When dancing with a partner, we talk about “Leaders” and “Followers”. Classically, the person dancing in the role of leader initiates movements and directions and the follower interprets and actively dances them. However, there is no hierarchy to the roles and throughout the dance both partners continuously make decisions on how and where to go. 
Click here to get more detailed explanations of the roles.

At SwingStep, we encourage everybody to see themselves as dancers rather than leaders or followers. This is why we strive to give everybody the opportunity to learn the dance from the leader and follower perspectives. This is known as “Everybody Leads and Everybody Follows” or “Switch dancing”.

We generally leave it up to our teachers to decide how to communicate and manage roles within a dance class. We are indicating what you can expect inside the sign up form in the field “Select your Role”:

• Leader / Follower: If you are asked to select a role during sign up, during these classes you are generally going to learn to dance in the role you selected, though occasionally teachers may invite you to try out the other role too.
• Single Person: If it is a partner class, you’ll get the opportunity to learn the content from both perspectives. This will allow you to deepen your understanding of the concepts and ideas more deeply, dance with anyone in the class and never have to wait for the right amount of “opposite roles” to show up so that you can dance.  Switching roles can either happen in a structured way, where the teachers invite you to change your dance role in regular intervals, or in an organic way, where the teachers leave it up to you and your dance partner at any given time to switch roles according to your own wishes and needs.

When you book a subscription with us, you’ll have access to any classes you want as well as all the online classes. If you have primarily explored the dance from one perspective, you can use your subscription to join classes that suit you to explore the role you have less experience in. 

Question: What if I feel too challenged doing both roles? 
Answer: We encourage you to take care of your own needs at this moment. For example, make an agreement with your dancing partner to either get the help you need or revert to your stronger role. 

Question: What if I only want to learn one role? 
Answer: We encourage learning both roles, because it makes you a more flexible dancer and brings more dancing opportunities (and also fun). However, we will not force you to switch roles. Take care of your own preferences and needs. 

Question: What if I want to only dance with my partner?
Answer: We strongly encourage you to rotate and explore the dance with everybody in the class. However, we will not force you to rotate or switch. Take care of your own preferences and needs.