I think signaling your follower to do a turn would be better expressed by saying facilitating a turn rather than leading one

Facilitating Turns for the Follower

I think signaling your follower to do a turn would be better expressed by saying facilitating a turn rather than leading one. Too often the leader is literally throwing the follower around because they are under the faulty assumption that they have "to turn her". While there is a certain amount of manipulation that can be applied with right hand signals the leader must still not forget that the follower is the one that should be turning on her own energy level after any signal is given. And while the right hand can be involved in some leads it should be gentle, and the leader’s left hand should parallel traffic control signals. Up and slightly to the leader’s left for the follower’s right hand turn and in front of the leader’s nose to signal an inside left turn are common examples of left arm signals. Too often leaders take that left arm and throw it around as though it is part of the follower’s turn rather than a signal, like a policeman literally stopping a car with his hand and body instead of just raising the hand. While one would agree that the latter example would result in more dire consequences the affect of a leader acting in a similar fashion also results in less than pleasing results.

But if one asks why a leader is doing this he usually answers that the follower is not turning. The fact of the matter is it not only takes two to tango but it takes two knowledgeable people to do any dance successfully. Ignorant followers are part of the problem in this issue being that they do not understand the signals. Many followers pride themselves on the fact that they can "follow" but because a lot of leading consists of subtle signals, or they should be subtle if one is leading well, it is absolutely necessary that followers know those signals before they attempt to dance. One would not drive in a foreign country without prepping a bit on traffic signs and one should not dance without understanding basic following and leading skills.

My recommendation to my leader students is that if they give a turn signal with the left arm and the follower does not turn they should put their arm down. One should not develop bad leading skills because the follower is not knowledgeable. If a leader gets used to throwing his arm while signaling, when he does dance with a trained follower she will be over rotated. A part of good leading is to know how to gracefully get out of leads and always to make the follower look good as well as yourself. In salsa when the woman does not turn the leader can always turn himself as one example of improvising out of a misinterpreted or not known signal. The bottom line is that while dance lessons are not absolutely necessary to have fun they certainly can enhance the experience.

Marjorie Duryea Artistic Director and co-owner of Actor’s Dance Studio