Follows: have you ever said you didn’t do a move because the lead ‘didn’t lead you properly?’ Then this is for you. It’s time to take charge of your own dancing.
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This is probably going to be a polarizing article. I’ve tried to write an article like this for a long time – but could never find the words.
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A few days ago, I published an article about how a leader I danced with managed to turn a really rough and scary dance into an amazing one. It was meant to show how respecting and communicating with your partner can lead to amazing dances – and rescue them when something is going wrong.
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Last week, I wrote an article on why following is frequently underrated as a skill in the social dance scene. This week, I want to follow up on exactly what I mean by teaching follows how to follow in classroom settings, as well as the things I think need to change in order to teach this. This is my personal opinion on the matter, and I’d love to hear from others what they have found worked or didn’t work in their own dance history in the comments below.
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Have you ever been in a dance class where the follows have been told to ‘Just Follow’? Have you ever heard someone told that follows have it so much easier because they ‘Just Follow’? Have you ever heard a female instructor devalued because ‘She is a follow, not a lead’? I have.
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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.