Fridays at The Empty Bottle are special. A regular contingent of two-steppers circumnavigate counterclockwise to the Hoyle Brothers’ honky tonk rhythms. Recently, I have been switching my two step-role more often. Doing so has taught me more about phrasing.

In comparison to swing music, the structure of a Hoyle Brothers’ song is less predictable. I have become accustomed to the common structures of swing era jazz, specifically the AABA form. While I have grown more comfortable with that pattern, I sometimes feel like my body goes on autopilot, even while leading. My mind will wander to be more fully attentive to the music than it is on my partner, even while leading moves. Because I dance less to honky tonk music, that listening state, while leading, is less common. When I have switched to the follow role, however, I can let go of that directive energy, and split my attention between listening to both my partner’s suggestions and the music more carefully.

For various reason, I follow most often to leads who I usually dance with as follows. Most of these leads are also dancers who started in the follow role, and have more practice following. In listening to these follows’ leading ideas, I have noticed that they are particularly attentive to the structure of the music. They react creatively to the ends of phrase. One lead I danced with led an exaggerated jockey movement when a phrase wrapped up, which helped me appreciate how the Hoyle Brothers ramp up the energy before starting a new section. I suspect that learning first to follow trains oneself in this way. Listening, to both a partner’s suggestion and the musical queues, is emphasized more at the beginning of one’s following learning curve. The start of one’s lead instruction more often involves completing a pattern, and repeating it.

Switch dancing can be an effective way of forcing oneself to pay attention to the sections of the music. Whoever is leading or following at a given moment can initiate a switch, so it is always possible for one to establish the pattern that a switch will occur at the end of a phrase. By setting this expectation, both dancers anticipate a major change in the dynamic of the partnership that corresponds to a significant change in the music. When this tacit agreement is made, both lead and follow collaborate in creating transitions which fit the music. It makes the dance more in line with creativity of the musicians and more dynamic.