Advanced
Hand Placement
Advanced Level
Full mastery — nuance, personal expression, and artistry
Where and how you place your hands on your partner — the difference between a clear lead and a confusing one.
Tips
- •Ask experienced followers for feedback on your hand placement. They'll tell you immediately what feels clear and what feels grabby.
- •Practice leading with just your fingertips. If you can lead a turn with four fingers, you'll never over-grip again.
- •Leader's left hand: offer a flat palm for the follower to place their hand on, rather than grabbing their hand first. This establishes consent from the first moment.
Common mistakes
- •Gripping the follower's shoulder blade or side — your hand should be flat and guiding, not clamping.
- •Placing the right hand too low on the follower's back without establishing close-hold context first — this feels invasive.
- •The 'wet fish' handhold — limp hands with no tone transmit zero information.
- •Constantly readjusting hand position — pick a spot, commit, and communicate from there.
- •Thumb-hooking the follower's armpit or ribcage — uncomfortable and unnecessary.
Practice drill
With a partner, do your entire basic pattern catalog using only fingertip contact — no palm, no grip. Basics, turns, direction changes, all with fingertips only. This forces you to use your body to lead and your hands to guide, rather than muscling patterns through your arms. Every movement that fails with fingertips is a movement that relies too much on arm strength.