Boy oh boy, is this thread a time bomb waiting to explode. Beckto, behave yourself, you don't want to get banned again.

Don't feel like thinking of names, but I think the best follows are the ones who actually follow . I know that seems obvious, but the vast majority of follows are stuck in one style, can dance with only a certain kind of lead, and refuse to adapt to the style(s) of the lead. I've been frustrated lately (when I lead) that 99 of follows will absolutely not rock step on the one if I lead it, and instead walk forward, and most will not walk forward on the five if I lead it.

Follows (in my opinion) should not have a 'defalt', but should be conscious of everything that the lead is doing/leading, of all of their movements, and move in a way that fits both the person they are dancing with and the music. This is absolutely not to say they shouldn't have their own style, but they need to be able to control their stylings to suit the situation (something I've been working on lately as a follow).

I don't think it's that simple- something that works well for one follow doesn't necessarily work well for another (they either may not be able to physically do it, or it may look weird).

Continuity of movement is pretty high on my list. The concept where a follow will continue moving in the direction that she s directed in until lead otherwise. Done well, it results in a very fluid motion. See Naomi Uyama dancing with Todd Yannacone in the medium division finals of ULHS 2005. (I m referring to the larger of the two files there) Right off the bat, at around 0:25 in you ll see Todd lead a Texas Tommy. Naomi carries the momentum of the turn through her leg on 7 & 8 of the move which allows her to build up energy in her re-established connection with Todd who is able to re-direct it to spin her the other way.

Another good example is at about 2:00 minutes in of the same contest with Giselle Anguizola dancing with Nick Williams. Nick does a nice hesitation step which is made even cooler by Giselle still making an effort to sink into his hand in order to keep building energy for him to release her back the other way. If she stops short, she ll throw them both off balance. The move is dependent on the two of them moving away from each other, even in such a funky position.

A lot of this is depends on the follow trusting the lead. If she doesn t have that and decides to go into business on her own, she may do something that she likes, but leaves the lead hanging, taking the partner out of partner dancing with her. Such is the result of micro musicality where dancers will try to hit. every. little. note. in the music breaking the flow of the partnership rather than embellishing movements as they take them to their logical end. See Nina Gilkensen dancing with Peter Strom of the ULHS 2005 Pro J & J. Around 6:40 Peter leads a spin. Rather than stopping to face him directly at the end of the spin she keeps moving in the original direction of the spin into a kick away from him to start off the next move.

It may be frustrating at times when you re dancing with a lead who seems to be doing a lot of cool stuff without the follow, but good follows have patience to pick and choose their moments. There s a nice sequence back in the medium finals of ULHS 2005 where Laura Keat is dancing with Kevin St. Laurent. At around 2:26 Kevin does multiple underarm turns for the lead, and at the same time Laura does some nice sliding footwork where most follows would either stand there and do nothing, or worse, do something to jank the leader off balance.

Great follows also have lots of options for basic moves. Referring back to the Pro J & J finals of ULHS 2005, Frida Segerdahl is dancing with Peter Loggins and at about 4 minutes in, during their second shine, Peter leads four consecutive swingouts and Frida does four different things at the beginning/end of each of those swingouts, not to mention some cool footwork during the side pass that kicks off that sequence.

For me, that s not even Frida s most admirable trait. She s one of the few dancers who not only has fun when she goes out there, but goes all in when she dances. If you re not familiar with that phrase, it s from poker where a player will bet all of their money and show their cards in one hand. In relation to dancing I mean that she just lets it all hang out. There s an awesome moment during the medium finals where Frida and Skye Humphries start their first shine at around 2:40. They put more energy and attitude into the simple act of walking onto the dance floor than some people will ever do during their entire lives dancing. Also around 3:19, Frida just lets loose with a primal scream that distracts Todd & Naomi as they enter for their shine. On another thread, people are talking about the merits of smiling and showmanship, but this goes beyond that. It s the product of a cycle where enthusiasm drives dancers like Frida to work on their dancing. This gives them freedom to not think about little technical details when they re social dancing, which allows them to enjoy the dance even more.

We can talk about particular skills, but ultimately great dancers become that way through a lot of hard work. Check out Naomi Uyama dancing with Todd Yannacone in the fast division finals of ULHS 2005. (I m referring to the larger of the two files there again) During their second shine, about 3 minutes in, they electrify the crowd doing fairly basic moves at 320 bpm that most dancers can't do at half that speed.

What made that performance so exciting was that she (and Todd) made it look so easy and effortless. Naomi and Todd live on opposite sides of the country, so they don't dance with each other all that often. But they have worked on their dancing individually to a point where they re able to internalize movements to such a degree that they don t have to think about doing them. You look at other competitors in the preliminary rounds of that division, and you can see the huge amount of mental effort on some of their faces just to complete a simple swingout.

I guess what I m saying is that I think what makes a great follow, or dancer in general, is more about how they approach the dance than anything else. However, I think I ve rambled enough, so I ll let an actual follow say something that makes more sense.

jerry

Quoted from "CafeSavoy"
An advanced follower helps you see things in the music you would not have noticed otherwise. An advanced follower helps you dance above your level. An advanced follower makes you think you're good.

Brilliant.

Quoted from "fiddletree"
Don't feel like thinking of names, but I think the best follows are the ones who actually follow . I know that seems obvious, but the vast majority of follows are stuck in one style, can dance with only a certain kind of lead, and refuse to adapt to the style(s) of the lead. I've been frustrated lately (when I lead) that 99 of follows will absolutely not rock step on the one if I lead it, and instead walk forward, and most will not walk forward on the five if I lead it. Follows (in my opinion) should not have a 'defalt', but should be conscious of everything that the lead is doing/leading, of all of their movements, and move in a way that fits both the person they are dancing with and the music. This is absolutely not to say they shouldn't have their own style, but they need to be able to control their stylings to suit the situation (something I've been working on lately as a follow).

Tru, tru.

Personally I find it fun when the follows add a good dose of their own flavor to the dance. It helps me forget that otherwise I'm just leading the same 3 moves all night :wink: But the really enjoyable will do that within the framework of what is being lead and in a manner that involves both partners, rather than fighting against the lead or leaving you hanging.

Oh and then what Wexie and CafeSavoy said. (sorry, no vids at the moment...)

Quoted from "kitkat"
Marta's after specific things she can look at and analyze. Think of her question as looking up sources for a research project, not reading New York Times editorials on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

In that case, the answer really is that the best follows are really good at following.

Most really good follows are good at other things too, such as musicality. The same is true of good leads. Unfortunately, many newbies see the cool stuff and try to learn that without realizing that connection is much more important in a partner dance.

Hi everyone! Thanks for the posts!

Kitkat got my point, I'm looking for things I can look at, think about, analize and learn from. I have already done a good job finding out about the skill of following and deciding the kind of follow I want to be (I want to follow being able to use the lead to be creative and musical, I want to make the lead enjoy dancing with me, I want to be adaptable to different styles...) and I'm already working on it (and don't plan to quit doing it, don't worry!). But it's kind of subjective, don't you think?

So that's why now I'm starting to pay attention to other things that are more "objective", the kind of things people call "good technique", those that are "visible" from outside. JSAvoywood has given me plenty of homework to check out. Thanks! And thanks Wexie for your commentary, too!

Gen, I followed that thread too. Even if most of the time it was just name listings and general compliments, there are also a few inspiring ideas. Thanks!

And thanks to the rest for your ideas. Please, feel free to keep posting! I'd love to read all of your suggestions!

I can't get the link to those files to work would that be a problem with my computer, or the link?

Quoted from "JSAvoywood"
See Nina Gilkensen dancing with Peter Strom of the ULHS 2005 Pro J & J. Around 6:40 Peter leads a spin. Rather than stopping to face him directly at the end of the spin she keeps moving in the original direction of the spin into a kick away from him to start off the next move.

I wanted to elaborate on this point since I forgot to add that even as she's turning away for the kick, the top half of her body is still there for Peter to lead her in towards him.

jerry

Quoted from "fiddletree"
I can't get the link to those files to work would that be a problem with my computer, or the link?

They still work for me, so it might be your computer. Try going to http://poy.no/ and they give you the option of going through FTP or HTTP. Look for Events and then ULHS 2005. Hope that helps.

jerry

Personal style.

Following is following, but personal style goes a LONG way into making someone a "good" follow. And frankly I don't want to dance with a "good" follow. I want to dance with a good follow who has massive personal style.

For example, the other night I was out dancing with Drew at the new venue in Santa Monica, and we were looking around the floor, and a lot of the girls looked identical. They could follow well and perform the movements, but they didn't have that certain thing that makes them stand out; on the contrary, they seemed to either copy what the popular follow of the week was doing and they were more interested in their own styling than the connection - they were dancing "at" their partners instead of dancing "with."

Then I saw a girl who has been in the LA/OC scene for a long long time, and I saw that she was doing something totally different - she was dancing in a style that hasn't been popular for quite some time, and it was refreshing to see the difference in the way her body moved versus the sort of awkward clunky way everyone else's body was moving. The girl had clearly made a personal choice and stuck to it, developing a personal style that draws from very specific influences but is still a "good fit" for her.

All the other follows in the room paled in comparison because they hadn't figured out how to move with respect to their own bodies and their own creative choices - probably because they were so busy imitating _________.

JSAvoywood thanks for the video analysis. great stuff.

Quoted from "Marcelo"
All the other follows in the room paled in comparison because they hadn't figured out how to move with respect to their own bodies and their own creative choices - probably because they were so busy imitating _________.

Marcelo, I agree with your support of personal style, but I think you should be careful when accusing people of imitating. I bet it isn't always a conscious decision on the follower's part. I know I've picked up both good and bad habits from simply watching certain dancers dance a lot. Had no idea I was doing anything stylish until someone pointed it out. Now that I am aware I try to pick and chose when I do something and match it to the music, but it is a work in progress.

This thread made me think of a great post by Matt Smiley on SwingoutDC a few years ago. I think I've re-posted it a few times already on other discussions here and on other boards, but that's only because it's got some great analysis. Unfortunately, I had to cut out half the post because the pictures are no longer online, but hopefully this should give you some more to think about.

jerry

Quoted from "Matt Smiley"
Alright, time to nerd out a bit. The best dancers seem to know exactly what every muscle in their body is doing any given moment of the dance. Work on being mindful of what your muscles are doing and then work on doing it better. If you really want to get good lines, start imagining that every millisecond of your dance is being photographed, then mentally go through your movements millisecond by millisecond to make sure that each image captured will make the best picture possible. If you want to be better than good, then once you done that, start changing things up and take some real risks with your choices. Analyzing a video of yourself would probably be the best thing to do for your dancing all around, but for specific work on lines, just look at a few pictures of yourself and see how they compare with some of these shots I've linked below. The arms and legs in this picture are so straight and precise! Still, though, there is some sort of kinetic energy visible, making the image come alive with motion - the picture is clearly not a pose. It's easy to get good lines when you pose, but the dancer here has the rare trait of making the lines look easy mid-dance. Her limbs make two sweet crisscrossing lines through her body. Check out the line that goes from Andy's back shoulder, straight to Nina's face. Then notice how her left arm also guides your eye straight to her face. The result is an very cool composition that probably wasn't practiced or "worked on," but just results naturally from bad ass dancing. Dig Skye's arm and leg extending forward - it just looks so much more dramatic than the average Charleston, because he is taking a chance and extending everything out a bit more that usual. One of my favorite pictures ever! That line that flows from Marty's extended rear foot through his back, down his arm and across the top part of Jen's frame is really impressive. Also notice how his right forearm hangs perfectly parallel to his thigh - it's subtle, but as a stylistic choice, it's the little things like this that make a picture really stand out.

First few frames of the clip identify her as Kristen Sorci. I don't know her, but I watched her dance at some ALHC many many years ago, and still remember being struck by how hot her dancing was. I think she was performing with DJ, but my memory isn't always perfect.