Ok, so I can't get it out of my head.
Here's why NOT to cross if it isn't lead:
1. It's scary for me to give my balance, stability and ability to move over to you. At the moment of the cross, I'm completely trusting you to protect me. If I cross and you didn't want me to, and you don't realize I've crossed, I'm in trouble.
2. Everything I do you tell me to do. Why wouldn't you tell me to cross? This is not an embellishment that I see an opening for, it is an integral move in the dance. If my job is to stop thinking and listen, it completely pulls me out of this to have to count, oh, right, that was two steps, now cross.
So, for those leads that are taught that I should automatically cross, what do you need from me in the moment after I've missed that cross? Do you need me to quickly attempt to correct and do a weight change, or do you want me to stay still and let you lead me out of the missed cross?
4 comments:
Ha! Exactly! Don't worry about what a leader may "need" because they are responsible for the "fix", just listen, increase your presence slightly so that you communicate which foot you are on, and let him take his next step.
Crisis averted.
Yea you!
:-)
Oh, yes! Some of my favorite leaders sometimes don't give me a clear enough lead to cross, and just with any other missed lead I keep on going the way I'm going and let the leader decide how to go from there. I figure we'll both be better at it next time. And if I try to "correct" it, we can end up going back and forth confusing each other! Kind of like when you're walking straight toward someone on the sidewalk and you both try to duck out of the way at the same time ... and just end up in each other's way again ... :)
I always secretly hope, in those moments of ending up in each other's way, that it will turn into an impromptu dance session. The music will float through the open door of a nearby building, there will be a cabeceo and it will flow into a dance...
When in doubt, wait.
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