Anything that helps to improve our dancing is good. Try dancing your routine as long as you can without holding hands,just body contact. This takes good balance and paying close attention to what your partners body is telling you.

The problem with both of these methods is that you should not be doing something because it is in the routine, or because of where you can feel your partner's body is.

You should be doing something because his hands are leading it.

Sorry, abcdef, that's not the way good ballroom dancing works. Body lead is the ideal in ballroom dancing. Perhaps you dance a different style? Also, you may not realize that the other posters are talking about preparing competition routines, not social dancing.

"Body lead is the ideal in ballroom dancing."

Try taking lessons with a true expert. Many of the top competitors bodies rarely touch - though they are not far enough apart to easily see this.

abcdef. You are right to say that only the clothing should touch,but you still have to be aware as to what your partner is doing,such as feel their rise and fall,how much they turn,how quickly they move,where their body weight is,where their head weight is,the man's arms are only there to support the lady when she needs it and are just a part of the man's frame,he will use the heal of the hand and finger tips to open or close the Lady and also to let his hand breath on a line,but he has to use his pelvis to lead and this is more than just clothing touching

Abcdefg. I think you might come from the old school who thought the lady is just being led into there routines. Todays lady knows and dances her own steps. A common expression is let me dance my steps and don't try to do them for me. I can't think of a better method for making sure both partners know their steps, timing wise and foot wise. And the teacher at the other end of the hall can see exactly what is going on.

I love ballroom dancing because Lead-Follow is a wonderful experience. But if we talk about choreography - which is what a ROUTINE is - then we have to agree that the follower knows exactly what to expect at the start of the dance. Even the variations on this website produce a series of steps and movements which must be memorized and practiced, and no longer depend entirely on a leader's behavior indicating to the follower what should be done.

Yes, it is true that you can stop the sequence of steps in the middle of the variation because some uncouth slob has cut into your path (why do they do that?) but it's still choreography that both partners need to practice.

This week's cha-cha variation could be led completely and followed by an expert pair, I believe (not me- I"m not good enough). But I doubt that any leader would spring it on a partner.

And if you are doing a competition, then your routine is fully choreographed, and perhaps should appear to have lead-follow, but we all know it doesnt.

Jerry

"And if you are doing a competition, then your routine is fully choreographed, and perhaps should appear to have lead-follow, but we all know it doesnt."

If you're good, you are willing to change your plans when your routine doesn't fit the circumstances of that instant of competition. If you're really good, your change will make as much sense as the original routine.

That's right, too. I agree with that.

Jerry

Speaking as a follower, you still need lead and follow in a routine, and not just when you break from the routine. Even when she knows the steps down cold, she has to dance as if she doesn't, that is, her movement still needs to be a response to the lead's movement. Believe me, it's a challenge to know a routine and never anticipate the next step. As my coach describes it, on every step the lead initiates the movement and the follow responds (and a really good leader then follows his follower's response). That dynamic needs to be happening at all times, regardless of whether one or both people know the pattern that's next.

And by body lead, I didn't mean the bodies need to be touching, just that the movement begins in the lead's body. How it's communicated to the follow depends on the dance, usually through the lead's frame. But a follower can follow a body lead visually in a Latin dance when the partners aren't even touching.