I’m a dancer. I’ve danced ballet since I was a teenager, though I don’t do it much anymore. I’ve been dancing swing for about 15 years, and N is helping me learn blues.
I love following. I love that you dance a different dance with every lead you dance with. I love practising connecting with so many different people who have so many different styles. I love that I can go anywhere and walk onto a dance floor and find a partner I’ve maybe never met before and know exactly what they want me to do.
I also love the feeling of surrender I have to cultivate in order to follow well. I love the feeling of floating, not knowing what will happen next (actually, the couple of times I’ve been tied up, it reminded me a lot of dancing).
Recently I was thinking of the skills involved in being a good follow, and I realized they make a pretty good skillset for life in general:
- Keep your back straight, your head up and your core strong.
- Don’t try to anticipate the next move.
- Relax.
- Connect.
- Smile.
- Feel the music.
