Sure, we call it Visual Lead & Follow, one of four types of leading & following as categorized by the writers of the ISTD technique manuals. The other three categories of lead & follow are weight changes, physical, and shaping.
Visual lead is actually quite common in show and competition choreography. Couples use it in intros and interludes. There are even some examples of it in social dancing (e.g. "The Chase" in Cha Cha). However, it should be used judiciously, and with the following points in mind:
In a choreographed routine, there is no specific limit to the amount of non-connected dancing you can do. However, too much time spent side-by-side or apart non-facing makes it impossible to maintain any degree of true leading & following. Even when dancing choreography, there should almost always be interaction between partners, and sense of cause and effect. If you have a particular piece of choreography that's questionable, the best thing you can do to heighten your awareness of each other is turn off the music and dance through the piece, having the leader vary his pace, even stopping completely upon occasion. It's ok if it's difficult... That's what the exercise is helping. But if you find it impossible, you may want to rethink your choreography.
For competition routines, you must consider the possibility that you may be interrupted, or worse, blocked from your partner by someone else. Always have a back-up plan. If you're good at improvising, that's fine. But you may want to at least have a general outline for two or three escape plans.
The choreography itself can be planned in clever ways. The smartest time for apart position is at the beginning or the routine. People generally set up on the floor with an awareness of others, and so space is established early on, making it less likely that someone will get between you. Also, people tend to travel much less in those first few measures -- Everybody else is doing an intro, too.
If you do have an apart group in the middle of your routine, tandem movement, especially straight linear travel, is the least likely to get divided. The person in front is most likely to be interrupted, so make sure the person in the back always has his partner in his line of sight. Circling movements are good, too, but be sure to establish space for at least a measure before breaking apart. Erratic and unpredictable movemets when apart are the most likely to cause problems with other couples.
Social dancing has the fewest examples of apart position because it relies most heavily on complete and unrehearsed lead & follow. Most examples of extended groups danced apart come with pre-defined conditions. One such example is the Chase in Cha Cha. In The Chase, the couple is dancing in a small space to a pre-defined non-traveling pattern, making it compact and predictable for those around them. The space between partners is small enough that it's difficult for an outside couple to accidentally break into. The couple is close enough together to quickly be able to rejoin, should anything go wrong. Some couples choose to improvise during this time, but those that do choose lead-and-follow do so one measure apart: The follower simply imitates the leader one measure later.
The Chase isn't the only example of leading and following while apart, but it is by far the most common (well, at least in America). The reason I bring it up is because the qualities I described above are what make it successful. These are the things to keep in mind when you want to successfully lead and follow while apart on a social floor in less common circumstances, like, say, social Foxtrot.
Regards,
Jonathan
