Demystifying "Lead-and-Follow" In Round Dancing

by Annette Woodruff 

How important is lead and follow to round dancers---really? I have recently tried to read everything I could find about lead and follow until a few main points started to emerge as commonly agreed and uncontroversial:

"Lead and follow" is the secret to getting two partners dancing smoothly together. It's simply impossible for two people, dancing in close contact, to move as one if they're making their own decisions, choosing their own timing and doing their steps independently. They must coordinate their moves perfectly---and for that to happen, one person must be in charge. Politically incorrect it may be, but the convention is for the male to be in charge (the Lead) and the woman to follow.”

The main purpose of lead-and-follow (and of the classes that are offered in the art) is definitely the need to determine what to dance. In each couple ONE person needs to decide and the decider, by convention, is the MAN, or as some prefer to say “the person dancing the part which normally belongs to the man in a traditional man/woman couple”. To save words, I will refer to that person as “The Man”.

“The leader and follower are not necessarily a "man" and "woman" respectively. While roles are often switched for teaching, in competition EVERY pair is man-leader/woman-follower. The terms "leader" and "follower" seem SO politically correct . . . Many English coaches seem to use "boy" and "girl," which raises a few hackles, but fewer than the combination "man" and "girl." Also the traditional International nouns of "man" and "lady" seem mismatched. The counterpart to a "lady" is a "lord." Unfortunately, while in modern usage the term "lady" has come to mean "woman of good character and social standing," as well as referring to a specific rank in the noble hierarchy, the term "lord" has come to have only the latter meaning, or God. So it wouldn't go over too well to say "lords and ladies." The modern term for "man of good character and social standing" is "gentleman." The terms "gentleman" and "lady" would probably cause the least objections from a sexist standpoint, and they reflect the atmosphere that ballroom dancing promotes: a bit more than just normal, day to day social interaction.”

Once this is accepted, the whole art consists in finding out how the man communicates to his partner where he wants her to go next (whispering in her ear is not a recommended leading technique). Although this is no simple matter, it may be less complex than one imagines. From a given position and a given free foot in a given rhythm at a given level, there are not hundreds of options but at most three or four. So, if the couple learns the three or four possible leads, communication is established.

“There are many misconceptions about lead and follow, expounded by both men and women. Untrained dancers sometimes seem to think that the lady is just supposed to go limp and the man bends her to his will. This is grossly mistaken. A woman without good posture, correct body/foot positions and body tone is simply not leadable. . . . Leading is not pushing or pulling. It is communicating an intention. Dancing is an art form, despite the fact that it requires the prowess of an athlete”

Not all agree that leading consists in an invitation issued by the man to the follower. Some claim that “the term ‘invitation’ is probably the most inaccurate description of leading” because, on the contrary, a good lead leaves the follower with only one choice: that of going where the man wants her to be.

Eddie Harper defines lead as "an indication of speed and direction without force or verbal communication" and defines follow as "traveling in the path of least resistance."

“A good lead clearly and unquestionably places the follower where she should be---there is never a moment where the follower thinks, "Hmm . . . shall I accept his invitation?" That is, a proper lead will leave the follower with no choice whatsoever. When communicating his intent through a lead, the man must "speak" clearly---if he "mumbles" the lady cannot understand, no matter how good she is at following”

You will agree, I’m sure, that this MAIN purpose of the lead-and-follow game is moot in Round Dancing. We do not need to learn the secret code, it is given to us explicitly by the cuer.

In round dancing the worst advice to give the lady is to IGNORE THE CUE. It is simply absurd: for years we have been using the presence of cues as a main selling point for our activity, we have been showing how it relieves the man from improvising figure after figure, we have been claiming that Choreographed Ballroom Dancing is fantastic because it gives us the chance to dance steps that fit the music to a "T". . . . and then, we would tell the lady to put plugs in her ears (if she does not need to hear the cue, why would she need to hear the music?) and concentrate 100% in perceiving what the man wants her to do? Why? I can understand that this might give the man a pleasurable sense of power (as well as a huge responsibility), but what does it give the woman? The pleasure of having guessed correctly 3 out of 5 times? Not bad but hearing the cue gives her a 5/5 chance to dance what the man is also dancing.

Surprisingly, it appears that this main purpose of lead-and-follow might also be moot in Ballroom competitions. Apparently, in such competitions, the couples generally memorize a “routine” composed of several amalgamations. They may interrupt their memorized routine in order to avoid a collision but go back to it as soon as they can. They still use the secondary lead-and-follow techniques but the memorization of the routine means that, just like in Round Dancing, the lady knows what is coming next.

So this main goal (choosing the next figure and communicating the man’s choice to the lady) seems mostly to apply to Social Dancing and Ballroom Training.

“If the dance is a set (pre-choreographed) routine, the Lead is still responsible for initiating each move, which ensures smooth coordination between the two dancers”

Let’s look at the secondary aspects of lead-and-follow in the hope of finding elements that might apply to round dancing:

1. INITIATING THE FIGURE, i.e. deciding WHEN to start moving. It seems to be agreed that “The partner moving forward always initiates the figure.” The partner moving back is the follower and must wait. Remember this in your REVERSE WAVE; BACK FEATHER; BACK-THREE-STEP, BACK FEATHER sequence.

2. THE LENGTH OF THE STEPS. It also seems to be agreed that the partner moving forward determines the length of the steps. The partner moving back adjusts.

But conceding that the lady might be the “leader” some of the time is a tough admission for any male dancer, so you may read something like this:

“Rather than saying that the lady 'leads' when going forward, it might be better to say the gentleman 'follows' when going back. The man always initiates direction of movement, but the person moving forward dictates the size of the step. They always step on the floor before the person going backward, therefore leading the way.”

[May I add that in general men are not very good at backing up? Although they are great at taking big forward steps, I am always amazed at how small those steps become when they are backing up.]

If we don't use basic lead-and-follow technique, we can't dance together harmoniously?

When I first started round dancing, lead-and-follow was never mentioned as an important art to learn. But we knew that the cues were addressed to the man, we knew that the man was “in charge” and we most certainly knew that we were supposed to dance “smoothly together.” I have often watched dancing circles from a gallery or mezzanine (in my travels on three continents) and have very, very seldom observed “jerky and clunky.” So I must assume that, although we didn’t put the label “lead and follow” on it, we have done a pretty good job at teaching smooth dancing. The difference in the last few years is that the “lead and follow” theme suddenly acquired a predominant place in our e-conversations.

It seems to me that to dance with a partner (brand new or Old Mama), we instinctively and naturally accept that one will lead and the other follow. We instinctively adjust the length of our steps, the amount of sway, the rise and fall to that used by the “person moving forward.” Whether a certain style is initiated by the woman’s back lead or the man’s lead, the “other” partner tries naturally to match it. I simply don’t know how one could dance without basic, automatic, instinctive, natural “lead and follow” technique, and I believe that e-ve-ry-bo-dy uses it. All round dancing males learn how to raise their left arm for a right underarm turn or how to raise it for a a left underarm turn. We teach the men to lower the joined lead hands when the lady goes to a fan position. In ballroom the men may be told that this lowering of the hand is how they tell their partner where to go. In round dancing, the cue has already told the lady where to go, so lowering the hands is simply included in the description of the man’s part of the figure “Fan”. We don’t necessarily label such actions as “leading techniques” but we surely teach them. For many, many years, we didn’t feel compelled to give “smooth dancing” another label or to place at our fingertips 14 articles on the “lead and follow” topic. I do not know why we do now.

This essay was adapted from a reaction by Annette Woodruff to a Weavers discussion and was published in the Dixie Round Dance Council (DRDC) Newsletter, September 2010.