Men tend to lead. Women tend to follow.
Notice that I said tend.
That's because more and more CSDS members are learning the
other role as well. Debra Fisher had been dancing (as a follower)
for more than five years when she was ready to try something different.
"I took a switch lead/follow class for a lot of reasons,"
she says. "I was ready for more of an exercise for my
head. I wanted to try something less reactive, more
proactive. I also wanted to be able to show people how to dance
who'd expressed an interest, whether they were leaders or
followers. If I learned to lead, I could at least get them started.
"And of course, at dances when there are more followers
than leaders, I can lead, so there's less not-dancing time for
everyone."
Eddie Karoliussen learned to follow when he and Adela were
teaching dance classes through UVa, and he wanted to better help the
women learn how to follow. "Also, when Adela and I are learning
new moves," he explains, "she'll often try them on me as a
follower to see if she can lead it."
Making the switch can be challenging at first as you
"untrain" your automatic muscle memory. But everyone
agrees that leaders become better leaders and followers become better
followers.
"You can't really know how difficult leading is,"
Debra says, "until you try it - constantly mapping out what you want
to do next. It makes you appreciate the leaders more."
For Debra, the mental challenge is like working on
puzzles. "At lessons when they were teaching the leader's
role, I'd start mapping out in my head what needed to be done to put a follower
where she needed to be."
"When I started learning to lead, I'd play West Coast
Swing songs at home and practice the leader's steps by myself, so that
later, I wouldn't have to think about my footwork as much while actually
moving someone else around."
Eddie agrees that learning to follow has made him a better
leader. Now, for example, he "unwinds" his follower if he's
given her several spins in one direction; and he watches her feet as she
finishes a move, to make sure she's on the correct foot for what he
has in mind next.
"Women lead differently than men do," he says.
"I think that, overall, women are better leaders. They
know, from following, that they prefer good technique over
forceful leading, so when they learn to lead, they learn the technique. Men
can tend to muscle their way through some of the stuff."
Eddie acknowledges the social stigma attached to two men
dancing with each other, but he's gotten over it. "Now I have
the best time. Guys will come up and say, 'Let me lead you through
this and you tell me what I'm doing wrong here, because something's not
right.'"
So even though it's a challenge retraining your muscles to
respond differently when you hear the familiar West Coast beat, the
experience of switching-up your lead/follow routine is an invigorating
one. After all, advanced WCS means less of a 100-percent
lead-or-follow proposition anyway.
As Eddie's wife, Adela, puts it, "It's a two-way
conversation."
Debra leads Eddie in WCS and what happens when Eddie
doesn't follow correctly ...
