My goal is to be the best "Follower" in the world,
and to give every guy I dance with, his "FIX" for the evening.
By Edie, The Salsa FREAK
It's true. I want to be the BEST follower in the world. That's my goal on the dance floor.
However, when the man has a problem leading you, this is difficult to do. I found that when men point over to a woman, and tell me, "She is an EXCELLENT dancer." What they REALLY MEAN is that she is an excellent follower, and performs and obeys his EVERY TURN PATTERN....
Is there a catch?
Aside from being the "best follower in the world", another goal of mine is to give every man his "Fix Level Three" on the dance floor when he’s dancing with me. This can ONLY be accomplished by FOLLOWING WELL. If I didn’t obey and succumb to his every lead, I found he would label me as "difficult to dance with". If I back-led, it never worked out. When I just "gave up", and let him lead me, things always worked out for the better. I found this particularly true in Miami, where a completely opposite style of Los Angeles and New York is danced. In LA and NY, the girls are taught to have very stiff-arms to be lead well. This is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to do in Miami, where the fast pace of the guy’s super fast, over-the-head leads require the girls’ arms to be like wet spaghetti.
Ladies, you can be smarter, better looking, and have more dance experience than the guys you’re dancing with, but if you can’t follow them well, all that doesn’t matter. You may as well go home and read a book.
Men will label you as "difficult to lead", and then in the back of their minds they will consider you a MEDIOCRE dancer. Believe it or not, guys talk, and the WORST thing you want them talking about number one, is YOU. And the NEXT WORSE thing you want them talking about is HOW DIFFICULT YOU ARE TO DANCE WITH.
What a drag. I HATE that. I hate it when a man thinks I can’t dance, and I KNOW I CAN!!! What do I have to do to prove it?
I HAVE TO FOLLOW HIM WELL…. Even if he’s off beat, and he’s a mediocre dancer or beginner in my own eyes. It is the responsibility of the lady to make the man look good, no matter what. Do not, I repeat, do not make him look bad, or portray disgust with him during the dance. Be polite. We want Salsa to grow, not shrink!
Trust me. They will think you’re AWESOME if you follow their every move. They will tell ALL THEIR FRIENDS how great of a dancer you are, and ask you again. Their friends will ask you, dance a song with you, then you watch. They will go back to their little "guy group" and do an evaluation about you amongst each other.
I HATE THAT, BUT THAT’S WHAT REALLY HAPPENS AMONG GUYS.
Throughout my travels to different clubs all over the world, I often felt like I was being "judged" or something.
Talk about PRESSURE TO PERFORM AND FOLLOW TO PERFECTION.
I’ve had some guys actually tell me that "so and so just now ruined me" because I was dancing a different style with someone else, then I went back to him again, and now I couldn’t follow as well.
U N B E L I E V A B L E
Of course, these types comments satisfy my Type A behavior, because now I find it a COMPLETE challenge to follow well. Trust me, following is an art form in itself. It takes time, patience, and a lot of practice. The better you get at it, the more you’ll get to dance!