of the things I like about WCS. Though I do that in ballroom all the time, too...it's just frowned on a bit in that context...
toothlesstiger
Well-Known Member
I don't have a problem with "lead and follow". Especially in light of the fact that follower is always just slightly behind the leader in time, waiting to see how and where he commits his weight on a step, before she commits hers.