Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. At its best, social Tango is a comfortable, efficient, sometimes artistic collaboration between a leader and a follower. At its worst — as we’ve all experienced — it can be a complete nightmare. Right now, I’d like to begin a discussion of the most common problems people experience again and again on the dance floor. In today’s segment, I’m going to address issues that followers have; next week I’ll focus on those specific to leaders.

We’ve spent a great deal of time in these Tango Tips, talking about the mechanics of lead/follow.  Let’s assume for the moment that our leader has been exposed to the right training from his teachers and has put in the hours necessary to learn his craft. For the sake of this discussion — and yes, I fully recognize that this is a major stretch — we’ll take it as given that he’s now able to provide you as the follower with a credible lead.

In the best of all possible worlds, you’re standing still; you’re “in neutral;” (i.e., comfortably balanced on one leg); your posture is upright; you’re ready to receive and respond to his lead, which will motivate you to execute a single movement.

Now what?

In the best of all possible worlds — there’s that expression again — you receive the lead; you execute the desired movement; you return to neutral; you wait for whatever is going to come next. What could possibly go wrong?

Let me introduce two very definite candidates for reducing a good following opportunity to total disaster. Number One: You misread the lead — or maybe don’t read it at all. Number Two: You anticipate rather than follow.

Here’s a scenario for Number One: A follower who hasn’t been adequately trained in the mechanics of lead/follow — or who is perhaps momentarily distracted for any number of reasons — will sometimes respond to a good lead by doing nothing.

Nothing.

This non-response is virtually guaranteed to drive leaders crazy. If they’re well trained, they’ll know to be patient and try the lead again. On the other hand, if they’re new to leading — or maybe you haven’t responded after several attempts — they may elect to either abandon you on the dance floor or go into gorilla mode, and start carrying you around instead of leading. These are, of course, less than desirable choices on the part of leaders — but we do witness such behavior as this all the time.

And now, a scenario for Number Two. You don’t know what he’s going to ask for; your brain gets in the way of your ability to be patient and wait, wait, wait for the lead … and you decide suddenly that you have it all figured out. You just know in your gut that he’s going to invite a side step. What else could it be? And so, you throw caution to the winds and lurch to the side.

Aaaaaagghh! He gives you a confused (or maybe even a dirty) look. Yes, you’ve done the unthinkable — committed the Number Two cardinal sin — you’ve anticipated.

Doing nothing, on the one hand, and anticipating (sometimes called back-leading) on the other hand are the two biggest — and most common — no nos for followers. Right in between these ever-so possible please-don’t-ever-do-that-again transgressions is the magical skill set called lead/follow. If you spend the time and effort necessary to develop your ability to follow correctly, you’ll eventually find that these problems miraculously disappear.

Poof! You’ve suddenly become a really good follower.

But you’ve got to bite the bullet, and put in the hours. And yes, you have to find a leader who’s up to the task. Which, by the way, brings us to next week’s focus; i.e., what are the two unforgivable sins leaders routinely inflict on followers.

Tune in for our next Tango Tip, and find out.