Hi everyone,

Especial greeting to Jonathan -- good to see your web based dancing enterprise is still going strong. Looking forward to studying the video i ordered the other day.

I have gotten back into my dancing again now that I have moved back to the S.F. Bay Area. (Metronome Ballroom, S.F.) and will be starting actual Int'l Std lessons in May, yippee! In any case, I was thinking the other day that there is a disturbing asymmetry between lead and follow. While the leader has the opportunity to try out all of his/her steps, the follower will not in general be guaranteed of that. In particular, the follower may have gone to the trouble of learning a ton of cool patterns, but if the leader doesn't lead them, it is all wasted. Whereas a leader who has learned a ton of cool patterns can always choose to dance them.

Therefore it seems most fair for everyone to learn both parts and be able, when the music starts, to suavely ask their partner, "do you want to lead or follow?" -- or to change over partway through.

Comments?

Dave Goggin

Have you done horseback riding?

I had done it once, that they gave me an old horse who only goes where ever she wants to go. Don't ask me to carry her on my back....

Well, there kind of is, but it's called a Double Reverse Spin. I'm pretty sure that some years ago when I was starting out I asked some more advanced dancer(s) the same question. I forget exactly what they said the reason for the difference was. I suspect something about reverse pivots being harder to do in sequence than natural pivots due to the lady's position with respect to the man. While they're not exact opposites, it's about as close as you'll get, I think. Perhaps someone with a bit better knowledge of the figures can explain it some more.

As for ballroom latin, yeah, I think we're all aware that what we dance isn't the original. It's the ballroom style version of them. I can see why they wouldn't care so much for it since we, umm, corrupted? their dances. About standard/smooth though, *shrug*, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Personally, *that's* what I think of as dancing, a couple floating around the floor together, but everyone's different.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

I made a typo actually... I don't backlead anymore, but I was backleading during the time that I was dancing with my old partner. It takes a lot of practice and effort (AND trust!) to let the *actual* leader take over.

Sure, leading is fine, but leave that to the person who DOES have an overview over the entire floor

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." - Horace