Depending on where you live, lady leading may not be the most common thing. For both of us, it’s become a big piece of our dancing experience. This week we wanted to touch more on our experience as leading as women who started out following.
When and why did we start leading?
Andrea
I started leading in 2015. We had just started the Ville Casineras, an all ladies performance team, but since we wanted to do partnerwork and Rueda de Casino some of us needed to learn to lead.
Alexa
I started leading in November of 2022. Our community is always in need of leaders, so after I got to a point where I felt comfortable in my basics as a follow I jumped into leading.
What do we struggle with?
Andrea
Leading for me was a huge struggle until 2 years ago (maybe less). It was very hard for me to enjoy because I was thinking too much about the next step for me and my partner. At first I learned to lead in the rueda where you are told what to do and supposed to face a certain way, so transitioning into social partnerwork was hard for me. I had more free reign on directionality and creating patterns, which I wasn’t used to.
Alexa
I’m still relatively new to leading, so that alone has been a struggle. I think I am so afraid of being boring with my limited repertoire that I end up messing up and too in my head about it. I remind myself it isn’t so different than how I felt about following. But, I am still getting comfortable asking people to dance socially.
What do we love about it?
Andrea
Now I like it and enjoy it because I’ve realized that I don’t need to do much in order to have fun. I’ve realized that less is more to enjoy and for my partner to have an enjoyable dance. The music tells me everything I need to do.
Alexa
I love that it’s a different way of interacting with the music and my partner. I tend to have more control over the structure of the dance, so I can interpret the music with more ease.
Do we think it’s important? Why or Why Not?
Andrea
I do think it’s important. It helps us become better dancers. Knowing both roles has helped me realize that leads and follows give equally to the dance which makes us better dancers. Most importantly, helps us have more fun.
Alexa
100%, unsurprisingly it was only when I learned to lead, that I became aware of things that held me back while following. As a leader I felt more aware of how to make a follower feel comfortable and have fun during a dance because of my following background.
There are some amazing lady leads out there who are putting in hard work. Some who are our favorite leaders out there. We hope that you feel empowered to ask these women to lead you at socials. And to our leaders, please ask other’s to dance, we are guilty of it ourselves.
Let us know in the comments your experience with leading. Please shout out some of those lady leads out there killing it in the comments below!
Bueno…ya tu sabes.
Ya Tu Sabes 