If a someone asks me "How are you today?" and I answer, "I'd like two slices of cheese on that burger," I have answered inappropriately. The conversation no longer flows because the question asker has to stop and think about what is going on.
If someone leads an inside turn it would be inappropriate for me to force an outside turn. The lead would have to stop and wonder what happened and why. It stops the flow of the dance.
However, when someone asks me "How are you today?" there are a number of appropriate responses. I could say "I'm fantastic; I just won a thousand kittens!" or, "Horrible; the world's supply of nutella ran out this morning." I have answered appropriately in both of these cases and significantly influenced the direction of the conversation.
If someone leads an inside turn I should follow appropriately - with an inside turn. However, there are a number of ways I can contribute to the dance and influence its outcome while doing an inside turn. Maybe I want to do a pop turn. Maybe I'm feeling particularly sassy and I want to shimmy while I'm turning. I could do either of these things, and a number of others, while still following what has been led.
The beauty of looking at a dance like a conversation is that I don't have to feel limited when I am following. I used to struggle with this in almost every dance I had. I love silly dance moves. It used to irk me so much that I wasn't in control of the dance when I followed. All these opportunities for fun and interesting things would fly by while I got led through pretty standard moves. But I have had a revelation: even though I am following I can be an equal or greater contributor to the dance conversation. If I do an interesting variation I can inspire the lead. This allows me to change more than the move, it allows me to change the dance.
This is not about hijacks, or rhythm variations, or styling, though it includes all of them. This is about the way I view dancing. This is about feeling empowered when I am following. This is about two people contributing to one thing to make something greater than the sum of its parts.
This is an awesome thing to talk about.
ReplyDeleteTo extend the analogy, if someone asked you "how do you feel about the superbowl?" you could respond with "I really like to watch Hockey. It's my favorite sport."
You have correctly identified that your conversation partner was talking about sports, and you've mentioned another sport that you like rather than talking about football. Its not straightforward, and some partners aren't going to get it.
But some are, and it'll be more interesting for both of you if you take that chance and it pans out.
I can think of three levels of things that you can do. Levels - not categories - because they are of increasing difficulty for a lead to follow.
I think I may actually put this into a blog entry of my own, but I'll put it here and see what you think.
1) Styling. E.g. shimmy while you turn. You'll end up in the same place, and at the same time as when you stopped with the exact same momentum that you started with.
Your lead will not even have to think about what you did; what you do will fit entirely within the scheme of what they asked for - which is pretty much true of anything where your momentum and location are the same as the lead asked for. How you get there is your business as long as those things remain.
2) To take it a step further, though, you can just change one thing - such as, for example, your speed. The lead knows to look for you where you're going, so it's not a big deal. You just do it, and they'll know.
3) You actually make a big change that effects (or potentially effects) the outcome of a move. For this to work, you actually have to let your lead know that you're doing it; you have to learn the same form of communication that leads have to learn - which is to say, communicating gradually that you're about to do something - generally by communicating either opposing or continuing motion.
If, for example, you wanted to let the lead know that you're going to swing yourself out (yes...it's okay, you can actually do this), you'd want to build up a little tension in exactly the same way that a lead would before he/she did that. That one has never actually happened to me, but I have had someone dip themselves such that I took their entire weight. They know how to make sure that I'm ready for it by doing it gradually and making sure that I have a secure grip on them on the way down.
Does #3 count as hijacking? Is it bad to do? I don't really care what other people think about that. I think it's awesome.
I'm pretty sure that the most expedient way to get better at #3 for most people is by practicing leading. I'm pretty sure that the most expedient way to get better at #1 and #2 for most people is by practicing following with less advanced dancers who can't handle #3 (which means that you'll confine yourself to only those things). So everybody should both lead and follow so that they can get these skills down.
Incidentally, I have this: http://swingoutseeker.blogspot.com/
I definitely think this is worth posting on your blog, so long as you give my post a little mention :)
DeleteI agree with pretty much all of your points. I debated on explaining what you're calling #2. I enjoy slowing turns down or speeding them up, but it definitely takes a lot more consideration to be done effectively because the lead has to be listening for the follow to pull it off. I decided it was too complicated to add, as I like writing relatively short things.
I also considered talking about switching lead follow roles. I think it is helpful to 1, 2, and 3 for both parties. It helped me understand what I do that changes what the lead is doing versus what I can add in that doesn't change their job at all. I think leads following is also helpful so they understand what it's like to have an outline for your dance handed to you and learn which moves are more forgiving for variations (pass by turns are awesome for this).
#3 I am a little more unsure of. In theory, yes, it works. If I've understood what you've written, it sounds like you're talking about back leading, not in a forceful or preventative way that often happens with newbies, but in a purposeful and gentle way.
I would say that hijacks fall into this category. For example, I learned a hijack at Herrang this summer that I will try and describe. Partners are in closed position and the lead is about to start a traditional tuck turn, which would have the follows turn to their right. However, after the rock step that opens the partners up and creates the momentum necessary for the tuck, the follow steals the momentum before she is tucked and pushes off his shoulder to turn to her left instead. I've tried it a few times and had a lot of trouble with it. I usually receive looks of panic or incredibly awful vice grips on my hands as leads go, "Why are you leaving??!!? Don't do that!" I should've tried that one on you when you were at CCS because it sounds like it might have actually worked.
That is a move in which the lead has created something and the follow has taken it and led both partners through a different move. I think that it could be done and would be fun. I just haven't had much success and/or lack the skill to execute it yet.
That move would have totally worked on me! I have had two follows do that move on me. It was awesome enough that I remember both times. Both times happened more than a year ago.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it's always possible that I am trying a weird tuck variation at *exactly the same moment*, so if you're going to do that, you should build tension roughly half a beat early first so that I know that you're about to change something and I won't interfere.
Try it at Lindy Focus!
You might consider that stuff backleading. I think, though, that if it's gentle (or - in the case of with me - rather, you're not using all of the force that you possible can), then its easy to back-backlead. In other words, if both of us start initiating a move simultaneously, I can signal to you that we're going to do your move by backing off, or I can signal to you that we're going to do mine by increasing my pull/push/etc.
That's still a very clear lead-follow dynamic while still giving follows freedom to do pretty much whatever they want, while still letting the leads make decisions when they need to for a functional dance.