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Why I Dance with “Bad” Dancers
Two guys were chatting after Zumba class about the blues dancing scene at a local bar. One was an experienced social dancer and the other unsure about where to even put his hands on a potential dance partner. The experienced one asked if I would help him demonstrate the basics of partnering. We stepped back and forth in frame and he led me into a couple of turns, showing the second guy how to lead an outside turn versus an inside turn. His last piece of advice was to look for the ladies who knew what they were doing and ask them to dance. I had to respectfully disagree.
When I first started out in ballroom dancing, social dancing was the only outlet I knew about and I did as much of it as I could. I went to almost all of the group classes at my studio and attended every practice party. I made it a point to say yes (at least the first time) to everyone who asked me to dance. My willingness to dance with anyone, and not just the “good” dancers, helped me develop follow skills that people praised later on my dance journey and saved me on the competition floor more than once.
When you go social dancing, it’s a roll of the dice as to what kind of partners you’ll get unless of course, you only dance with people you already know. The lead-follow skills range across the entire spectrum and do not always correlate with a person’s dance knowledge. Some people know a lot of…
