If you’re a lady who wants to lead, please keep in mind that when you’re ballroom dancing, backleading is a no-no. However, there are some social dances that accept a little lead-stealing by the follower. To illustrate, let’s take a look at Argentine Tango and West Coast Swing.

Is it okay for the lady to hijack the lead?

Indeed, most leaders don’t like dancing with followers who backlead. Nevertheless, Argentine Tango and West Coast Swing actually allow the lady to express herself by inserting some moves of her own. For this bold backleading to work for the team, the leader must go along with it. After a while, he retakes the lead and the traditional partnership resumes.

Here’s a quote from dancecompreview.com. “In some dances, like Argentine Tango and West Coast Swing, a follower can make ‘suggestions’ or even outright ‘hijack’ the movement. This is fine, as long as they don’t lead the majority of steps, and you can actually make the dance more fun by going along with it.” There you go, ladies. Permission to lead granted!

Watch these videos to see how easily the followers steal the lead.

It happens fast, so pay attention. Hint: it’s usually during a musical pause, accent, or break. Because you can hear a break coming, leaders expect the hijack and enjoy going along with it.

Argentine Tango

Argentine Tango is one of the best social dances for the lady who wants to lead. It contains moves called embellishments, adornments, or decorations. These are the kicks, flicks, and rondes that dancers use to accent the music. The leader allows the follower to safely dance them. Watch for examples in the following video performance.

Dance Me To End of Love – Argentine Tango performance by Lindsey Zan and Ricardo Correa

This lovely and sensual improvised performance demonstrates the trust and sensitivity of the leader. Ricardo follows Lindsey’s emotional lead and allows her total freedom of expression.

Speaking of Argentine Tango, here’s a Dance Safari post I hope you’ll enjoy, “3 Argentine Tango Milonga Posts I Like.”

West Coast Swing

West Coast Swing music can be slow and sexy or peppy and sassy. At the higher levels you’ll see dancers doing dips, drops, splits, and spins to express the music. Just another reason why, if you’re a lady who wants to lead, you’re gonna love this dance.

The Open Swing Dance Championships. The dancers are Tatiana Mollmann and Olivier Massart.

Tatiana Mollmann & Olivier Massart were paired up to compete in the Champions Division at The Open Swing Dance Championships held in Los Angeles, CA in 2023. They won 1st place in the West Coast Swing Jack & Jill Competition. If you’re unfamiliar with the term Jack & Jill, it means the couple doesn’t know who they’ll be dancing with until it’s their turn. The leader picks a follower’s name out of a hat. Each dance is improvised using lead and follow. There is no choreography.

Tatiana and Olivier use strong, playful moves to hit every obvious or nuanced accent and break in their songs. Both partners demonstrate excellent leading abilities. At one point, Olivier actually backleads the follower’s part of multiple spinning underarm turns. I guess you could call that reverse hijacking.

For more West Coast Swing performances, here’s a Dance Safari post, “West Coast Swing Performance Standouts from 2019.”

There are a few other social dances, like Lindy Hop and Salsa, that allow a lady who wants to lead to occasionally have her way with her partner. But, Argentine Tango and West Coast Swing are really known to encourage it. It’s entertaining to watch and even more fun to do!