punkassjim

crooked-lust:

fuckyeahswingdance:

…I feel a bigger post coming on. 

Mainly in relation to dancing with beginner leads.

Will a good follower always look amazing? Or do they bravely follow beginner leads into awkwardness, lack of pulse, and rushed moves? Do they look amazing while doing so?

Does a good follower try to make the dance work by figuring out what is intended even though it may not have been led well, or even led at all? Do they pick up unclear leads more easily and are more responsive, and that’s what makes them good follows? Or do they only follow a definite lead? How do you pull off making the dance work while at the same time protecting your automatic following reflexes?

Sometimes I feel the balance has been pushed over to the other side of “it’s always the leads’ fault”, in online discussion at least, and has left me very confused as to what a good follow is, and what their role should be.

“If you were a better follower/had been doing your solo jazz/would try wearing heels you would still look amazing dancing with beginner leads…”

I need to think about this some more.

Whenever I dance with beginning leads, I always follow their pulse and rhythm, regardless of whether they’re in tune with the music. There’s one lead that’s probably been dancing longer than I have and he has absolutely no rhythm, but regardless of that, whenever I dance with him, I match him completely. I think even if you’re off-beat, you’ll still look good because you’re matching your partner. 

One other beginner lead that I dance with in SB always compliments me on my following and usually remarks that others he dances with seem to dance out of his range, and that flusters him because he doesn’t know how to lead someone who’s trying to encourage him to do something out of his repertoire. 

I think it also depends on the situation when a lead may not lead a move too definitively. If we’re in a class or workshop setting, I won’t budge unless it’s a strong lead. I don’t think they’ll learn otherwise. If I still feel they’re struggling with the move, I’ll walk through it, but tell them they need to have a stronger connection. If we’re social dancing, though, it’s all about having fun and I’ll usually try to guess what sort of move they’re planning on doing and do my best to follow through. I don’t think anybody likes being schooled on the dance floor. 

I think for both roles the ability to adapt to a new partner is key as well as gauging where our partner’s dance level is and matching it. When I dance, I feel that I have to aim to match my partner to the best of my ability without losing my sense of style. I have to bite my tongue and dance off-beat if my partner can’t find the rhythm. I have to dance at a beginner level if my lead only knows East Coast swing. I have to step-up my lindy if I’m dancing with an advanced dancer. I have to dance everywhere in between too.

I do often hear that it’s “always the leads fault” and I’ve never really taken that seriously. Maybe a lead didn’t plan a move correctly, sure. But maybe a follow wasn’t really paying attention. It happens. We aren’t perfect. So it goes.

What do you think, tumblr hoppers?

Sorry if I ran off with this, haha.  

When I was getting started, even though I had good rhythm, I just had a really hard time dancing with most experienced followers. Half were very unresponsive (like, “I’m not doing anything until you lead me to do something”), and the other half were crazy-go-nuts and intimidating (more like I was just an accessory while they danced with themselves). On the rare occasion when an experienced follower would relax and engage with me, and be just playful enough to make the most of it, it really would make my night. When you’re a beginner, it doesn’t take much. Connection can be worked on later, leading clarity and strength comes with time, but engagement and partnership is really paramount, right from the get-go.

I feel like it’s an incredible skill for experienced followers to work the middle of the road: to be engaged and present, and to step up your sensitivity to weak-ass leading cues, but also to not overdo it. Just like when you’re dancing with a leader who’s better matched with your skills, it’s important to pick up on — and respond in kind to — his variations in smoothness/energy, size of steps, syncopation or stalls…it’s just as important to meet a beginning leader at his level, and to not just meet him there, but to play there.

fuckyeahswingdance:

Swing Jesus! 

As unfortunate as it is, she’s dead-on. Men will have a hard time seeing a female lead as a role model, I think. Dogpossum might disagree. Maybe I’m just not sufficiently awesome enough. Women usually get the surprised “you are a really good lead (…for a girl)” compliments, but can they inspire men to take up swing dancing, or become inspirations to male leads? As with other things, I think they would have to be ridiculously amazing and work twice as hard as a male lead.

 I could really use a Swing Jesus in my scene…

This whole concept never even occurred to me before. It’s not so much that a female lead wouldn’t be inspirational, it’s more that there’s a world of difference between “Damn, I wanna be able to do what she’s doing” and “Damn, I wanna be that guy.”

It’s hard for a beginning male leader to put himself in the shoes of someone with boobs — pretty much true of any other context you can think of, too, but still. Even if she’s an amazing leader, she (presumably) lacks a key component that we aspire to: manliness, even in dance. It’s a thing that many (most?) of us need to see in order to envision ourselves as “dancer”.

(Source: bobbicharleston)