Social Partner Dance Principles
For the Leader and Follower to interact with each other, communication needs to occur between the dance couple. Because it's not practical to discuss moves, physical contact is the most effective means. More advanced dancers will take many cues from each other through this connection, with the Follower using it to communicate feedback to the Leader just as the Leader uses it to suggest moves to their partner. The most accomplished dancers use connection as a line of communication which allows the leader to incorporate the follower's ideas, abilities, and creative suggestions into their own styling and selection of moves.
In many partner dances, the lead's steps differ from the follower's. In face-to-face positions, the follower generally "mirrors" the lead's footwork. For example, if the lead begins on their left foot, the follow will begin on their right foot. In choreographed pieces and other situations where the follow is in a tandem position or shadow position, the lead and follow will use the same footwork. Usually both partners move together as a unit, but in some dances the partners move in opposite directions - together and apart again.
In partner dancing, dancers seek to work together to create synchronised or complementary movements. The lead is largely responsible for initiating movement, whereas the follow's role is to maintain this movement (though they may choose not to). Many dancers describe this process as involving the initiation of momentum or 'energy' (by the lead) and then the subsequent maintenance, exaggeration, decreasing or dissolving of this momentum by both partners. This momentum or energy may be manifested as movement (in its most obvious form), or in a range of more complex interactions between partners:
- Compression (where each partner 'compress' the energy by bending joints and moving towards or 'into' their partner, to varying degrees);
- Leverage (where one partner - usually the lead - exploits the development of compression or connection to shift their follow's weight or to 'ground' (develop 'compression' downwards, with the contact their feet make with the floor) themselves more thoroughly before initiating movement);
- Tension (is the opposite of compression - partners moving away from each other but still in contact)
Read more about this topic: Lead And Follow
Famous quotes containing the words social, partner, dance and/or principles:
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“When a man’s partner is killed he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner, and you’re supposed to do something about it.”
—Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961)
“We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.”
—Martha Graham (1894–1991)
“All those who write either explicitly or by insinuation against the dignity, freedom, and immortality of the human soul, may so far forth be justly said to unhinge the principles of morality, and destroy the means of making men reasonably virtuous.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)