10 Things For Lindy Hop Leads
Considering I like to do top 10 lists, I thought this might be an interesting topic.

So here it is, in my opinion, the top 10 things for lindy hopping leads
(top 10 things what... to do? to know? my answer is "yes")

By the way, the order of these you might think are from least important to most important ... no .. not really, they are in the order that I come up with them. Yessiree, writing by the seat of my pants, that's me .


10: Look at your follow more
Simply because I've been told on occasion one reason I'm fun to dance with is that I seem to pay attention to my follows.

9: Don't stare at them though...
That can get kind of creepy...

8: Smile
That's to help take the creepiness out of you staring at them. This is also something that follows have told me they like about me ...it helps that whole "I'm paying attention to them" thing.

For those follows out there, note that sometimes the reason a lead doesn't look at you is because he might be SHY. That's the case for me and that's why when I first started dancing I had problems not looking at my follow and not smiling ..because I was shy. (the other reason is that leads have to think a lot too while dancing).

For the shy leads, here's a few tips. First, instead of looking your follow in the eye, look right in between their eyebrows and stare at that spot. If it helps, do that thing where you kind of blur your vision a bit (like those 3D Seeing Eye Posters ..remember those? I hated those ...). Like stare PAST their eyes. That way you can seem like you're looking at their eyes and you don't have to be embarrassed...although beware that doing that blurry vision "stare past their eyes" thing may end up having you look more like that creepy stary face. That's when you can sort of imagine that instead of nice clean skin what if they had a monobrow instead? Like the spot you're staring at was full of tufts of hair .. .that oughta get you smiling and the follows will simply think you're paying attention to them and having fun.. win win situation!

*ahem* moving on ...

7: Crowded Dance Floors Rock!
why? Two reasons.

The first: keeping your follow from getting bumped by random swingouts is a great way to "discover" new moves .... there have been a handful of times when a follow had commented "wow cool move!" when I was simply trying to keep them from being bumped.

The second: has to do with that shyness thing again. You now have an excuse to look away from your follow if the staring starts to get you embarrassed. You can pretend that you're looking to make sure the path is safe for where you want to put your follow ... oooohh..how gentlemanly of you!! Note that to pass this off you will have to put your follow there at some point after you look. The statute of limitations I think is two 8-counts for you to follow through on your lookaway (otherwise the follow may think you're looking for someone else to dance with) (in which case you may want to disguise that by putting the follow out there within one 8-count).

6 Don't wear steel-toed boots
You'd think would be common sense.... err.. i won't get into this one for now.

5 Sometimes less is more ..
I've heard from many follows that sometimes their favorite moves are just swingouts, giving them time to play.

4 It's okay to compliment your follow during the dance ...
If your follow does a particular move or styling you really like, a simple "oh wow..that was cool!" will do. Try it out and see what happens.

3 Bring a change of shirt(s)
Maybe that's just for me... my follow friends/acquaintances have commented on this. Perhaps it's because 1) I sweat like a sprinkler, and 2) my close follow friends are honest with me. This leads to 3A: the "dry shirt dance" is a privilege and should be offered to the partner/wife/significant other first unless a special occasion warrants it (such as Jenny Kim's birthday).

2 That guy spin thing?
Don't be fooled by what people say ..it's still a darn cool move and should be done as often as possible (as long as it's with the music of course )

And the number one (1) thing for Lindy Hop Leads in the sequential order of when they pop out of the top of my head:

Telling math and science-related jokes are not necessarily turn-ons.

Ehh.. at least that's what I've been told by MFF (my favorite follows) but I think they're just in denial.

So hey.. did you hear about the two sodium atoms? They were walking down the street one day when the first one stopped and said, "Oh no! I think I just lost one of my electrons!!". The second one said, "Are you sure?". To which the first one replied, "Yes! I'm positive!!"

nyuk nyuk nyuk