These boots were made for dancing

Just completed my fourth formal ballroom dancing lesson — keep laughing as I waltz, foxtrot, lindy hop, swing and salsa circles around you — where I received a report card of sorts.

Apparently my problem area is letting the man lead. (crickets, crickets)

Let me explain. I know the man is supposed to lead, but my dance instructor is very sweet and petite, not one who manhandles very well. While this should be a nice trait in a person, it doesn't really work in dance. If he's not going to force me to go somewhere, I'm going to go where I want. (Comments can be kept to yourself on this issue.)

1. So the woman is supposed to hold on by the man's right bicep. Except, I have more muscle than he does. He even makes jokes about it, "I'll flex very hard so you can feel my bicep." But I can't! So I just make an educated guess, thanks to years of figure drawing. Therefore, I'm not going to hold on very tight because I might bruise him, which leads to not waiting for his direction.

2. I have a "farm girl stride," so referred to by Texas friends. As in I use the whole expanse of my legs and hip flexors to make a full stride, thus covering a lot of ground in an efficient manner. This doesn't work so well when your partner is making dainty, precise movements. I'm often stepping back out of his reach, so obviously, I take it upon myself to move back into range instead of waiting for him to catch up. "I usually have to tell women to take bigger steps."

3. He makes me practice the same steps for like 15 minutes. Dude, I got it 10 minutes ago. "You do so well at talking and dancing at the same time."Thanks. I have some experience in being able to dance, sing, escape the creep behind me, avoid a flick of hair in the eye from that girl intruding on my circle, dodge the puddle/glass on the floor and keep my drink from spilling all at the same time, so talking to you while we do the box step a hundred times in a row is not really a stressful mental exercise.

These are my very sound reasons for sort of leading; I'm really only offering suggestions. This isn't an excuse, but I just need to be ready for when Gene Kelly reincarnates.