Originally Posted by
Chef
I am mostly trying to get over the point that the leaders body can be doing whatever it wants as long is it is seperate from what his hand is leading. Suppose you lead the woman backwards to start a rockstep and at the same time you take a rockstep. If your hand now goes backwards with you your hand is now pulling the woman forwards at exactly the time that the woman is going backwards. You have effectlively given two signals (go backwards, go forwards) at almost the same time. Very confusing for the woman.
If I can break it down then the sequence would be.
On beat 7 you establish tension in the womans arm by pulling it slightly (about 3 cm usually works for me) and the woman responsd by her muscles in her arm making tension and now you have established a lead and follow connection between you both.
on beat 8 you tilt your hand very slighlty to one side to get the woman to place her weight mostly on one foot. I almost always move the woman to put most of her weight on her left foot because I want her to make her rock step backwards with her right foot (which now has much less of her body weight on it).
On beat 1 I push the back of my fingers into the palm of the womans hand about 3-4cm and wait. There is little more that you can do at this point apart from wait. The connection has been established, the womans weight has been placed onto the foot that you don't want her to move and then you have signalled that you want her to start a rock step. She should now respond to that signal by taking her rock step backwards (WHILE LEAVING HER HAND WHERE IT WAS) and naturally as she finishes her rock step her weight is coming back to a neutral postition. You may then want to lead her towards you, but then again you may want to lead her to the left or right. If the woman rocksteps back pulling on your hand because she has taken her weight backwards and now NEEDS the support of your hand to stop her falling backwards her weight will then fall forwards and the only option you have is to do a move that now stops the woman falling forwards.
Lead and follow could and should be possible using only one finger from each partner. If you need any more than that you are not transmitting signals you are using it for support.
Some followers are slow to respond to signals and the leaders give them really big signals in the hope that they will respond. You are not doing your follower any favours. Really big signals just end up pulling them off balance and they never learn to respond to the smaller signals. It is just the same as when a woman leads a man that is trying to learn. Sure the woman pushing and pulling the man gets the job done but it doesn't teach the man how to lead.
A lead needs to be small and deliberate and not pull the woman off balance. So when you signal a rockstep that is all you do - signal. Once you have signaled the move lead the hand still and let the woman complete what you have asked of her.
To really appreciate this you need to find a really understanding and very good follower who will allow you to experiment with her doing this while she is blindfolded. These women are worth their weight in gold. It is also worth putting on a blindfold and being lead yourself. It makes you appreciate how bouncing an wagglings hands just make life for the foller so confusing.
Happy dancing
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