Hi, Sri:

Can you show me how to use the Quote function?

Thanks,

Keh

Monty,

I like the advice that Steve gave you.

Right now just concentrate on hearing the basic rhythm of the music, "standing up", executing the correct foot placement of a few basic figures on each beat of music and remembering & recalling a simple pattern of these figures that you and your partner will dance around the floor. You should not be taking any responsibility for "leading" your partner right now. Neither will she be following you. You will be in physical contact with each other in the "learning" hold (arms only). You will use your arm connection only to help you know where to place your feet in relation to your partners.

The art and the science of lead (and follow) is learnt through many months and perhaps years of practice, dance tuition, study and self analysis of both body and mind. This is by no means a simple skill that can be learnt in a matter of days. Simply put, it is a process of understanding what must take place in the mind and body.

It surprises me how many followers fail to understand the wisdom and skill required by a leader to lead even the very simplist of figures properly. Equally leaders fail to understand what it takes to follow. But even more surprising is how leaders make light of the art of leading and followers of the art of following. How often one hears followers saying "I'm just following" or leaders saying "I got here, why did'nt you". Taking this simplistic view of leading and following will be your greatest danger to acquiring these skills. So, understand what you are about to embark on and take it "one step at a time". Acquire the basics and lay a firm foundation.

Indeed before you get down to leading properly you will spend many weeks learning to "stand up". This may surprise you but it takes great skill and understanding just to "stand up", to undo the bad habits cultivated by our sedentary, "seated" lifestyle, cultural misconceptions, disconnection within our bodies and plain misinformation circulating around as common knowledge. It is my personal view that the poise of the man is far more difficult to properly acquire and maintain than the "backward" poise of the lady. It's simplicity of form hides it subtle nuances. It is a rare sight to see a male dancer standing up properly. Something reserved only for the very talented dancers. Even then there are a few highly rated dancers whose contrived basic posture I positively hate.

And after all of that you are still not ready. For before you learn to connect with your partner you must learn to connect deeply within yourself, your mind with your body, your head with your tail, your upper body with your lower body, your left side with your right side and all parts with your centre. Then you must connect with the natural environment outside yourself; the ground, the air, space, gravity and sound.

Through all of this you will learn to move by yourself and start discovering the natural logic that govern movement (often, but not always hidden in the sterile "technique" of dance). Initially you will just move with your partner with a "simple vocabulary of movement". Finally you will learn how you communicate deeply with each other through movement.

All good partner dancers go through this process. Though few are aware of this process. For them it will be recounted as many years of hard work, of trial & error. For the majority "trail & error" is still the basic method by which the art of dance is taught and learnt despite all our written technique. The reasons for this is simple; the mind cannot truely comprehend what the body has never experienced before. And the art & science of carefully and quickly bringing the body to experience, and the mind to comprehend, is a gift of a handful of gifted learners (and teachers).

In the end all dancers realise one essential truth about dancing; it's the journey that counts.

So enjoy,
Len.

There's an odd paradox; although dancing with many partners lets us experience development of the complementary role many times, we learn our own once. We can dance with a great dancer one minute and a poor one the next, but the skill and experience we bring to each is the same. We can evaluate our partners, but only from our current perspective; as they improve so, hopefully, do we. Improvement changes our perspective; we can only dance with a beginner AS a beginner while we remain a beginner.

There is also a danger of assuming dancers who share our role also experience dance the same way. While following felt easy and natural to me from the beginning, for some women it is the hardest part of dance. By the same token, not all men find leading a Herculean task. Some learn the basic principles quickly and within weeks of their first class are using them effectively on the social dance floor. I know; I've danced with a number of them!

I'm more clear on conditions which create a skilled leader because I've danced with lots of leaders. Of course dancing with all those leaders is probably the biggest factor in building my skill as a follower. Rigorous teachers as leads, lots of different leaders in classes and seminars, and TONS of dance party leaders.

The secret to lead or follow well has to be good teaching followed by lots of good practice on lots of people. And parties. Lots

As a lady who's been dancing for almost 8 years and competing for 7 years, I have to say that I much prefer (when dancing with beginners) dancing a few patterns well than having the "newbie" attempt to drag me through something they don't really know. Now, having sounded probably a bit "snobbish", let me also say that I really admire men who stick to it long enough to become really good. You guys not only have to learn the steps, you also have to learn the lead, communicate it to a partner and think of what to do next!! Which is why I never mind dancing with beginners -- especially the ones who are really trying hard to be good dancers.

Basically, I guess I'm saying "Keep it up, Monty". You sound as if you really want to do the right thing in your dancing and I wish you the best,

the link you poased has some terrific information.Spinning continues to be my downfall-but reading your link gave me some good things to work on and practice. thanks

Unfortunately there isn't a simple answer to that question. Leading can be a subtle art, and you can expect it to be something you spend a lot of time refining as you learn to dance. For me it's one of the most satisfying things about partner dancing; there's nothing quite like being told, "I've never done that before, but it was easy to follow."

In general, to answer your question, you use your upper body to indicate to your partner where she should go next. Ideally you're positioning yourself (and her) such that stepping where you want her to will be her natural reaction. What that means in terms of exact motions depends on what steps you're trying to lead.

Examples of how to lead specific steps in specific dances wouldn't be too productive; it's much more valuable to try to understand the underlying principles. Once you start to do that, in many cases it'll be obvious how to lead something new.

I think you shouldn't sweat it too much at the very beginning, though, especially if you're taking private lessons. You'll have your hands full just getting your own basic footwork committed to muscle memory, and your teacher will be able to judge when you're ready to start learning the finer points of leading. By all means tell your teacher you want to emphasize developing a solid lead, but don't be surprised if you don't touch on it too much at first. Every top-notch male dancer started off as a lousy lead.

Here's a Lead and Follow FAQ page with a ton of good information. Since you've only had one lesson so far, 95% of it will probably be of the "file this away for future reference" variety, since you won't have the context yet to make sense of a lot of it. But it's all worth keeping in the back of your head.

Someone else here can probably give you good exercises and define the terminology better than I can, but hopefully that Web page will be interesting reading in the meantime.

Harmony:

I understand that it's important to "use the grammar" and be clear. What I'm trying to find out is "What do I do to be clear?" After all, when I intend to spin, I'd rather not have my partner think we're going to turn.

Well, based on your first couple of posts I thought you'd had one class....PLEASE tell me your instructor doesn't already have you OR your partner spinning! Perhaps you could mention what was taught? Which dances, which steps? It's a pet peeve of mine that almost all beginning classes I've seen (except thankfully my own first one), introduce too many patterns in too many dances for a beginner to sort out the important stuff, never mind absorb it.

In any case, the basics I mentioned still hold in every dance I know. Waltz box, rumba box, chacha basic, club salsa, the list goes on. Step on the correct beats, be gentle, stand erect, (for now; fine points on posture for each dance are a ways off), and keep your arms in the same position relative to your body (neither pushing/pulling nor collapsing them).

How does this work 'IRL'? For example, in an American rumba box starting with your left foot you step forward 'slow', sideways 'quick', close your feet 'quick', step back 'slow', sideways 'quick', close 'quick' and you're back to where you started. Your partner will expect you to move when the music (or instructor) says to, and will hopefully remember to start with her right foot (because that's her 'rule' just like yours is to start with your left). As you step toward her she will see you move closer; she will feel pressure changes where your arms and hands touch, and she will hopefully step backward. As you step quickly to the side, the change of speed as well as direction will give her a different set of signals to respond to, while closing your feet introduces a third group of signals. As you step backward, all of the original signals are reversed and sensed in a new way. The quick side step and close back the other direction are different as well, since a dance frame isn't symmetrical on both sides.

What have you communicated (led)? "I'm stepping forward this big; I'm changing direction fast; I'm shifting weight to the other foot; I'm changing direction AGAIN along with speed; whoops, here comes another speed and direction change; shifting weight to the other foot again. All in a matter of seconds.

Just synchronizing movement in the basic box is a difficult task for beginners. Different partners take different size steps. Women unused to heels wobble. People usually take bigger steps moving forward than backward, and if one sidestep is larger than the other the basic box may wander around the room instead of staying in place. Larger and smaller steps will eventually send signals or allow your partner to do her patterns while maintaining correct position relative to you. Practicing the box by yourself trains clear, quiet movement which your partner can use to 'read' your lead. Your whole body is used to lead in dance; it's not some separate 'thing' you do with your arms!

Adding rumba walks complicates things. Instead of stepping sideways you continue forward. Clarity requires you to know that's what you intend to do. If you lean sideways, your partner will probably expect to continue boxes. If you don't step on the beat, she'll probably just step sideways since that's what you did last time and beginners won't notice a subtle hold. If you start a sidestep, then remember you wanted to do a rumba walk, your partner probably won't be able to change direction in mid-step if she even notices you did.

All of that, just to lead 2 patterns in one dance without ever leaving a closed frame hold or finding the beat in a different piece of music. I've danced with beginners who've done nothing but that for a whole song. Believe it or not, if they follow the first 4 grammar rules I enjoy myself! (OK, so watching their eyes pop when I throw in Cuban motion top to bottom is part of the fun; makes those 2 minutes fly. Extra points if they still keep the beat!)