How to dance Konpa? This will be one of many breakdowns. Here, I focus on how you should hold your partner.

Learning how to dance is one of the best things to do, no matter what style of dance you plan to learn. It’s energetic, it’s therapeutic and it’s a great communication tool. While enriching your health, you literally learn to connect with others on a deeper and stronger level.

In my case, Konpa is an artistic couple style dancing that I enjoy practicing and teaching. If you’ve never heard of Haitian Konpa, click here to learn about Haiti’s pop-cultural dance.

As I mentioned before, this article will focus on holding your partner when dancing Haitian Konpa.

How to dance konpa: How to hold your partner

LEAD vs FOLLOW

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, it takes two to tango, it’s true! It takes a lead and a follow. The lead, in most cases, is usually the guy. Meanwhile, the follow is usually the lady. Neither position is better than the other. Both lead and follow equally work together in harmony to process a stabled choreography or impromptu.

THE CONNECTION

When both lead and follow connect, you will both use one arm as an extended arm for connecting while using the other arm to embrace your partner. 

LEAD 

As a lead your job will pretty much be leading. Your job is to give all the right signals so that your follow may respond appropriately. With your left hand, grab your partner’s right hand and hold it in an extended manner.  Use your right arm to hold your follow in an embrace. In this embrace potioning, your right hand will land in one of 3 potions of your follow’s back; upper back ( near should blade area), mid-back, or lower back.

There is no wrong placement but depending on the music tempo and the atmospheric mood, it will be up to you where you place your hand. But as a rule of thumb, you’d most likely place your hand on your follow’s upper back for upbeat tempo or animated dancing. For slower tempo music, your hand will land on your follow’s mid-back. Let’s say it’s a more relaxed and sensual setting, you’ll respectfully relax your hand on your follow’s lower back. 

FOLLOW

When you’re following your lead, your job will be to give attention to the signals your lead is giving. Your right hand will extend to hold your lead’s left hand. Meanwhile, your left hand will rest on your lead’s right shoulder. In this dance frame, you’ll be in a position to receive all the signals for moving and maneuvering.