Title is self explanatory. I'm new to lindy and am doing my best to get better, but I often feel stiff and awkward and sometimes a step behind my lead. What are the best ways I can improve? Any must-knows for follows? Thanks!
Posted Jan 9, 2019, 11:14 PM UTC
Whoskey gave you a pretty great answer.
To add to that, a vital skill for following is having a structurally sound but flexible ‘frame’, that is, the lead should be able to predictably affect your movement through your connection with their body. This means having your back and shoulder muscles engaged, which I like to do by rolling my shoulders up, backwards, and down, and feeling the muscles there engage. These muscles should be ‘active’, but your arms should be relaxed - try having someone pick up your hand and then drop it - your hand should fall towards the ground rather than stay at that height - as remaining there suggests a lot of tension in the arm.
Keeping the right muscles active / relaxed can take a little while to get used to, but is really worthwhile.
You should also take lessons on leading, and feel what an experienced follow feels like.
This is definitely a good way to get a different perspective. I’d like to point out though that while it lets you learn immediately how massive the difference is in the range of how every follow feels, in my own experience it has let me think ‘wow (really advanced follow) feels this particular way when I lead them and it’s awesome’, but it hasn’t helped me at least in learning what the technique is that makes them feel that way - it’s pretty hard to be able to just translate it to yourself. So understanding and practicing following technique is still a really important exercise separate to learning how to lead.
I can only say so much without seeing or dancing with you, but I will say that the single biggest problem that I notice with my new follows is that they have not yet mastered keeping the appropriate amount of arm tension- which translates to structure and being able to move your body as a unit, *feeling* each step.
Try this exercise with a lead: Have the lead grab your hand like normal and direct you spontaneously, being allowed to change directions at any point he wishes. This will force you to respond to his impulses by feeling them without the usual expected pattern. While doing this, keep a waterbottle or orange pinned between your ribcage/abdomen and elbow/just above the elbow on the upper arm. The goal is not to let it fall. This will help train you to keep your arm *down* and structured; if you extend it to far, your elbow leaves your side and the object will fall. Now of course, this kind of rigidity is not needed for dancing and can even be too tense, but for your purposes it is a good way to train yourself until you become more naturally adept.
Here is what I would recommend in order of importance and without seeing you dance:
I'm going to answer this as though you're specifically talking about improving the skill of following (which it sounds like you are), rather than "becoming a better dancer."
In order to follow, you need to be able to comfortably do your basic steps, on your own, in any direction, in rhythm at different speeds, and stay balanced. You may not notice that, for example, every time you need to triple step backwards you lose your balance a little bit - but that's going to make following really hard if you're ever asked to move backwards. I highly highly recommend just doing your footwork to music around wherever you live, and practicing moving in directions that may be less comfortable for you naturally. I used to teeter totter basically every time I turned, so this was something I had to work on a lot.
The other thing about following (as in, literally, doing the thing that the lead is asking you to do) is that you'll have a hard time adjusting if the reality of what the lead is asking is different from your expectations - this might be one of the reasons you feel like you're a step behind your leads. One of the hardest skills to develop as a follow is not having those expectations. That means not thinking about where you are going to place your foot next, or what your footwork is going to be. I think of it as an extreme and active form of "living in the moment," and what helped me develop it is really focusing on taking small steps (rather than focusing on *where* I was stepping), keeping my feet beneath me (as in, not sticking out too far from my hips), feeling the music, and trying my hardest not to count. And not panicking if I "messed up" and my lead and I were out of sync. It's not the end of the world, and you can always reset and try it again - and the next time you'll know what it feels like!
Having following skills is definitely a good thing to work on, but you can also help yourself become a better dancer overall by starting to work on solo movement. If you have the opportunity or the means to learn some of the simpler routines like the Shim Sham, that will give you practice moving to the music, make you think a little bit about how your body is moving at different moments, and will also give you some ideas for things that you can throw into your partner dancing when you want to work on throwing in your own ideas!
This is amazing advice, thank you so much, I'll be sure to try and implement it at my next dance :)
I also have a hard time staying “in the moment” and not anticipating where the leader is going to bring me next. Tonight I made a point of just focusing on keeping my feet beneath me and taking small steps, and that really helped a lot. Thanks for the advice!