Besides what I'm learning in class, I'm also doing some supplementary studying by reading books ballroom and watching instructional dance videos and practicing in my home studio. While it's fun and cool to learn all the latest moves (check this out), as a guy, I am the leader and I still have to non-verbally communicate to my partner to make it work. Sound like a familiar concept?

Yup! The relationship between dancer and guitarist in flamenco is very similar to the one between a leader and follower in ballroom and latin dances.

For example, I've worked occasionally with flamenco dance students lacking experience with live music who would come back from Spain having just a taken a workshop with famous dancer XYZ and learned a cutting edge modern choreography. And while they can execute the choreography fairly well on their own, they're surprised when it falls apart when they put it together with live music. In this case, the leader (dancer) is failing to communicate to the follower (guitarist).

Why? Because being able to execute a choreography and being able to lead or, in other words, communicate non-verbally to your guitarist are two completely different skills. Like, sometimes a dancer will tell me, "OK play a llamada here when I do this move." And I'll just roll my eyes and say to myself, "Look, dancer, if you knew how to do a llamada correctly, you wouldn't have to tell me that you're doing a llamada!"

That's why it's called a llamada (translation: call). It's supposed to be so obvious that it clearly communicates to the guitarist as if to say, "Hey Mr. Guitarist, I'm ending this section of the dance or going on to a different section, so watch me!"

In my conversations with female friends who go to clubs to dance salsa, the common complaint I hear is that a lot of guys will try to execute some really cool salsa moves without knowing how to properly lead the lady. Either the guy is so weak as a leader that the lady doesn't know what he's going to do next. Or he's too strong and ends up basically pushing and pulling the lady around on the dance floor. Same kind of problem: lack of clear communication.

So, now that I'm taking ballroom and latin dance classes, I'm starting to understand first-hand the concept of communicating with my body when leading a lady. It's just like flamenco. OK. I get the concept, but I need to apply it on a practical level, get some experience and practice, practice, practice! It's going to take a lot of work but I can do it and so can you!