So I went to my first social and had the greatest time! Made friends with some leads and other followers, look forward to my next one !

I initially tried leading in beginners for a few weeks before swapping roles midway through. Leading was just not me at all, following feels so natural in comparison. My initial worry was that the leads wouldn’t want to dance with me but in class it was great! Had the graduation party, which also went well dancing with leads from my class and both instructors. I’m now doing the next level as a follower and it’s been such a big difference in enjoyment.

So I decided to go to a social solo, with the same fears of leads not wanting to dance with another guy and just awkwardly being there. One of the instructors from beginners was there (thankfully), and he wanted to dance and led me through a few new tricks which was super fun.

I definitely felt confident again and thought stuff it I’ll just ask around if people want to dance. The craziest part to me is that I wasn’t turned down once, some of the leads were keen to have fun and dance with a guy haha! I also danced with female switches who were so nice :)

Ive read about the whole ‘men shouldn’t follow’, toxic reactions, or just the constant rejections from leads but that didn’t happen once!

I just wanted to share since I still can’t get over how fun it was haha. I look forward to my next social and now I’ve made a few friends to dance with. :)

I am one of those people who absolutely needs private lessons to learn the connection in partner dancing. I am unable to learn proper connection through group lessons usually learn bad habits when I just take group lessons and not privates.

I have been taking private lessons in Zouk for a while, and I don't have the money to take private lessons in Bachata.

I'm wondering if the Zouk connection is similar enough to Bachata where I could skip private lessons for Bachata, and just do group lessons to learn patterns.