[Callers] Lead & Follow

[John Sweeney via Callers]

Cara asked, "Is there something wrong with Lead and Follow? 

Not sure if I have posted this on here before; my apologies if you read it
all before.

My beliefs, understandings, opinions - some points:

1) Contra is not intrinsically a lead/follow dance style; calling the roles
"leader" & "follower" is incorrect, misleading and generally a bad idea

2) Within Contra there are opportunities to do some lead and follow, but
either role can be the leader

3) There is a difference between leads, signals and connections, though
connections are often used to lead beginners

4) Lead & Follow works better if both dancers have good lead/follow
technique, and some flourishes also benefit from good technique

5) Leads can be with fingertips, body angles, eyes, and anything else that
works

6) The end of a ballroom-hold swing is not symmetrical and it is often much
easier to let the "man" control the end of the swing; that's not sexist, it
is physics!

7) Most dancers would benefit from good teaching on this subject, but sadly
there is very little teaching provided

Details below.  Read on if you are interested...

First, I should perhaps explain my background.  I have been dancing for
nearly fifty years and teaching dance for over forty years.  As well as
contra, square, ECD, Contra, Morris, clog, etc. I also dance many partner
dances  such as West Coast Swing, Lindy/Swing, Argentine Tango, contra waltz
and Modern Jive/LeRoc/Ceroc: http://www.modernjive.com.

Modern Jive is an English, simplified form of Swing which has no fixed
footwork and very few close-hold moves.  It is led primarily by the man's
fingertips and has a very wide range of moves.  I specialise in Double
Trouble: one man leading two ladies: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE6Iu6Fh6bw

This is a cabaret performance so we are doing some choreographed moves, but
most of it is being led by me and the ladies don't know what I am going to
do next.  When I go to new venues I dance with lots of ladies to see how
well they follow, then I dance Double Trouble with two of the good followers
and I can lead them into a wide range of interesting moves.  Leading two
strangers simultaneously only works if they are following well, and because
I have spent a lot of time studying lead and follow and developing my
leading skills so that I can do this.

So, back to Contra:

1) Contra is not intrinsically a lead/follow dance style; calling the roles
"leader" & "follower" is incorrect, misleading and generally a bad idea

I agree entirely with what many others have said already.  The caller
teaches the dance.  The dancers dance it to the music.  Everyone knows (at
least in theory!) what is coming next, so there can be no lead or follow.
The whole point of lead and follow is that the leader chooses the next move
and has to let the follower know what it is through the lead; the follower
then has to react to that lead in whatever way they choose.


2) Within Contra there are opportunities to do some lead and follow, but
either role can be the leader

When you execute the dance as the caller called it then there is no lead or
follow.  If you add some flourishes then they MAY involve some lead and
follow, but which role leads depends on the actual move.

A nice flourish at the end of "Up the Hall in Lines of Four; Bend the Line"
is for a middle person to raise their hand and turn their end person into
the circle.  This is not part of the dance; the end person may not be
expecting it and has to react to it; this is lead & follow.  The
genders/roles of the participants are completely irrelevant.

Note: this can also be performed by the twirlee as an independent flourish -
as long as the dancer whose hand you are holding allows it!  Many dancers
are so rigid that I can't raise their arm to twirl under it! (If only
everyone would relax the muscles that they don't need to be using, and let
their hands be moved!)


3) There is a difference between leads, signals and connections, though
connections are often used to lead beginners

When you help each other to redirect your momentum that is not really lead &
follow.  Examples are "Circle Left; Neighbour Dosido" or "Long Lines Go
Forward & Back with the Ladies Rolling the Men Away from Right to Left;
Ladies' Chain".  Keeping connected and using the elastic in your arms to
redirect the momentum and change direction makes these really satisfying
moves.  But no-one is leading or following; you are both just using good
technique to help each other execute pre-defined moves.  Of course if one
dancer is experienced and the other is new to Contra, this type of
connection can be used to help the new dancer to move in the correct
direction.  Connection, gestures and eyes are all great for helping everyone
achieve the dance.

Signals are pre-defined gestures that lead to choreographed moves that both
participants know.  An example is the twirls at the end of a Ladies' Chain.
As a man, I offer my left hand high, fingers pointing down to let the lady
know that I am willing to help her twirl - this is a signal; she responds
with a high or low hand to let me know what she wants to happen.  If she
goes high then we start the twirls and I make very small circular movements
directly above her head to help her twirl twice (or just once if she
resists).  Once I have established rapport with a dancer and realised they
want to do more twirls then, on subsequent interactions, we may get up to
around seven twirls - but only if both of us have good dance technique.

Of course, a lady can lead herself into this move as well by just raising
the man's hand and hoping he doesn't resist too much!

Again this is more a signalled, playful, co-operative move than a lead and
follow, since the lady knows what is going to happen and is equally involved
in the decision about how many twirls are done.

Genuine lead & follow, where the leader leads a follower into something they
are not expecting, is quite rare in Contra.


4) Lead & Follow works better if both dancers have good lead/follow
technique, and some flourishes also benefit from good technique

Moves like Ladies' Chain twirls works best when both dancers have good
technique.  The techniques for leading and following and executing good
twirls are identical to those used in Modern Jive.  There is an article
about lead and follow and twirling technique at
http://www.modernjive.com/history/tension.html - you may find some useful
material there.


5) Leads can be with fingertips, body angles, eyes, and anything else that
works

When I dance Modern Jive with a beginner lady, I spend the first couple of
minutes teaching her the techniques for following; I do this through simple
moves and exercises.  If she has a good sense of rhythm and good balance
then, during the second track that we dance to together, I can lead her
through fifty different moves - she doesn't need to know the moves; she
needs to know how to follow. This is lead & follow, and is very different
from what happens in a Contra dance.

The main leads are done with the fingertips, but a good leader will use
anything that works to let the follower know what they are trying to
achieve.  The lead is an invitation.  The follower can react in many ways to
the invitation and the two dancers can play off each other in fun ways.   Of
course, always remembering that, if this is in the middle of a dance, you
need to have both players facing the right way in the right place for beat
one of the next move!


6) The end of a ballroom-hold swing is not symmetrical and it is often much
easier to let the "man" control the end of the swing; that's not sexist, it
is physics!

N.B. This is about swings where you end side-by-side with the man on the
left and the lady on the right.  When you spring back to your own side at
the end of a swing then the ending is somewhat different.

A simple swing does not involve lead and follow, but someone has to control
the end of the swing.  The objective is to end in the right place side by
side facing the right way.

If the lady stops when she is facing the right way then the man has already
turned too far and he is facing the wrong way; he then has to turn back
against his momentum.  To avoid this the lady would have to stop the man,
get out of his embrace, and continue turning herself while making the man
stay still. This is quite hard, but good dancers often do this, especially
with beginners, or men who have no idea how to finish a swing well.

On the other hand, If the man stops the swing on around beat 6 then he just
releases the lady and her momentum takes her out smoothly to face in the
same direction as the man.

This is just physics, based on the fact that we choose to swing clockwise
and to finish with the man on the left.

This is not lead and follow; this is a mutual agreement as to how many times
to go around, and how fast, and then to let the man end the swing so that it
ends smoothly.

Good dancers of course make the end of the swing flow into the next move.
But here I am talking about a basic swing for ordinary dancers.

Of course if one of you wants to twirl or be twirled at the end of the swing
then you start moving into lead & follow territory, and since many of the
embellishments are based on moves stolen from couple dances, then most such
flourishes are led by the man.  But that is not a rule - the lady can
initiate a twirl of herself or her man, or both if she has good leading
technique and he has good following technique.


7) Most dancers would benefit from good teaching on this subject, but sadly
there is very little teaching provided

As I have said, elements such as leading, following and twirling work well
if the dancers have developed good technique.  But where will they learn it
in the Contra world?  I teach workshops on the subject, but that seems to be
quite rare.  I also occasionally teach flourishes at our regular weekly
dances.  Sometimes it only needs a caller to drop in a few good one-liners
into an evening's calling to pass along a little bit of knowledge.  If
callers don't do it who will?

Hmmm... I have probably rambled on for too long now.  I hope some of you
find some of that useful.  If you want to hear me talk on the subject for
nearly two hours please contact me about getting a cheap copy of my Toolkit
DVD: http://www.modernjive.com/tmjt.html :-)

Happy dancing,
John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England john at modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent