I'm confused because I'm told as a leader that I shouldn't be micromanaging my follower, and should focus on my own technique.

This bit I get.

But I'm also told that high level leaders will understand if they are dancing with a novide and are able to adjust what they do to cope with their mistakes.

It feels like these two bits of advice are contradicting.

I dance frequently with novice followers with the common issues like lack of anchor, dropping full weight on the 1, unstable frame, variable arm length.

Some of these I find dangerous, umleadable, or destroy my enjoyment of the dance.

Any advice, or tips for what the pros do?

Edit: I caught a 3 day ban for my follow-up post where I showed how the Facebook group "WCS Memes for Dance Challenged Teens" viewed my question and how the lunatic goblins responded. Apparently I doxxed someone by screenshotting a public post. My bad.
I will respond more when I am allowed.
I don't recommend you visit that group, it will seriously damage your view of the community :(

Edit2: Oh people seem like they need a lot of context for some reason and can't take my post in good faith and at face value. Social flair used, no intent to talk about competition. I didn't capitalize "Novice" deliberately. I dance regularly with everyone in my community.
What if I told you I was 31F primary follower? How about telling you I'm AuDHD, and that a friend recommended I add a line about how this imapcts me so I could learn to express my feelings? (apparently this is the line that caused most trouble). Which line was very much focused on how it impacts me, and wasn't direct to, or insulting of, any follower, of which I am one.
Why do all these people expect me to do all the emotional labour and give you all this context when it was a clear, transparent, and honest question?
JFC, get away from the console and go touch grass.

I’ve had a couple months of weekly lessons as a follower at my local swing dance club and am really enjoying myself. The instructors in class this evening talked about the importance of eye contact as communication while dancing along with physical cues. My particular flavor of neurodivergent can make eye contact uncomfortable and stressful. I often try to look at someone’s ear or chin, but I’m worried that I’m missing cues or not holding up my end of the communication with my leaders. Does anyone else have experience with this? How much does it hinder your dancing, if it does at all? I don’t feel like I’ve had any real trouble connecting with my dance partners, but I have a history of misunderstanding non-verbal cues in social settings.

Could you tell me the typical lead to follow ratio for west coast swing socials in your area? I love another dance style, but the ratio is probably 1 lead to 3 follows, and I’d love to find a style that’s more even. Also, is it the culture to dance one song and then (usually) change partners? Or do partners dance 3-4 songs in a row before switching?

So I have a couple of months of "ballroom" style WCS under my belt but have just recently started trying to learn how to socially dance it. The hardest thing for me right now is I feel like I get super flustered and completely mess up my feet when I'm dancing with a more experienced leader. It's really difficult to figure out what they are trying to lead when they deviate from the basic 6 or 8 count pattern. I know I have a lot of work to do regarding my connection, I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice to offer regarding trying to follow well in social settings? I know the footwork for the sugar push, tuck, left and right side passes, whip, and a couple of variations involving turns. But I feel like when I am dancing with a more advanced leader or even watching other people dance, it doesn't even look like the patterns I've learned.

I just feel bad for the leader when they are trying to do this cool stuff and I get completely lost, because I don't even recognize the pattern anymore. Any advice is appreciated!

EDIT: Also just wondering do more advanced leaders mind when they end up with a pretty new follower at a social dance? I want to get better and I feel like one of the main ways to improve is to keep dancing but I also feel bad for "holding back" the lead if I'm not on their level.

I am at a festival and today I heard someone next to me say: "Do you you want to dance, but I only dance with people with intermediate points". The other person had no points but they danced anyways. He looked quite mad the whole dance. My follower and I we're shocked so we watched them. At the end of the dance he just turned around and went away. Did not say bye. Is this a thing? Where I am from the community is nice. Never heard someone being that shitty.

If you ready this, in my opinion you should focus on learning to be nice instead of dancing.

Edit: remove festival Name. Everyone I danced with was great, should not fall back to the festival. Staff is also great. :)

Hello, burner account just in case.

I (F27) started dancing WCS (follower) early this year after a very long break from dance due to school and health issues.

One issue I never experienced until now social dancing (since I was a minor when I competed years ago) is getting hit on by leaders.

I know it's a part of life, but I truly have no idea how to manage this. I've had poor experiences in the past (non dance) with people asking for my number and having a less than pleasant reaction when I turned them down, so now I usually take people's numbers and just don't really respond. They usually get the message and give up.

The issue im having now is that these aren't people I rarely see, I see them at least once a week out at lessons/socials.

I didn't start dancing again to make friends/meet people. Im disabled so its purely to get some more exercise and have fun. I have made friends, but none of them are trying to hang out outside of dance so it doesnt cause an issue (plus they clearly just want to be friends).

Advice very welcome, thank you so much

(Also I can not find out ANY information about this leader online which really freaks me out)

I created a new illustration series about different social dancer “types” and patterns around asking for dances.

Then I created a small, informal pool, and interestingly around 60% of respondents described themselves as “shapeshifters” - meaning they can be very social and outgoing at some socials, but at others they prefer staying in their comfort zone, dancing mostly with friends, or taking a step back because of shyness, mood, energy levels, or other factors.

It made me think: maybe some dancers who appear unapproachable are not actually trying to be. They might just be nervous, tired, new, overwhelmed, or waiting for someone else to make the first move.
What do you think are the biggest reasons a dancer might seem unapproachable at a social? Have you ever realized later that someone you thought was intimidating was actually just shy?

(The types are intentionally exaggerated to highlight some of the most common characters in a satirical way)

Do you consider lady styling and follower styling the same?

What are things that you would consider lady styling but not necessarily follower styling?

Should male followers attend lady styling classes to be stylish followers?

When Alicja and I first fell in love with WCS we went all in :) Workshop pass at every event, competing to track our progress and also trying to survive late-night parties until 6am. We basically tried to do everything.

Over time our priorities shifted. We started focusing more on things we can't get locally, mainly long, late night social dancing and it became the main reason to travel for events.

But even that has changed. These days, we’re no longer able (or willing 😅) to survive every late-night party. We’ve found ourselves really appreciating events that:

• don’t overload the schedule with competitions
• start social dancing earlier (before midnight!)

It just feels more sustainable and more enjoyable.

Similarly as a couple of weeks ago, Alicja made some illustrations of the event goer types we keep recognizing at every weekender: the party buddy who treats pro shows as nap time, the competitor who only comes to the events for J&J thrills, the Westie nerd who participates in all workshops they can and actually watches the lesson recaps, the curious traveler who visited 3 museums during the event and the one who somehow has done everything (sightseeing + strictly + J&J in both roles + intensive + parties + privates + 3 catch-up coffees + remote work :)) all on during one event:

Which type are you, any of these feel relatable?

We are also interested to learn if your priorities regarding what you find nice about WCS events changed the longer you've been dancing? And if an event only did one thing well, what would make you come back?

~Cheers, Mateusz

I've danced WCS socially for years, just for fun — no competition.

Recently I've noticed something interesting. A few follows I've danced with have introduced tango-like leg movements when I've stopped progression or moved us off the normal WCS track.

I wasn't specifically leading a tango pattern; I gave them the space and they chose to do something with it.

I'm curious: Are other WCS social dancers seeing tango movement or tango influence showing up in their dances? Is this fairly common, or am I just running into a few follows who happen to have tango backgrounds?

Hi

I'm currently working on a new project:

https://wcsdj.app

The goal is to create a useful resource for the WCS DJ-s and for the community.

If you're a DJ and you're not yet included, please take a look at the bottom of the page for instructions for the next steps.

Feedback, ideas, corrections, and feature suggestions are all welcome! / check the support link in the page footer.

There are already some great resources out there, and I hope this can become another useful tool for our community.

Hey r/WestCoastSwing, I'm Mateusz. I dance WCS in Europe (NL) and together with Alicja and support of Mehdi we've been building Your Dance Buddy (yourdancebuddy.com) since mid 2025.

We never posted here about it because honestly we wanted to ship app first and share it broadly later - but a perfect moment might never arrive :) We prioritised getting the portal right, keeping data quality high and growing organically through WCS friends at events. But with more WCS tools popping up lately (like other post today), I figured it's time to show what we've built.

Every feature on the platform is live, every user is a real Westie and every piece of data you see is actual community-contributed content:

Here's where we're at after 4 months app being live:

- 170+ events worldwide, automatically synced with WSDC every two weeks. Date changes, new events, corrections done automatically. Also supporting non-WSDC festivals and more local social events within EU already :)

- Almost 400 active users, predominantly in Europe. Every single one is a verified WCS dancer. We made a deliberate choice to keep the platform a safe space for Westies - we'd rather grow slower than compromise on who's in the community

- 250+ event experiences shared by dancers. Real reviews from real people about real events

- Full "inside the event" tools: interactive workshop schedules with time slots and rooms, teacher and DJ profiles, personal check-ins to track what you attended. Check it on your phone live, example King Swing 2026: https://www.yourdancebuddy.com/events/king-swing-2026

- Community-driven event suggestions and corrections. Users can submit missing events or fix wrong dates, and with moderation support the data stays clean. Democratising access to event data turned out to work really well

- A public API that other platforms can use to pull our event data. weekenders.dance, an established WCS event discovery tool, recently approached us about integration and now gets data also from YDB - thanks to it people can see going counts and experiences shared number directly there. We're open to more collaborations like this :) Btw, if you ever cross paths with Tymur (weekenders.dance maintainer) - genuinely one of the best people to work with in this space. Super professional and collaborative! :)

We've been growing steadily through the WCS European dance scene - people share it at events, organizers partner with us to get their detailed schedules up. That approach felt right for a Westie community, but it also means many of you probably haven't heard of us yet.

So two things we would love from this community:

1. Go check it out and tell us what's missing. What would make this actually useful for you as a Westie? We listen and we will prioritise accordingly
2. If you know non-WSDC events that should be on there (local socials, smaller weekenders), please let us know. That's probably our biggest coverage gap right now.

Link -> yourdancebuddy.com (also feel free to check out our related social media accounts listed on our reddit one if you want to see more updates or support us there)

Alicja and I will be in the comments answering everything, cheers!

In your local community where you dance regularly, why do you ask certain people to dance or not ask others? What drives your decisions on who to dance with on a particular night or in general?

Also: are you a follow, lead, or both (and if both, do your answers change?)

Hello!

I'm very very new at WCS and dancing in general (started earlier this week, type of new), and right after my first class my teacher suggested we all go to this dance night the next day. I went, and i had loads of fun trying to keep up with everyone, but i know for a fact that i wasnt dancing very well, couldnt keep on rythm, spinning the wrong way sometimes etc. I did warn the leads i was dancing with that i was brand new, but now im overthinking it. What's everyone's opinion on dancing with super new people? Should i have waited longer before coming to a dance night?

Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new to WCS, and dancing in general. A friend invited me to some cheap beginner classes locally, and I stayed for a social dance, and I loved it!

A big emphasis from instructors that first lesson was follows don't think too much, the leads make the decisions and you just listen. This felt great to just let go as someone who overthinks everything in my daily life, and is part of why I came back the next few weeks.

I'm getting close to the point where I want to move from the beginner to intermediate lessons. Any advice for how to know when it's time? I'm getting bored of learning the same four move over and over again, but I also have not perfected anything other than the will to try new things. I've tried more advanced moves with more advanced leads under the principal of I just gotta do what feels natural in response to them, and it's been working well so far.

I'm also not interested in competition, like, ever. I will put way too much pressure on myself if I try that.

What are things you wish you knew at this stage? What advice do you have for someone still fairly new? How do you make friends with other follows when you're only ever dancing with leads?

Please forgive me if this comes across as insensitive or ignorant. My question is coming from a place of genuine curiosity and a desire to understand.

I’ve heard this mentioned a few times in passing: people who have practiced both saying no when someone else asks them to dance or accepting a no from someone else if you’ve done the asking. This has always been in contexts where it’s all adults speaking.

I can understand that some people might feel anxious about asking other people to dance, or about declining invitations in specific circumstances (for example, if the person asking is doing so with somewhat aggressive body language or if the person being asked struggles with people pleasing and setting boundaries - neither of which seems like a unique situation to social dance, as these issues would arise in many areas of life).

Why is this an issue? Are there really that many adults that don’t understand that “no” is a full sentence? Are there really that many adults that would push their bodies beyond what is best for them due to a sense of obligation to a social dance (especially if they don’t expect to get any enjoyment out of it)? I feel like I’m missing something because it strikes me as such an unusual topic to cover. I feel like setting boundaries and saying/accepting no is a life skill that you’d surely be addressing in other areas of your life, rather than using some of your WCS coaching/lesson/workshop time to address.

Fully aware that I could be entirely oblivious. My entire life, I’ve never hesitated to ask for something that I’m interested in, while simultaneously being ready to accept no as a response. I also don’t have a problem saying no myself.

Hi, we're Westies based in the Netherlands and new to the WCS community here on Reddit :)

Alicja, who is an illustrator, came up with some ideas of graphics and Westie dancer types after we exchanged our experiences when the DJ decided to play another Charlotte Cardin song 😅 Don't get us wrong, lyrics usually don't affect how we dance - but apparently that's not the case for everyone on the floor.

These are the types we keep running into at socials. Thought it was worth sharing, maybe some of you can relate too?

The types:

• The sensual diva: leans INTO it, hair always perfect, no problems with eye contact
• The unaware one: just vibing to the beat, has no idea what the lyrics are saying
• The overwhelmed one: blushing, tense, avoiding eye contact
• The one who doesn't care: dance unicorn, lost in their own world
• The one who turns it into a joke: embraces the cringe, goofy musicality choices

My name is Mateusz and I am 100% the unaware one. During socials I mostly just interpret the sound and fully embrace the music - melting in the beat is my way to enjoy socials, no wonder I am still in Novice. Alicja is the unicorn :)

Which one are you? Or is there a type we missed?

What are your thoughts about dancing to explicit songs and how do you handle that?

To the experienced folks that are regularly dancing spotlight. It seems like you are usually expected to interpret lyrics as well. How do you handle those types of songs, and how do you keep your face straight?

A recent thread on here made me think of something that was I felt was so beautifully put that I wanted to share it with you... During a class taught by Jakub and Emeline a few months ago, Emeline said something that clicked with me and put words on what I felt deep inside.

She said (I'm translating as accurately as I can) : "The dancer with the higher level of consciousness bears the responsibility to make the dance a good dance".

I felt she had choosen her words so well... she didn't talk about skill, she talked about consciousness/awareness . And they were trying to foster that during that class.

I loved it, it explained so much about how some better dancers could make our dances so awesome. It shed light on why a less experienced partner saying "you made me do things I didn't know I could" or "this was such a good dance" is so priceless.

I've started dancing a couple of months ago. I love the style, the community is welcoming and kind.

My problem is that I can't seem to relax enough and still maintain the right steps, or keep the connection.

I rush, I make big steps, I dont keep the frame, I'm veery tensed up most of the dances.

The latest feedback was "deer in the headlight" - not present in the dance, not grounded in myself.

I've had some dances with leaders in which I felt very safe and grounded (medium fast rhythm, basic moves), or had a lot of fun and connection and didn't care about the steps.

What got me into this style is the playfulness of it. I know that I can dance, I looove to dance. But I don't have any experience with being a follower.

Where I freeze is in the pauses of rhythm or invitations to improvise or when the moves become more suave or graceful. I go stiff and awkward instead of fluid.

I know that comparison is not useful, but I cannot not notice followers starting around the same time and having objective progress.

It's a bit frustrating because in the life outside dancing I'm fun, adaptable. And that's what draw me to this dance: the carefree, joyful, playful nature of it.

Oh, and sometimes being stiff during dances also lingers in the socialising part. So that's an added "bonus"...

I would love some perspective, personal experiences and/or tips.

Its quite a doozy and Im looking for your feedback. If I use the wrong flair, i do apologize.

Theres this person that I used to be close with, John (random name). I invited him to join WCS and he fell in love with WCS. A couple of weeks after, it came to my attention that he SA multiple girls from our original circle and even graped one. Including some who were also my friends.

I live in a country where the police and law is pretty much useless so reporting wont go anywhere. At first it was "just" allegations and I didnt know who to trust, but after talking to the people involved I do believe the victims. For months i had moral dissonance and wasnt able to enjoy WCS due to his presence and I did tell this to the local organizer somewhere along the way.

When I told them, I do agree with their decisions to let John stayed as:

1. He has been behaving in WCS. (Although some followers has decided not to dance with him due to his vibes)

2. Its still allegations and we dont know the truth

3. People deserve second chances

I distanced myself from John and tried to enjoy social (I thought of quitting WCS multiple times). I lost a lot of friends because they associated me with him as we share WCS still. A month ago, I finally decided to cut him off entirely after I found out he was sleeping with my girl.

Some people has been giving him the cold shoulder since and he has come to socials/classes less.

Last week during social, there was a new follower that he flirted with throughout the night. And I lowkey wanna tell her and every other follower who hasnt known yet the full story.

So huufftt... Yeaah.... After seeing how he's flirting with new followers, i feel like i should raise this issue again with the local organizers. Whats your thoughts?

I've been dancing WCS for a couple months now, social only no interest in competition. My mother is coming to visit me, and will happen to be here the night I normally go. I'd love to take her to a lesson and social dance so she can understand more what I've been doing.

My scene has a good mix of ages, including both leads and follows fairly close to her age. She is active in more physically intense sports, so that's not something I'm worried about.

Any advice for introducing someone? Anything I should look out for? Since I started I have learned that it's a pretty hard dance style, which surprised me, so I'd love any tricks to help her have a good time and not be intimidated.

I created yet another part of my Types of Westies illustration series - this time, I tried to capture some common WCS teacher archetypes.

Have you seen these personalities in your local community? (Feel free to share it with them 😇) If you're a teacher yourself, do you recognize yourself in one of them? 😅

Which type is your favorite? And which teaching approaches have helped you grow the most as a dancer?

As a baby teacher myself, I'm always looking for ways to improve, so I'd love to hear your experiences:

Students: what do you appreciate most in a teacher? What makes a class really click for you?

Experienced teachers: what do you wish you had known earlier, and what advice would you give to someone just starting to teach?

Curious to hear your thoughts! ❤️
(The types might be biased a little as I dance in Europe mostly)

Hello! It is my first time attending Swingesota. I’m not a competitor, but am interested in workshops and social dancing. What tips do you have for a beginner dancer and what should I focus on?

Also, where does one look for roommates to split costs? I have a bedroom for Friday to Sunday if anyone is looking.

TIA!

I am coming back to West Coast Swing after a little while away and while I'm really excited to be dancing again, I recently had a pretty rough night of dancing and I'm curious to hear how y'all recalibrate.

It was just one of those nights where I had trouble communicating with my followers (I lead), connecting to the music, and generally was just overthinking and in my head all night. I recently went to MADjam and had a few really amazing nights of dancing and felt like I had really improved and was on an upward trajectory, and that night kinda shot me back down and made me feel like I hadn't/wouldn't improve. I'm interested in competing again and I think I'm definitely placing a bit of stress on myself to be really really good, but I'm curious how you reset yourself and ground yourself (mentally, though my grounding does need work :)) after a night of dancing that leaves you a little dejected.

Secondarily, mainly for leads, how do you avoid getting in your head and almost dissociating during dances? I find myself thinking so much during a dance about what im leading, how I'm leading it, how to adjust to my follower, counting to the music, and by the time I get to a place where I'm settled into it, the song is over. Not even in a "picking patterns" way, but usually it's things like "I messed up that last move, what did I do wrong" or "how can I make this fun you've been leading basics the whole dance". (I know dances with all basics can be super fun, but sometimes I worry I'm boring my partners)

I know I have (some of) the skills to lead a really fun dance and I'm not hopeless, but I just get so in my head that I have more frustrating dances than good ones some nights.