In one of my first Lindy Hop classes, Bob Bernard told the students to “lead with your body.” He demonstrated it by pantomiming holding a beach ball, then rotating his torso. I understood the general idea, but dancing that way was a different story. Learning to always lead with the body is an elusive, advanced Lindy Hop skill. I still lead very often with my arms, even after four years of knowing there is a better way.

At various times over those four years, I have thought I had successfully changed my style to a default body lead. I spent the most time adjusting my swingout, which has a lot of directional body movement. During the first half of the swingout, the lead moves one way, and in the second half, the lead moves back towards where they started. While adjusting it, I added more body movement specifically in the second half, creating more distance away from the follow. Doing this restricts the follow’s ability to rock step. I then forced the follow to step forward on the one, by adding even more backwards movement. This was my way of clearly communicating that a swingout would happen. In order to communicate this, I used a type of backwards traveling rock step.

In a recent class with Kerry and Falty, Falty said that a rockstep that travels backwards is a bit odd. Usually, triple steps are the traveling steps. Rock steps are generally used for directionally changes. The body pretty much stays over the same spot in the floor. So the question becomes, how does one communicate a swingout and initiate enough directional movement when the rockstep keeps the body in the same place?

Focusing on one’s core helps answer that question. The torso can shift its center of gravity without the feet traveling. It feels a bit like sucking the stomach in, but without tilting the pelvis forward. It can be helpful to practice isolating the torso movement by rooting a foot on the floor. Right foot for the lead, left foot for the follow. When the leads left foot steps back, the right foot can stay touching the ground the whole time to ensure the body does not travel. Anchoring the body in place allows one to feel how the left foot rock step affects he core. One’s center of gravity shifts backwards. The hips press away from the lead’s right foot, but not in a way that makes them move too far upwards and away from the floor. This creates a type of stationary movement which is enough to communicate the change in direction to the follow.

When one makes the rockstep more stationary, the feet stay underneath the body. This improves one’s balance. With a centered balance, the options for the next direction of movement remains open. With a backwards traveling rockstep, the one option of movement is backwards for the lead, and forwards for the follow. If the lead maintains a neutral balance, they leave the follow more room to choose what to do next. They can come in for a normal swingout; they can hang out at the end of the rope for a few beats; or they can interrupt the pattern to introduce a non-swing out pattern that fits the music better.

In a class at last year’s St. Louis Get Down, Nathan Bugh defined connection in swing dance as affecting one’s partner’s balance. Rockstepping with less or no distance traveled improves one balance, and allows the partner to react and affect it more effectively. This improves the connection, and makes the entire dance better for both people.