Being a leader when dancing any form of dance is certainly an entirely different experience to being a follower. In Cuban salsa more so than any other dance form I have seen so far it is at least in its modern form completely acceptable for women to dance as leaders and for leaders to dance as followers. While this may not always have been the case historically, it is now entirely up to the dancer whether they want to lead or follow and many dance schools including Tiempo España Dance Academy encourage all their students to learn both leading and following. This becomes especially important when learning such moves as “Confusion” where the leaders and followers will switch within the same dance. Doing this will actually teach leaders how to lead better as they will be more aware of what the followers are doing and vice versa. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in beginner’s classes as most men will just default to learning the leaders steps and most women will want to see the follower steps initially even though men and women will eventually see both steps and it is irrelevant which role they start with.
Another big misconception is the fact that leaders often believe that they will have to lead the followers through entire moves from start to finish which is definitely not the case. A good follower will learn to respond to key moments in the dance which tell them all the cues they need to figure out which move is coming next. Therefore all a leader needs to do to lead a move well is to give clear signals at the right moments. These moves can be very subtle and do not need to be strong or prolonged in any way. As long as the signals are clear and happen at the correct moment then a follower will understand the moves being led perfectly and will not require any additional guidance. It is in fact possible to lead moves using only one finger which is an exercise we sometimes do in class and for certain moves it is even possible to lead without touching each other at all using only the body position as guidance. While some very good dancers will lead with their hands much more than they need to, it is their personal choice to do this or maybe just a result of how they were taught initially but for good followers it is not necessary to receive more than the key signals. They can in fact find this annoying or even patronising if they are led consistently throughout a move rather than receiving the opportunity to display their skill by interpreting and responding to the signals correctly. Followers who demand of their leaders that they give prolonged support or “stronger” guidance are usually followers who have not yet mastered the skill of quickly responding to the right signals. Dance couples who have been dancing together for a long time and very skillfull dancers can be so subtle in the way they are communicating the moves to each other that it is nearly impossible for spectators to see how the signals are given and received which is what makes the dance look so smooth so this is something most dancers ultimately aspire to.
