An article from yesterdays Guardian - ostensibly about my favourite dance but really about the mechanics of lead and follow:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...agic-lindy-hop

"In close hold, bodies are joined at the hip and hand. The follow exerts an equal and opposite force through arms and body in response to the lead. These equal and opposite forces, in accordance with Newton's Third Law of Motion, allow the follow to dance in synchrony with the lead: as a mirror image. This symmetry can only be broken if the pairs of forces become unbalanced, causing one or both of the dancers to accelerate away from the other. For example, the lead may provide a subtle signal indicating to the follow to reduce the resistance, accept the transfer of momentum, and move away into a backwards step."


(see, I told you us swing dancers were a nerdy bunch!)

As a Physics graduate I would classify that as pseudo-scientific waffle. Newspapers, like television, are for entertainment rather than instruction.

Thank You Betty, You Are A Diamond

That article has reminded me of Professor Stanley Unwin who was a popular entertainer with the ability to produce convincing-sounding gobbledegook. He had been a BBC engineer before his retirement.


Professor Stanley Unwin Gives Jools Holland A Complete Regis Historical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoK0EkF_pDk

What a typical Physics graduate you are, JC. I'm married to a Physics graduate and he and his mates are the same - they HATE anybody else knowing more than they do.

As for NEWSpapers being for entertainment, you should stop reading the Sun and read some serious news - not for "instruction" but for information.

You can probably blame Dr Cox for this, 'making science fun' malarkey, JohnCurry!

I asked my friend, the post doctoral Physics researcher (and extremely talented Lindy Hop lead) what he thought of the article, he said, and I quote:

'The only time and space I worry about when dancing is trying to do a righteous swing out, in rhythm, without colliding into another couple.'

The Guardian is always having interesting articles on Science, IT, Education, whatever. Tomorrow (I mean today, Saturday) it will have a lovely article about Aljaz's Slovenia (see Abbey & Aljaz's Appreciation thread for a link).

"In close hold, bodies are joined at the hip and hand."

In AT close embrace bodies are joined at the head, chest, hand and arm but not at the hip.

This is correct of course, and at the risk of being branded a nerd or geeky, I fully understand the article(and have read the whole piece).

For somewhat more reputable work, you might want to check out Sommer Gentry's work - she's a competitive dancer with a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and has published papers looking at lead-and-follow in terms of control systems.

It actually refers to Newton's Third Law of Motion. Now even as a Maths Graduate I find that somewhat geeky and unnecessary!

That sounds interesting - I have an M.Sc. in control systems theory. Can you give some details of these papers and where to find them?

It used to be said that the man ALWAYS led and the lady followed. Basically, if the man was a good dancer, the lady didn't need to know so much. Nowadays, with far more complex choreography, it is considered that the man steers - i.e as for the most part (in ballroom) he is facing the way of travel, he can direct the direction a dance should take to take in consideration floor craft, and avoiding bumping other dancers. It is now necessary for the lady to know and take a "pro-active" part of leading part of the dance.... successful spins/turns, for example, are as much down to the lady leading as the man.

In Latin, the whole job of the Man USED to be just make his lady look good. Nowadays, he has to be as active as his partner.

well, I don't know anything about physics but think Stanley Unwin is very funny so thanks for posting this clip, didn't know he'd been a BBC engineer though

Interesting article and from an AT perspective I can relate to

I will definitely look out for this (although I am a stray Arts-type person, surrounded by dancing engineers).

Henry, in Lindy Hop, there is a closed hold with a hip connection, although it's just one of many. You can see it here at 1.00, the lead moves his right hand from her mid back waist to the hip/waistline of the follow, follow hand is on lead shoulder, her arm draped over his, connected like a hinge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYz0gbtDkA

The article simplifies the description, naturally

Video is Juan and Sharon, I love how Sharon moves)

Kaycee, for adult beginners (the non profit social dance organisation I volunteer for, I'm not a pro dancer by any means!) teach that the ladies are nothing but beautiful shopping trollies for about 4 months, then we start to explain the follow's responsibility such as following all given momentum to the kinetic natural end and not stopping oneself. A bit later on we show them stuff they can do for themselves without disturbing the leads intent, such as footwork variations and by about 3 years we've gotten to the point where the responsibility is 50/50. We find that if we give the ladies too much too soon the poor chaps never learn to lead anything much at all, partly because ladies tend to have danced more in childhood and partly because leads have a very steep learning incline and often lower initial confidence

There are many views on this subject, and I think the main reason for the confusion is that there is no standard definition of the words "lead" and "follow" - they mean different things to different people. My own view is that "leading" means simply deciding which step to do and when to do it. Each partner should keep their own balance and provide their own movement. There is no reason why the woman should not do the leading except that in crowd dancing she would need more freedom to move her head so as to see the other dancers.

In latin everything is simpler as the man and woman are more independent, and in the rumba, cha-cha and jive they can dance a prepared routine.

Some think that AT involves kicking away the follower's leg. It isn't kick and reaction like in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ne...ion_book_2.gif

But pressure changes inside or outside the foot to generate a mind driven reaction on the part of the follower.

"How to Do the Drag | Argentine Tango"

http://youtu.be/ZcnXRkxRJ3c