There has been a lot of discussion on Lead and Follow in Standard Ballroom, where I think we generally agree that the follow should wait for the lead to propose a step before following. Does this same rule apply in Latin dances? I find it hard to apply this in Latin ballroom due to lack of constant body contact compared to standard ballroom. I'm referring to International Standard and Latin Ballroom.

Apart from the obvious Physical leads,, as in all latin / Rhythm dances, there should be an acute visual awareness at all times

How about the timing? I was taught to take my step a little slower than my lead in ballroom. Does that also apply in latin?

When you start to solicit opinions on Rhythm and Timing, you are going to get several of them .

If you are studying with a Qualif. teacher with good dance background, I suggest you take their advice .

Lead and follow has changed a great deal in the last fifty years.

Women were once taught to feel each and every change in the man's body movement.

We actually had some teachers who did not even teach figures. (They only taught the women how to follow the man's body movements. These women could follow any man, dancing any style of dance.)

Today, women are taught to recognize entire figures, and in some cases, entire amalgamations.

As much time is spent teaching the women a figure as is spent teaching the man the same figure. (While little or no time is spent teaching a women how to follow.)

The great followers often know very few figures. (They just follow what is led.)

If we still practiced leading and following, the women would have little need to memorize each and every figure.

Yes, some styling was always taught, but mostly the women used their following skills to recognize what the man was doing.

Due to this change, we now have to rid ourselves of all dance forms that do not match what we have been taught.

Women can no longer follow a man who uses Fred Astair's timeing, or Author Murray's timeing.

Music that does not fit the current timeing, is no longer allowed.

We actually have to produce our own music so it matchs what we have been taught to do.

There are still a couple of women who can, "Follow Anyone".

The vast majority just recognize figures, and then do the figure that they have memorized.

And before anyone jumps on me, I will grant you that when figures had to be led and followed, we did not do nearly so many of them.

Pivoting, you are speaking exactly the way that I feel when I'm dancing! I don't think that my teachers are not qualified enough to teach, its just that they teach figures more than leading and following. I find that I am able to dance very well with other students from my studio, but when I go out on the real dance floor, I get stuck with other leads. The leads in my studio also has the same problem leading other followers. Do you know of any good sources where we can learn better leading and following, especially in latin?

I find that I have less problem with ballroom, maybe because of the body contact or because of different dance instructor. I'm going around to different studios in my area, but have yet to find one that emphasizes on leading and following, that I'm beginning to think that maybe it is not as important in latin as it is in ballroom?

"These women could Follow any ," etc etc. ?

What a preposterous statement...

I have heard this comment so many times over the yrs ( invariably from people who are NOT Pros )...

The word ANYTHING is patently NOT true..
And.. in ANY dance ??...

I cannot count the number of Pros ( and Amats ) I have trained over the yrs.. they would be laughing out loud if they heard that comment !

What I've tried doing with my partners is discuss the choreography first on the side before we hit the floor. This works, but is quite tiresome especially if we dance with multiple partners on the same night. We end up being with the same few partners for the entire night just to keep it simple. We also don't do too many complicated figures. Any good advice on how to dance with strangers that we've never met before from a different studio, and still be able to catch his lead?

I've seen people doing salsa and is able to dance with any strangers in the room with no fixed sequence or choreography. What's the secret?

IF they are your "partners " as you state.. WHY would you discuss your intended sequences ?... now if these are Comp. oriented, then maybe, but again, it depends upon the "newness " of the amalgamations.. the weaknesses in dance are only revealed by DANCING.

Address those problems as a separate issue..

If dancing with an unknown, then stay with basic sequences until you build a rapport.

As to salsa.. it depends again on the Leader/ Followers experience, but the same rule of thumb applies..and.. there are sequences in Salsa that may SEEM random but are anything but .

The options one has in this genre are much broader, even in basics, than one gets in the traditional B/Room genre

Sorry, I shouldn't have said partners. I recently join a dance club to get more exposure to the social dancing scene. We switch partners every few dances, and our members are from different studios. There's no fixed sequence, so we just pretty much think up whatever sequence each pair is comfortable with. Just as we are getting comfortable with the current dance, the music changes to another dance, or its time to change partner. I find it easier to catch on in the ballroom dances, and a little difficult for the latin dances. I'm actually looking for ways to follow the lead in latin without using words, but staying with the basic sequence sounds like the only way out of this. Does that mean that the more advanced techniques of the ballroom are not meant for social dancing?