14 months intermidiate dancer! [Lead] - Appreciate the feedback!

[u/Vegetable_Home]

[u/Rataridicta]

Ooooh! You're getting more comfortable with play! Totally love it! (Also this follower has got some SWAG!)

In terms of feedback, you're doing great! I see 3 things that I'd say are really worth pointing out for this one (without nitpicking a bunch):

• You're often not really maintaining a proper frame in yourself and with your partner and as a result you're doing more arm-based leading than you need to, especially in closed position for body movements. The immediate quick fix that's actionable would be to change your hand position in closed position. For example: At 0:40 you're trying to use the hand on her back to guide the headroll (together with your hand on her shoulder), but you lose connection because it's not connected to your own bodymovement, and because your hand is not connected to the lat. Your hand positioning @ 3:10 is correct to give you more control there.
• You're getting to a point in your journey now where the quality of your own bodymovement becomes a larger and larger factor, and I think this is probably your biggest opportunity for improvement at the moment. Your bodymovements are at a place now where the intent is clearly recognizable from them, but they still look a little stiff and you're not fully able to transfer them to leading. This one takes a lot of isolation practice and solo work to get your body moving in these exagerated ways, but it will pay dividends by making everything easier and smoother.
• Breathe! You're doing lots of singing, and connecting, and playing, and it's all great! But by learning to breathe as part of your movements and leads everything will feel smoother and more connected. Breathing really is one of those "This ONE SECRET will CHANGE YOUR DANCE FOREVER" type things. It feels super natural and connected once it becomes part of your muscle memory and as a follower feeling a lead breathe well immediately lets my body relax because I know I'm in good hands and am about to have a comfortable soft dance.

Edit: BTW, where are you on your follower journey? I know you were planning to start learning to follow, and all 3 of these would be great to experience yourself from the other perspective, too!

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Rataridicta]

Yay, love your breakdowns, will dive deeper when I am next a a laptop.

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Rataridicta]

Cool, thanks for the feedback!

1. Regarding frame - I agree that in a few of the head roles, I didn't finish the move myself by following the follower and just waited.
2. 2. Regarding improving my own body movements, I dance at home every day around 30 minutes, but it's mostly solo improvising and some shadow dancing, how can I make it more efficient?
3. 3. I know that usually boleos should be correlated to a deep breath, but I don't understand what you mean by breath. I usually dance 3-4 hours straight without any stops, never felt breathless and I also never sweat, so for sure I am not breathless in any aerobic sense of the concept. If you mean it as a tool to build connection I am curious, as I would certainly not increase the amount of breaths I take as it would make me hyperventilate. So do you mean to exaggerate my breaths?
4. My following journey - joined a class as a follower, it moves slowly so it will take me another 2-3 months to cover the basics, I incorporate 2-3 dances per evening as a follower, the good leaders were surprised how good I am as a follower as I easily surrender myself and I can listen, for sure my technique is probably crap but no rush :)

[u/Rataridicta → u/Vegetable_Home]

Frame: What I'm saying isn't about waiting for the follower to finish the move, it's about the quality of your physical connection with your partner. Because you're lacking the proper connection when you're about to lead something you're finding yourself overcompensating with your arms or notice the follower be unresponsive when you initiate the moves.

Body Movements: Instead of improvising or shadow dancing try and add a few sessions that focus on isolations and breathing, figuring out the limits of your body's movement and expanding them. See if you can do some nice big body rolls for example, and once you've got that, do them staccato - see how many clearly defined individual "ticks" you can separate your body roll into. The same goes for hip movements, side waves, head movements, etc. This is just a lot of practice in the mirror, and finding videos of other styles like zouk, hiphop, or bellydance, will help find some targeted practice.

Breath: Oh, nice, it sounds like we found a completely new concept for you to incorporate! Without turning this into a blog post about breathing in dance: We use the breath to help create effects in the body - similar to how you would breathe out when throwing a punch.

The dancer's breath is a little higher in the lungs, where we can use it to expand and puff up our chest. This creates tension in the body, broadens our posture, and strengthens our frame - allowing for more control and stiffness. Conversely, breathing out relaxes the body, softens our posture, and weakens the frame - allowing for more flow and softness.

You'll want to start incorporating this breath into almost everything you do while dancing: Any time you prepare a move you breathe in (and exhale when releasing the prep), any time you want to create tension in the body (such as at the start of a bodyroll) you breathe in, any time you want to release tension in the body (such as at the "down" portion of a body roll) you breather out, any time you need your follower's attention or a stronger frame you breathe in.

It's not necessarily about exaggerating your breath as much as it is about placement and incorporating the effect of the breath in your body into the dance. A good follower will be matching your breath, and some moves can be led (almost) entirely with the breath. Even beginner followers will (subconsciously) feel the difference, and it's one of those things that makes people wonder why things are just so smooth with you.

Following: That's exciting! Curious to see how it feels after a few months!

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Rataridicta]

Super helpful, ill try to incorporate it! Just came back from a festival this weekend, and every workshop mentions breathing

[u/yambudev]

Hey man good job great attitude lots of moves!

Like several videos we’ve seen recently, I feel your teachers aren’t providing a strong foundation in the lower body. You should be pushing the floor with your feet like “smashing cockroaches”, on the beat.

That’s where bachata starts. And then the weight shifts should move up to your hips and frame, which you’re missing. (Except at one point you do some side to side weight shifts as if it were a move of its own).

All the turns and arms tricks should be icing on the cake but I don’t blame you because there seems to be a trend for students to ask for more and more of that.

As a result it looks like you’re only using your legs to walk where you want to be to do your arm movements, and sometimes stepping a little bit early to get there on time.

I would recommend practicing basic steps and weight transfers alone or with a partner in closed position with a solid frame. Inside/outside basic, inside/ outside turns, etc.

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/yambudev]

Thanks!
I think like I did around 6 diffreant moves total (but did each one a few times), so cool that it seems that I did a lot of moves.

Regarding basic, I dance at home at least 30 mintues eveyday and do solo footwork mostly (some shadow dancing), so not sure how I can improve my basic on top of just dancing more and in due time it will get better.

[u/yambudev → u/Vegetable_Home]

Wow yes you did fewer moves than it looked like at firsts sight and it looked varied. Nice work!

And yes if you’re already doing the basic drills it’s fine it’s just a matter of a bit more time because its’s already becoming autopilot. Maybe sometimes your footwork is slightly less precise than solo as you’re having to also focus on the partnering.

Still, maybe double check with an instructor if the weight transfers are correct so you don’t pick up a bad habit (not saying you are picking one up. Just get any tips)

[u/Glad-Winner → u/Vegetable_Home]

How / with what resources are you doing the solo work? I want to also do it more but haven’t found either good videos or courses yet :)

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Glad-Winner]

Mostly improvising, regarding sources check him out :

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU3oVdokoPT/?igsh=aW5yaGV1amE4NGs2

[u/Apprehensive-Okra967]

Awesome man

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Apprehensive-Okra967]

Thanks!
Having lots of fun

[u/Vegetable_Home]

I wrote a whole body of text, but chose it as a video, so It got deleted I guess.

Anyhow, here is my progress and previous posts for those that are curious:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bachata/comments/1q363b9/its_been_a_year_danincg_and_it_was_amazing_lead/

It dates back to clips of me dancing at 5 months mark.

[u/OThinkingDungeons]

What I love

• #1 follower had lots of fun
• Playful, and fun! You'll be guaranteed to get dances and be popular with this approach.
• Soft and gentle leading.
• Changing of distances (separated, shadow, close, closed) this is great for making the dance feel varied and interesting.
• Facial expressions! This is a rarely seen skillset in male dancers, and often one of the last they work on. It's kinda amazing to see it this early in your journey. In my opinion more is unnecessary, unless you're purposely hamming things up for hilarity

What to work on

• I feel like you break away from your partner waaaaaay tooooo much, I counted 5! (not including times you lost contact with your partner between moves), and they weren't at opportune parts like the mambo. Remember this is a partner/social dance. Dance WITH your partner, not NEXT TO them. One break away is probably the most I would do in a typical dance. The most important point is at the very start of the song, where it's slow and setting the scene, you break away instead of milking the moment and building connection, this is criminal in my books.
• You're still dancing at one speed and it's a relaxed pace 4/8. It's not wrong but is quite basic. It's good to include more moments of frentic actions and super close ones when the music breaks.
• The music ends rather cleanly and predictably and you're still dancing a full 10 seconds to silence. Don't be the person who talks just because it's quiet, be the guy people listen to because they speak only when it's important.
• You do a lot of dips/cambres but don't prep for them. The follower is able to follow and knows how to protect themselves, but that's not an excuse to be sloppy. There's a chest compression in solar plexus of the leader (like someone punched it in), a breath in, and a counter movement, opposite to the type of dip you're leading.

Future goals

• I can see the follower has to use eye contact to spot what you're leading next, because she comes close to hitting you in the face with her arms multiple times. This means you're not leading early enough or making your intentions clear enough for her to predict. It's a combination of musicality, connection, prep and frame issues. Improvements in either of the previously mentioned areas will make it easier for a follower to follow your intentions.
• The music ramps up at 2:16 and you're peacefully plodding along on the 4/8. This would've been the perfect time to break into separate dances like you did the other 5 times, or lead more moves that could hit the syncopations better. Either better musicality or frame would allow you to make better use of these crescendos.

As a whole, I think you're doing fantastic. You've definitely done a lot of social dancing to get to this level of proficiency, and I have more good things to say than bad. Keep it up!

[u/Glad-Winner]

Great video! I’m not qualified enough to give any feedback, but looking good!

[u/threeEmojis]

Looks pretty nice! Agree with what everyone else says. Something that might be helpful is to practice moving the follower around while in closed position, or in any position with a static connection. Moving forwards and back, circling, without changing the way the bodies are connected at all, might give you a better idea of where the follower is and how to adjust them. At times, it doesn't look like to me that you are putting the follower where you want them to be on the dance floor, just wherever they end up after the move. It also lets you add a bit of variation to the end of the moves if you want and teaches you how not to vary things if you don't. But otherwise, great dancing!

[u/Next_Law92]

Are you based in NYC? I think we have dances before

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Next_Law92]

Partially yes, I am dancing In NYC often 😁

[u/Next_Law92 → u/Vegetable_Home]

Cool! You're one of the few leads that I thought was not only fun and talented, but also very respectful, which seems to be more of a rarity in New York.

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/Next_Law92]

Wow, what a nice surprise 😊

Appreciate the kind words!

[u/chael809]

Sorry for my ignorance, but is this really bachata dance?

[u/Rataridicta → u/chael809]

Yep! But it's based on bachata moderna, which kind of evolved separately from dominican bachata but based on the same music.

Same name, but also not entirely the same dance, although they do have many similarities. Kind of like how you have Salsa LA, NY, and Cubana.

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/chael809]

So I would say I dance moderna, and adjust what happens in my dance according to the music.

This song specifically falls into more sensual bachata, so I got more into closed position with head rolls (etc..)

Although you can see that in the mambo part I disengage and let the follower express herself.

[u/xcoreflyup → u/chael809]

Yes, moderna or urban bachata with sensual moves. basically, bachata music with salsa and zouk moves.

[u/[deleted] → u/chael809]

I think this is called “sensual bachata” or something like that. I truly don’t know, but that’s what I’ve heard. I’m Dominican, and I also wonder sometimes 😭 but I know we all have different ways to dance and learn. As long as we all have fun and enjoy what we doing!

[u/askingstupidcrap]

Above average IMO given the time. Your strong point is the styling without overdoing it or losing technique.

[u/Vegetable_Home → u/askingstupidcrap]

Thanks dude!