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What does it take to have a WCS dance where both partners contribute to the fun?
As a leader, do you wish playful followers would let you lead more? Or wonder why more followers don’t play with you they way they do when they dance with other leaders?
As a follower, do you wonder how you can “be a good follower” when you have so many ideas of your own during a song? Or wish you your leader would give you more opportunities to play?
Let's solve these and more. It’s all about balancing role and self-expression.
In order to learn to play with this unique feature of West Coast Swing, we need to get a little abstract so you can understand the culture, the agreements, and the rules of the game. But I promise by the end of this article you'll have some concrete objectives you can use in your social dancing.
While WCS has always the most liberating partner dance available, there used to be a lot more structure, with the leader still dominating almost all of the dance and the follower either inserting embellishments or hijacking. You might have learned West Coast Swing this way, which is fine, I did too.
But over the past few decades, just as West Coast Swing has evolved, the game has changed:
This means that the old rules about leaders dominating and followers hijacking aren't as useful anymore. So let's find out how to upgrade and have more fun playing the game!
Keep reading to the end to find an article that provides more history on the evolution of play in WCS.
Here's the abstract part.
While there is still structure in West Coast Swing, there exists far more of a conversation than in other dance styles.
The very nature of improvised conversation lends itself to both partners participating – it would be pretty boring to go to a dinner party just to talk to yourself.
In any civilized conversation, there are two roles to be played: speaker and listener. One can not function without the other.
In most partner dances, the dancers stick to their designated roles: the leader only speaks and the follower only listens, creating a lecture.
But in a conversation, the roles get exchanged: they transfer fluidly between the participants – when one stops speaking, the other takes over, and the original speaker yields to become the listener. In most circumstances, assuming you were raised well, this is done effortlessly and without a struggle.
WCS uses this conversation. There is an intriguing exchange of speaking that is unique to WCS compared to other dances, which has evolved to become even more balanced and popular in the past decade.
Just to be clear, "exchanging the lead" does not mean that the follower starts doing the leader's footwork and vice versa This confused me when I first learned about it too. Both partners are still using the same hands, starting with the same foot, and using the same figures as usual.
So it might help to define what is meant by "speaking":
Speaking = proactively communicating physically by generating forces within the connection, to cause movement of the follower. This can be done by the leader (leading), or by the follower (backleading).
Listening = actively receiving or responding to the speaker's physical communication, through the connection, and allowing their forces to move you. This can be done by the follower (following) or by the leader (backfollowing).
So if both partners are maintaining their same foot, handhold, and figures, and both are supposed to be speaking and listening, how do we determine whose turn it is? And how does this play out in patterns?
Now you've earned the concrete part!
WCS has always been a dance of action-reaction. But this concept is vague, and not always well-explained.
There is a whole world of technique out there about physically speaking and listening that any dancer needs to understand in order to "operate the machinery". This is beyond what you would get in your average class when you are learning a pattern.
But the good news is, once you understand these fundamental partnership skills, you can apply them to ALL patterns and instantly improve your conversation game.
To get training on these rarely taught skills, check out swingliteracy.com
For now, let's assume you already have a baseline understanding of connection for leading and following, which are the minimum requirements for playing this game.
As anyone would hope in a balanced conversation, at some point the speaker pauses to ask questions, hear feedback, or yield a turn: allow the listener to speak for a while, assumes the listener role, then builds off of what they said to progress the conversation forward.
In WCS, this is called an “invitation lead”. The leader stops leading the follower in a pattern, offering time for the follower to dance as they please. ("Stopping leading" doesn't mean "freezing", it just means "not leading more movement").
Ideally, the follower will accept this invitation and contribute some musical movement, but this is not a demand, therefore it is always optional.
How can the leader get the lead back? Remember because this opportunity has been offered, there was no need for the follower to steal it, which means there should be no battle to "get the lead back". Leaders should allow the follower to finish their idea and give the lead back to the leader voluntarily. With few exceptions, interrupting the follower before they are “done” would actually make the leader guilty of hijacking.
This intention is communicated through connection and positioning, and yes there are specific techniques involved for the different type of invitation leads that require some fundamental partnership skills of WCS, which we detail in Module 3 of the Swing Literacy Dancer Development program.
Sometimes the listener can prompt the speaker to pause in order to provide an opportunity to contribute. Then if the speaker yields, the listener can assume the speaker role.
In WCS, this is called a “request”, which involves the follower giving a physical signal with a change in connection or grip that indicates to the leader that they have an idea to contribute. But they must wait for agreement from their partner before speaking.
Now, requests are technically a backfollowing skill, appropriate only for dancers with more experience in invitation leads. Of course there are specific techniques to learn to make this effective, which we cover in workshops or Module 3 of the Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program.
Ok but when? Requests are welcome occasionally if it does not interrupt the flow of what the leader was leading, but if it causes an interruption in momentum that is too challenging for the leader to react and adapt to, it will be annoying. If it is a convenient moment, the leader should grant the follower's request and yield to or support their idea by pausing to listen (reciprocating the follower's connection or pausing their own movement).
Is your brain percolating with questions? Good! Keep reading to find out how to get more answers....
Recently in our Swing Literacy Alumni membership called Momentum, we focused on a theme called Balanced Conversations, and took a poll asking what factors make for a great dance conversation. I'll publish the full results in another article, but here was the overwhelming consensus:
It is crucial for both partners to understand how to listen and how to speak. This does not change the primary roles, however. Part of the primary speaker’s role is to be sensitive and responsive to the primary listener. And part of the primary follower’s role is to be aware of the general game plan and detect and take advantage of convenient opportunities to direct and contribute to the conversation.
Teachers also have a responsibility to explain the nature of this unique aspect of WCS to students as they progress. Around the world, we see eager dancers eating YouTube clips for breakfast, trying to copy moves they admire without understanding the mechanics and rules involved. When these “learners” start teaching, rather than getting appropriate training they make up their own rules about how followers should express themselves, and pass these misunderstandings on to their students. I have heard reports from overseas students that a few teachers advise the followers, “If you want to play, you have to ‘surprise’ your leader so he’s thrown off guard and he has no choice”… This isn’t martial arts.
Of course, you can’t expect to learn the technical intricacies of invitation leads or musical phrasing from reading an article! And don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can visually lead “signals” for it to work. There is a ton of technique involved in the connection skills required for this type of conversation, which is beyond the scope of this article. Where can you get it?
This is a topic that we go in depth into in the Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program and Teacher Development Program. Or you could learn it over time in private lessons of course (live or online), and tailored Intensives. We also have some damn good video resources at the bottom of this page.
Followers love leaders who listen. Even if the follower has nothing to contribute, the leader needs to pay attention to the effect their efforts are having on the follower. In other words, check to see if you (leader) are being heard. Eventually, more followers will play when you offer.
Leaders love followers who listen. It’s annoying when a follower self-leads before the leader has had a chance to lead it. In other words, just because you (follower) can predict what the leader will say, doesn’t mean you should say it simultaneously. Stay behind and responsive, not proactive.
Today, abrupt hijacking is considered as rude as interrupting in a conversation. The leaders should be trained to offer opportunities for play and listen for requests to play from the follower regularly during any social dance.
If the followers are offered sufficient opportunities to express themselves, they don’t feel the need to “steal” them. Followers should be trained to detect invitation leads and make requests when they are ready, and be armed with an arsenal of dance movements they can choose from to contribute in the moment.
In order to have a good time social dancing today, WCS dancers need to respect their responsibilities as good communicators. No one likes an argument, and everyone likes to be listened to.
This article is just scratching the surface!
Got more questions about this topic? Such as:
We address all these and more in this virtual workshop:
Register to get the recording.
Did you enjoy this article?
Now imagine if other dancers in your community had this information so you could all play the conversation game better together! Please pass it on by sharing it on social media by using the buttons in the left margin! 🙂
In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about how this culture of follower's play and conversation negotiations evolved over the past two decades, check out this article:
West Coast Swing offers a unique opportunity for both partners to express themselves and co-create in amazing “dance conversations”. But it wasn’t always balanced or amiable. So how did we get here? This article describes the journey of how the the improvised conversation of West Coast Swing social dancing has evolved dramatically over the past two
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There is a synergistic effect of combining the skills and creativity of both leader and follower that is far greater than could be achieved with each dancer playing more limited roles. Watching two skilled dancers playing off of each other’s energy and creativity is intriguing and inspiring. I love it! And I love Myles and Tessa! On my bucket list is to one day take an intensive from Myles and Tessa.
Thanks Matthew! Great comment.
This is the second time I have read this article. My recent partner sent it to me after I took an elbow to the chin which rang my bells. My response then was to say: “All the world loves a listener. but everyone respects the sharp elbow now and again.” My partner did not immediately understand what I meant, so I explained it thus:
“…leads love follows who “listen” to their lead, and follows love leads who “listen” to their requested leads, which makes up the gist of the blog post message. As for the sharp elbow, that merely reminds the lead to properly yield the slot to the follow to avoid a collision. ?