[Franck]

Originally posted by Fran
I do sometimes take the initiative and introdue a impro with a partner who does not lead it, but am very concious that they may not approve, it usually only happens when a particular record comes on and you are very aware that there are some really good breaks in it and really want to use them.

Yep I agree, and this is pretty much what happens at the moment!
I would also like to stress that "taking the lead" to improvise should only be done with men who are already good leads, otherwise, it might completely shatter what little confidence they had in the first place. My point was about improvising with a man, who is happy to allow you to do so, or indeed, like Denise mentions who improvises himself!
I reckon women, who want to develop this aspect of their dancing, could take leading cues from men who can slow down the move and pause the dance to add a bit of Style or expression. Unfortunately though, leading well is difficult, and possibly even an art! So a lot of practise might be needed and the same principles would apply for women about a clear yet subtle lead...

If I am looking for a prompt to go into some improvisation if it is not a particular move which we both know includes it I guess I take my cue from the mans body language - somtime a very slight hesiation or eye contact on his part seems to do the trick,also if the man is standing still then it seems a very natural cue. This is just personal and other ladies may disagree with me and have other cues.

This is from the perspective of the man leading / allowing his partner a chance to improvise, but from experience, unless both dancers are used to dancing together often, or very atune to each other, the men will lead a impro break when his partner will not have inspiration or miss a moment when she would have

It would be really useful if the ladies could have hand signal which we could give to cue and impro, but the main thing is to understand the music and when to do it.

I agree, that if both dancers understand the music, then it should work, but often everyone has a very different way of interpreting the music, and as Wendy says, a musical phrase she finds expressive might do nothing for her partner and vice versa.
Having a subtle lead/cue for women to warn their partner of the start & end of a bit of improvisation would help a lot! Except that as Bill points out, we might then realise that a lot of women don't have much more musical / beat understanding than the men