Lead and Follow
Traditionally the man set the pace, established the length of stride, and decided when to change step, and the woman followed. A woman having more dance skills sometimes provided a tactful guiding push or pull, as long as it wasn't obvious. As soon as the man learns the routine, he takes the lead by combining firm, but gentle (never obvious) pushes and pulls. The leader should move assertively, and the follower should duplicate the countermovements, or perform her part of the dance. A photograph from one early "stag" dance shows a "closed" dance position, with the "man's" right arm around the back of the "woman".
In frontier days men danced with each other when women were not available. According to an early settler in Texas, "The gentle sex were few in number at the dance... Two men had to dance together to make a set." Another account states that "due to the scarcity of young women, a number of young bachelors who were either smooth shaven or wore polished shoes were designated as ladies." There were also "stag" dances with no women. "Heifer branded" men, those dancing the woman's role, wore handkerchiefs tied around one arm. At other times men dancing the role of the woman wore aprons. Miners in the California Gold Rush danced with one another if ladies were not available.
Read more about this topic: Country-western Dance
Famous quotes containing the words lead and/or follow:
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“Even if it is given that someone understands the name ‘God’ to signify what is said, namely, ‘that than which a greater cannot be conceived,’ it does not follow that what is signified by this name exists in the nature of things, but only that it exists in the apprehension of the understanding.”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)