• Following - Health & Safety - Leading - Social Dancing

    Who is Responsible for Floorcraft?

    December 24, 2015 - By 

    Floorcraft: being aware of your surroundings while dancing to maintain safety and comfort for you, your partner, and couples around you. It can include watching for potential collisions, respecting the flow, direction, or slot on the floor, and troubleshooting out of dangerous situations. The general rule preached in many dance communities is that it is the lead’s job to watch the floor during a dance. I would argue that it is actually a shared responsibility: the follow has a great deal of control in managing floorcraft, as does the lead.

  • Following - Social Dancing

    How to Test-Drive your Partner (Follow’s Version)

    October 9, 2015 - By 

    Follows: what if I told you that you have just as much power to shape your dance as the lead? It’s true – and it starts from the second you begin dancing. Much the same way that a lead can ‘test’ the follow’s abilities before launching into full-on dance mode, we have the ability to ‘test’ the lead’s ability and assess how much we would like to give into the dance.

  • Following - Social Dancing

    What it Means to be a Light Follow

    September 28, 2015 - By 

    Being a light follow has nothing to do with weight.  You can be 200 pounds and light as a feather, or you can be 100 pounds and feel like my apartment’s refrigerator. You can have gorgeous style and be capable of 100 single-footed spins and STILL be a refrigerator. Conversely, you can have no style and physical limitations, yet still be a light follow.

  • Following - Social Dancing

    “Just Follow!”

    June 16, 2013 - By 

    Recently, there was a question on Facebook that caught my interest. Loosely, it asked if a follow should compensate when the leader does something wrong, or ONLY follow what was led. This is a reasonable enough question, but some of the surrounding conversation made me think hard on how we as a dance community conceptualize leading and following.