Partner Dancing to the Power of Two.

For me partner dancing is, at its best, a conversation. A conversation between the leader and the follower about the interpretation of the music. By this I mean a true conversation into which both of the dancers can and will contribute to: a conversation which direction can be influenced by either one. It is true that the leader has to lead and the follower has to follow, that is the way partner dancing works, but it doesn’t mean that the leader wouldn’t need to follow or that the follower should turn into a passive ‘doll’ leaving the whole interpretation to the leader.

I’m not talking about ladies’ styling or men’s styling here. This styling is supposed to be done in a way that it doesn’t affect the outcome of the movement/figure the leader chooses to lead. Sure, styling can be a big part of the interpretation of the music, but the thing is that it doesn’t necessarily create conversation, simply because of the previously mentioned: ideally the follower can do her styling without interfering the lead and the leader doesn’t have to change the lead without interfering the follower’s styling. Thus, the trick to ladies styling is to find the small spots where the follower has freedom to interpret the music by herself.

This topic came into my mind when we were practicing dynamic dancing in our Zouk class the other day. The challenge for the followers in the exercise was to sense the change of energy and speed of the lead and to react to the change accordingly. It goes without a saying that this is an important skill for the follower (as well as the skill to change and play with the dynamics is for the leader). However, what I was missing in the exercise was the follower’s possibility to influence the dynamics of the dance: a possibility to step out of being a (yet responsive but) passive doll and to take part of the conversation. So I brought up whether I could suggest the leader for something I was hearing from the music, say, more energetic movement, an accent or a soft stretch for example.

I used the word suggest because taking part of the conversation doesn’t mean that I want to take over the lead. I still want that the leader is leading the conversation but I don’t want him to control it so that I won’t be able to say anything. Doing ladies styling in those tiny spots of freedom is not suggesting either because those are done exactly in those moments of independency. By suggesting I mean doing something that the leader, if he is listening to the follower, can sense as an input or influence to the conversation, and by which the movement develops to something different that the leader originally had in his mind.

Conversation in partner dancing is therefore kind of an endless series of counter-reactions. The leader leads something and the follower reacts. This is nothing new. But then if the leader, instead of yet again leading something and the follower reacting (and repeating this the whole dance through), in his turn counter-reacts to the reaction of the follower, the door for conversation opens. The leader’s counter-reaction is not giving up leading but rather giving up the control to determine totally in advance what is going to happen next. Maybe the follower reacted in a bit different way that the leader expected, but instead of going ‘oh now my next move got messed up because she couldn’t follow my lead’ he would try to explore what this unexpectancy could offer, thus to react to the follower’s reaction. Some might call it plan B (and/or plan C etc.) of the next movement but this is not exactly what I’m looking after here because even in this case the leader has made up a plan before the actual movement. The counter-reaction is rather something that comes up naturally or instinctually from the movement in hand. This obviously requires quite advanced level of leading and an ability to step out from the pre-determined set of figures.

So what is the point of creating this conversation? Isn’t partner dancing about leading and following, about the leader controlling the movements? Well, have you ever had this experience where you haven’t been 100 percent sure who was leading the dance even though there was clearly a leader and follower dancing? I by no means mean a situation where the follower is not following and is taking over the lead, but a situation where the couple is dancing synchronized together, counter-reacting to each other’s movements. Usually both come out of the situation confused feeling that yes something unusual happened but they don’t know what or how – it just happened. Movements that either one had never done before, movements that just flew together. This I would call partner dancing to the power of two.

From a follower’s perspective, this conversation gives me the opportunity to get involved and to use more my musicality. It gives me the opportunity to be something more than a doll to be danced around with. I love playing around with the music and thus I enjoy dancing with someone who also listens to me while I'm listening to him. In this way I feel like me and my partner are even better connected, forming together one body instead of two, because both are listening and telling the common story. In this way, either one will never know what will happen, except that it will be something magical.