On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Perry Shafran <pshaf(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
What are you doing specifically to make you think that
you are leading
or following when you do contra dance?
When I'm dancing the gent's role I do several things that I think of as leading:
- twirling on courtesy turns
- when to end the swing
- variations at other points in the dance
- substitutions during the swing
The last is the big one, but I have the most fun with finding other
parts of the dance where I can swap something for something else.
All of these are proposals; my partner decides whether to accept them.
I'm constantly trying to predict what my partner would enjoy and lead
that.
When I'm dancing the lady's role (which I do a bit less than half the
time) I like it when my partner takes this approach to the gent's
role. I also have fun when dancing as the lady with gents that don't
see the role as leading, but other things being equal I enjoy
following more.