Micro Leading

Micro Leading (my term) is something entirely different..... Lead and Follow are constantly switching throughout the song, often every note or two, until "Lead" and "Follow" almost cease to have meaning. It is a kind of "One Body Dancing" feeling that I get from no other kind of dance.

In the photo below, I am in traditional "Follow" position, but I may well have been leading on the note where this photo was taken (by a staff photographer at a Fusion dance event). In turn, either Chris* or I might have been leading a note before or a note after.

I only do it with a few dancers at this point. My dance buddies Jean & Mandi, and several young men. I am guessing it works with men better than women for one simple reason:

Super high level leads have Led tens of thousands of dances, through which just about everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. With endless experience, they have learned to recover and pick up the Lead again in a heartbeat, and build a new phrase out of nothing... that is a skill that is essential to Micro Leading

Here are the elements I feel and think about, to try to explain how to start Micro Leading:

* Both dancers must abandon the concept of traditional Lead and Follow positions. Those positions give no indication of who is actually Leading or Following.

* When you don’t need to change positions in order to transfer the Lead, you can do it in a heartbeat... so the possibilities just explode.

* Either partner can grab or relinquish the Lead at any moment, based on something he/she is feeling in that moment, in the music and in the connection.

That last one sounds incredibly difficult. It sounds like you would be constantly in conflict, as both decide to Lead at exactly same moment.

That happens, but in a vanishingly small percentage of the time. Mostly, my experience is that both of us are "listening", like we have never listened before. The transitions almost always feel clear and natural. How could it be confusing when you have become "One Body Dancing"?

Well, except when you are tripping over your own feet, like I am known to do!!

Oh My Goodness! Micro Leading is such a fun, fascinating dimension to dancing.

Ask me about it.

Dance it with me.

I used to think I had a clue what "dance connection" meant. I now think I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible.

At moments, I feel it, the magic of Joy and Connection with another soul.

17 years ago I had a vision: "Take lots of Lindy classes. Get good at Lindy. Be a Lindy dancer."

Thank goodness the reality is amazingly richer than that. I have no idea what "good" Lindy is anymore.... I keep finding new layers.

And Connection? A quintillion things to try. I've barely begun.

While learning.... every step of the way is fun. Well, except those first few!

"If you never did you should.

These things are fun and fun is good."

Dr. Seuss

I just have one requirement: Share some of your dance fun with me!

"I wasn't looking to dance....

but your soul sang a song I couldn't resist."

-- Unknown