This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Ballroom Dancing, Men & Women, Shoes, Types. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
When I go out social dancing I follow a few rules of thumb.
The idea is for both you and your partner to have fun for the given dance. Make sure you wear ballroom dancing dance shoes. • I only lead steps that I have mastered to a certain degree. It is not fun for your partner to try and follow a step that is led poorly. So don’t do it. Save it for practice.
• For each of the dances I dance frequently I have a repertoire of a number of basic (or very leadable/ followable) steps. I also have a few fancy steps but I only use them when:
o I can lead them well.
o I think the follower can handle them.
o and everything else has gone smoothly.
If all of the above is true I might throw in a fancy step. Usually only one per dance. If done right it will make a good impression and leave a good feeling. So the “balance I am advocating” is do the basic steps because you do them well. If conditions are right do a fancy step but there is no need to over do it. One done really well will be more fun and make a better impression than any number done poorly. This will leave your partner with a good or at least neutral feeling. Which is much better than a bad feeling. I mean you do want her to dance with you again, right? Over time you will acquire enough basic steps and fancy steps to make a dance interesting to a wide variety of partners. Simple perfection is so much better than clumsy complexity.
