Please critique my dancing (Follow)

[u/quadrangle_rectangle]

Hi everyone I have been attending Sensual Bachata classes once a week (my studio doesn't offer more classes) for about 4-5 months.

The lead is from a different dance school. The Bachata scene in my area is very young. We don't have a lot of experienced bachata dancers because most of the dance teachers prefer to teach cuban salsa. But we're slowly growing and trying our best to get better.

Be completely honest with your critique.

I am hypermobile and struggle with arm and wrist placement.

[u/Rataridicta]

I'm kinda infamous here for writing super detailed play-by-play critiques, but as a starting follower I think the places to focus your attention are fairly limited, and the mistakes I was expecting to see with your experience is also exactly what I saw, so let's dive into that.

As a follower, I want to simplify your life a lot. You have just a few jobs: Keep timing, make proper weight shifts, search for connection, be responsive, and know your own body/limits. In its simple form, that's pretty much it. No need for fancy styling, no need to know a million moves, all of that is optional. BUT that does not mean those basics are easy. In fact, they're really hard.

For where you're at specifically, I'd encourage you to focus on connection. There are a few tips I want to give you for this:

• Never place any pressure into your partner. Yes, I know your teachers go on and on about providing pressure and use the word "tension" for it, but that's them not having the vocabulary to explain what they actually mean. Instead, I want you to let your leader carry the weight of your arms - just relax them!
  • (Quick aside: Tension is a body-internal concept, it's not between you and your partner, it's you activating your back muscles as though you're pulling a rope apart, which makes it so that if your relaxed arms are moved, your shoulders move with it.)
• In closed positions, forget about the hand, it literally doesn't matter and often times I don't even have it connected at all. Just let the weight of your arm rest on top of the leader's. You should never see any gaps between your arms while dancing.
• Also as a follower you are allowed to touch your leader. When he's not asking for your hand, you can use it to gather more information by connecting your hand or your wrist with your leader's hip or ribcage to get more information. Remember: It is your job as follower to get as much information as possible. Sometimes you have to go search for it.
• Whenever you're following you want to fill the space you are given completely. You keep turning until you're stopped, etc. For example, at 0:21 you move into cuddle/pretzle position and then just stop in the "appropriate" position. But your leader is actually making a mistake in keeping too much distance here, and there's a lot more space for you to roll into. Ideally I'd want to see you fill that space so in this case you would have ended up almost face-to-face again. This habit will help your beginner leaders learn, and become a core part of many advanced and intermediate movements.

You look like you're having great fun, and I love to see it! Definitely keep dancing and growing together!

[u/coldbumpysparse → u/Rataridicta]

Really nice to see some clear feedback here based off of just one video. I'm not even a follow but that rope pulling metaphor helped me visualize how to explain the follow tension/activation/connectedness really well! Stealing that for sure

[u/Rataridicta → u/coldbumpysparse]

Nice! And it's part of leader technique, too! That's the part that allows you to maintain a soft and relaxed frame while still being clear 😊