Updates from ternis Whenever I go dancing at a club, I get two very different styles of how people maintain their hands during a dance. Some people have their hands very loose and let them flow with the music. Others have very rigid arms and they do not move at all. I understand the reason for this is so the follow can easily detect the lead beginning a move. However it feels so natural to just relax your arms and let your hands flow with the music. Is there a right or wrong way for this? Which way should be encouraged?
Don Vaillancourt 9:30 pm on July 28, 2009Permalink |
I think it depends on style and the leads goal. But really the hold should be firm but still soft. Also it may depend on the leads previous experiences with follows. Maybe they’re always ran into follows that can’t and so the lead adopted a firmer, uhm, lead.
Madsalsa 9:42 pm on August 4, 2009Permalink |
Well, obviously you don’t want to be so rigid your arms don’t move and you don’t want to be so relaxed the follow can’t feel your lead. I agree with Don that it depends. Some follows prefer (or need) different types of leads. For beginners and follows that like to move their arms around, I typically use a ‘stronger’ lead (rigid sounds bad to me) to make it easier for them follow and to cut through some of the noise generated by their arm movements. With follows that I’m more comfortable with, typically the more experienced crowd, my lead will be much softer b/c I don’t need to ‘shout’ and it looks and feels more natural.