The Necessity of the Backlead in Social Ballroom Dancing

One day, while I was at the Regent Ballroom, I was dancing the foxtrot with partner Mary Blair, and going down towards the first short side of the ballroom--at a corner. Then I saw another dance couple come near me, and she raised her shoulders and stopped my forward motion down the line of dance (LOD) for only a second. At that point, I recognized that there was a type of leading that would be important for floorcraft on the social dance floor.

What was it? The backlead.

The backlead is a type of lead, usually done by the follower(that is, at most of the time, the lady dancing with the man)to give the signal to the man that the dance floor traffic is getting worse enough for a possible collision. That is, she makes the man steer in another direction(or stop him)to try to avoid going into acolliding path with an oncoming dance couple.

Perhaps the backlead is more important for the lady to do when she and his leader do International Standard dancing more often then American Smooth dancing. This is because in the former style, the lady has her head to the left side most of the time except when the man leads her into the turns or leads her into the various promenade positions (fallaway, counter promenade, etc.). Most of the time, she is backing the LOD, so her peripheral vision will be more on her right side to see the other couples on the floor. That is why in some cases a follower backing the LOD might have the tendency to turn her head back to the left or the right little bit to look for a possibly colliding dance couple before she started the backlead on the man (or leader). This would happen to dancing ladies who are very nervous that their backs could be colliding with other people during any time of the dance. This might not happen too often to more seasoned followers in social dance who are used to the risk that they might be bumped, for they know exactly when to use that collision-saving backlead.(And if the follower dances with a leader whom she knows very, very well, she may have trust enough in the leader to not turn her head the wrong way and let the man lead through the sea of other dancers.) The man should also need to backlead as well on the social dance floor when a collision is coming because the man is still the leader and he is in charge of the whole dance.(If you have to keep your head to the left in International Standard, use your peripheral vision just like the follower would do. The reason is that the lady may not have the time to use the backlead in time, and if that happens, it is the leader(usually the man)that has to do the backlead on the follower.

There are several types of backleads:

1. The backlead towards the partner, where one dancer pushes one's partner towards the other's body.

2. The side backlead, where the leader or follower pushes the partner to the left side or the right side to avert oncoming traffic.

3. The evasive backlead, where the leader or follower pushes the partner away a considerable distance to avoid an incoming couple.

4. The 'crouch' backlead, the least strong of the other backleads, usually done by the follower, stopping the leader's forward motion and holds the leader, and at the same time, the follower crouches by raising the shoulders up to absorb a possible collision or a close-call collision.

The last thing I need to say about the backlead is if you want to use them, you better. It is safer in the middle of a dance figure to stop a possible accident by a backlead then to finish the figure without using the backlead. Both the follower and the leader will leave the dance floor happy and will love to dance with each other again when they use backleads. Over time, they will calm their fears about collisions and traffic on the dance floor, and they will enjoy social dancing a lot more.