Who's Better, The Leader or Follower?

When it comes to social dancing, who really looks better dancing?

I was at the Agenda last night and I observed a few couples dance for a few songs here and there. Not really thinking about anything, I spot a couple dancing where the follower was executing double turns for the majority of the patterns. One can easily deduce that the reason why the follower was doing the double turns was because the leader was leading the follower to do so.

As time passed on while I watched this couple, I began to become bored watching them dance. All the guy was doing was turning the follower here and there, crossbody lead, crossbody lead, stand in place, turn the follower, etc.

It occured to me that this guy had no real good moves to execute, he stood around in place most of the time when the follower was put into a double turn, but his crossbody leads were good.

It occured to me that in regards to presentation, it was the follower that looked better dancing.

There are leaders that do most of the attention-getting and there are the followers that do most of the attention-getting. Although one can say that each couple dances differently, I can argue that everyone has the same basis of movement going from one dance partner to another.

As a salsa dancer, I've learned that constant movement and a wide range of patterns is what makes you attract attention. If you're always moving your feet and execute patterns that don't repeat constantly, people will watch and people will enjoy doing it. As a result, my dance style focuses more on speed and variety; however my strongest handicap is that I do not lead double or triple turns.

Going back, are double/triple turns really that interesting? I can relate to the euphoria that the follower feels from accomplishing a multiple turn, but to sacrifice pattern variety to do so?

I concluded from my observations that a certain amount of recovery time is needed after the follower executes their turn. Although subtle, you can tell from the follower's eyes or how the leader pauses for a split second after the follower turns. During this pause in time the movements of both partners loses it's fluidity until the dancers resume into typically, a crossbody lead.

Some leaders will proceed into some other variety of movement while some, after only a couple of counts, go back to some double/triple turn variation.

Dancing isn't about showing off or presenting yourself to someone but rather the enjoyment received from the act; however will your partner really enjoy dancing with you when all you want to do are multiple turns, leader or follower? To me, leading or executing multiple turns all night gets old after awhile.