Is it possible for a man to lead without squeezing the woman's right hand....I broke my wrist and I'm so depressed cause I haven't been dancing because I'm afraid of pain....lol

They shouldn't be squeezing but you do need to maintain constant pressure. You know until your hand gets better you can modify the hold. Put your right hand on your partners shoulder. It will work, you just have to get used to it.

One of my favourite ballroom class exercises for lead & follow, is for the man to release hold with his LH completely (ie no contact at all), in order to demonstrate that the hand takes NO part in leading, and that everything else carries on just the same. I think that the best leading comes from the upper body movement & rotation, and is felt through the body connection, occasionally with very gentle pressure with the RH on the lady's back, particularly with movements into promenade position.

There have been a couple of threads on leading before. The truth is if the man has to lead the lady. I mean literally make her do the steps, that is exactly what it looks like. The person whos dancing suffers the most is the man. Do it enough times and thats what your dancing will become because you are trying to dance the ladies steps for her. Look after your own. If the person I am dancing with doesn't know the correct technique for their part then thats their bad luck.

There is no 'part' to know, if dancing at anything beyond a novice level. When I dance, I choose the figures to lead based on the music, my mood, my partner and the available space on the floor. I have not much idea what I will lead in four bar's time, and my partner has no idea at all. If I can't lead the figure, she can't follow: but no one would be able to see what is going on, because the signals are far too subtle, and are felt, not seen. If this was a burden to me, and a chore for my partner, neither of us would bother. You should try dancing, sometime.

I've no interest in dancing sequences.

I choose my figures to suit the music, so of course I pay due attention to the musical phrasing. This does not in any sense mean that I am dancing a sequence: or that my partner could know her 'part'. Given a wide range of available figures, and a working knowledge of their precedes and follows, I am very unlikely to dance the same amalgamations all evening, let alone after eight bars.

I agree that the hand has no part in the leading, for people who have danced for some time. They learn the other contact points and that leading originates in the body-to-body contact in standard. That also means they have to actually be able to maintain the hold and the frame.

ALso...this isn't true for Latin...in my experience.

I might be wrong but I have times in Latin when I'm doing certain figures that are led based on the positioning of his left in my right....New Yorkers for instance...a fan in rumba or cha cha...

So, are you guys trying to tell me that the man's left arm and hand are not part of his "Frame"?

No, it is part of the frame. It is just that the lead really should originate elsewhere (dancers core). It can still communicate (hence maintaining constant pressure) it should just not be the main source of information.

There is no inconsistency between the man's LH to lady's RH hold forming part of the dance frame, and the hand-clasp NOT being used in guiding or leading.

The joined hands move, as the couple move, but the relative position of the hands (and therefore the frame) remain static, and do not alter from moment to moment.

The fact that the muscles of the dancers' bodies are braced at all times means that they will feel the rotation of one another's bodies, but the hand-clasp is the least appropriate point of physical contact from which to 'communicate' the intention to rotate. Men do not 'steer' their partners around the floor using the extended arm as though a tiller on a boat, but rather, the couple move together, the lead having been already felt elsewhere.

The fact that in rotation, the movement is most apparent at the extremity of the frame (the point farthest from the centre of rotation) emphatically does NOT mean that it originated there.