The human hand is one of the most impressive example of sophisticated machinery on the face of the planet. What it can achieve is amazing. If you know how to take full advantage of its ability, then you will dance with your partner at a much greater level.
Just take a moment to look at your hand and think about what it can do:
- It can move from a flat surface that can easily slide
- It can form a tight ball like fist
- It can curve into a hook shape to hold onto something
- It can spread out to distribute load on contact
- It can grip around objects of various shapes
- It can apply a force
- It can sense pressure from another hand so that another dancer's position can be inferred
- it can twist and bend at the wrist so that it can do the above in different orientations
- It can then move to almost any position around the body on the end of the arm
Just stop and think about the above. You hand can do a lot for you by sending signals via movement and force and at the same time tell you a lot about what is going on with your dance partner.
To take full advantage of what your hand can do, it needs sufficient attention from you.
Next time you are having troubles leading or following, try focusing on your hand: its position, shape, force applied force felt, movement and so on. There is potentially a clue to dancing better. As note, this is more likely to be an issue in your swing, Latin and street Latin dances, but always keep it in the back of your mind as a tool to use when you have dance issues.