Adventures in Leading (Part II)

... And not too long later, I'm really excited about this leading thing. I'm super lucky that a few really great follows actually want to help me learn and can give me really helpful feedback while I repeatedly epic fail at trying to lead them through things (thanks for being such awesome sports, guys! :]). So I'm slowly making progress -- there are at least a couple of things that I can lead pretty smoothly now. (Shock!) It's so satisfying to be able to successfully execute a move. :D

A couple random thoughts from my Adventures in Leading thus far:

In blues, since there's no basic step, there isn't really any sort of framework or structure to rely on to know where your follow should be, or which foot her weight is on. But trying to start a move irrespective of where your follow's weight is is a sure recipe for someone tripping over themselves (or their partner). So a good lead has to kind of follow the follow after initiating a move, keeping track of where her feet are, and going with her so *he* can match up with *her* before trying to initiate anything else. Trying to do a simple inside turn, I at first had to watch the girl's feet in order to time when to pull her back into closed position, but I figured that one should be able to just feel where her weight is without looking and be able to get the timing just by the feel... and sure enough, after trying it a few times without looking, I actually got the timing down, and it feels surprisingly smooth now! Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised. It's always easiest for me to follow with my eyes closed, presumably since there's much less sensory input to distract me from the most important thing in partner dancing: connection.

The other thing is that, after getting a lot of feedback over many attempts at executing various moves, it seems that, at least in terms of the physical aspects, there does seem to be a fair amount of symmetry in the way I and my follow experience a move. That is, it seems like if it feels to me like it went smoothly, my follow generally agrees that it felt smooth; and if I think something didn't feel quite right, my follow also generally agrees. This is really, really good to know -- knowing I can trust my own perception of things will help me a lot when dancing with follows who don't give me much feedback.

I have to wonder about leads who don't also know what it's like to follow though... After dancing with a rough lead, I can't help but wonder if it actually feels smooth and enjoyable to him, or if he thinks I must enjoy being jarred and tossed around. During one recent dance, I couldn't stop myself from visibly wincing (and uttering some kind of corresponding sound) when a guy did something that felt much more like a martial arts move than a dance move (my wrist was very unhappy as a result :|).

On a related note, I'm finally starting to be able to relate to a lot of things I get from beginner leads, like how challenging it is at first to string together various moves naturally, even once you've learned to do them well individually. One point of interest for me though, is about hand-squeezing. As I expressed here not too long ago, the poor-leading habit that I hate the most is squeezing a follow's hands. I totally got caught doing that exact thing the other day. (Well, I'm not sure if I was squeezing -- I don't *think* I was -- but my thumbs were down! Bad!!) But unlike the other beginner-lead challenges I've encountered firsthand so far, this one makes me have even less sympathy for leads who do this. I must tell all my follows to yell at me every time I do it. :|!

And speaking of dance injuries, I seem to have incurred my first one. I don't mean the flesh-wound kind, where someone elbows you in the face, or stomps on your foot in heels -- those don't bother me any longer than the immediate pain distracts me from dancing (i.e., not very long at all). But last weekend, through a combination of mild foolishness on my part and what happened to be awful timing, I almost broke my arm off at the elbow. It was too fast for me to really remember what happened, but I definitely felt something like the beginnings of a snap, and it hurt like hell well after that dance. It felt more or less fine by later that night (except when I fully extended my arm), but I figured I should get it checked out just in case... I didn't end up doing so during the week, but it wasn't really bothering me until this weekend... when I stupidly tried to lead something that involved rotating quickly and building up lots of momentum, then releasing the girl from closed position (so she kind of flies away from the pivot point) and stopping her with my (apparently not-so-intact) right arm. Bad, bad idea. >_< Add to that the aforementioned kung-fu lead I danced with later that night, and it looks like I have thoroughly messed up my elbow. Not sure what to do, given that not dancing isn't an option. :\