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The most important way to get better in social dancing is to improve the basic steps and turn techniques in more and more combinations of basic figures.

In this tutorial we are focusing on the steps of the Follower. Because the Leader can step however he wants as long as he manages to make the Follow step spot on with perfection.

Basic figures

Each basic figure has a pattern the Lead and the Follow must agree about. Only when we know what to do, can we step consistently and compare what we actually did with what we should have done. This makes feed-back and learning process possible.

If we want to get to the next level, we must know how to be well-formed in order to try to be well-formed by constantly improving on how we step each basic figure.

No social dancing is possible without errors, but only by trying to reduce them to a minimum will we ever get better.

Rules of well-formedness

How to step each and every basic figure can for simplicity be reduced to a few rules of thumb. For the main mode of the dance with few exceptions:

1. The Follow should always step on a curved or a straight line. No L-shaped paths! Each step should always land in front of the previous as close to stepping on one line as practical.
2. With few exceptions the Follow should always step Two Times Three, that is three step forward and then another three step forward on the same or another path.
3. For directional changes, like in Paséala and Exhíbela walks, the pause on 4 and 8 must be used for the pivot. That is, the Follow pivots on “3-pause-5” and on “7-pause-1”.
4. Vacilala and Coca-Cola are the basic ways to turn, and should always be done as traveling three step turns, 180 degree between step 1 and 2, and another 180 degree between step 2 and 3. In Advanced dancing most of the turning or even all the turning can take place between step 2-3, reducing step 1-2 to preparation.
5. In order to integrate the traveling turns seamless into the Follow’s walks, the three steps of the turn must land in the footprints she would have been making if she had just walked the distance without the turn.
6. Whenever possible turns should be traveling. Stationary and semi-stationary turns only exist as the exception to the rule.
7. The Follow should step forward by default. That is, unless she needs a back-step to regain her balance, or her path forward is blocked by the Lead or blocked by the space available, or unless the Lead leads her backward in some rare situations, the Follow should always step forward.
8. Since we want a dynamic dance with good flow and momentum, the Follow must never stop up by herself but always continue forward if at all possible, even when the Lead’s intentions are unclear.
9. As a rule of thumb with very few exceptions, the Follow never do back-steps, side-steps, diagonal steps and the Follow never steps in place.

Why forward by default?

See my tutorial: Cuban Salsa: Why a Follow should step forward by default