The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence. —Carlos Gavito
“The most sought-after leads have a very special quality,” suggests Laura Riva in her article Why every dancer should be both a leader and a follower (May 24, 2017). That quality, she says, is “the ability to understand and interpret the responses given by the follow”. Riva adds: “This ability to follow-while-leading is the difference between ‘average’ leads and ‘great’ leads.”
On the flip side, follows who are “unafraid to lead their body and be responsible for their own execution”, says Riva, can lead-while-following and help steer the dance in a more playful, collaborative and co-creative direction.
In this scenario, where leads “follow the follower” and follows “own their own dance”, neither surrenders their primary role, but both move toward the center, where responsibilities blur and responsiveness is key. Riva contends learning the opposite role in your preferred dance(s) can make you an “infinitely better dance partner”. And who doesn’t want to be infinitely better!
Leads can see how to move away from the extreme end of dictating the dance, what Riva terms being “a slave to their own vision”, and towards a keener awareness and consideration of the individual follow. “Followers learn where their opportunities are to ‘add’ to the dance — and where adding means interfering with the current lead,” or what we might call backleading.
Understanding what it physically takes and feels like to dance the opposite role helps us spend less time offering rehearsed answers to the questions posed by our partners, and more time bringing our full attention to the moment at hand. As Riva says: “Spend some serious time investing in the art of listening to your partner’s body.” Therein lies your next ecstatic dance.
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See you on the dance floor —Sean Donovan