There are countless drills a Follower can do to sharpen technique, improve control, and fine-tune execution. This site includes several, each designed to strengthen tendons, stretch muscles, and—most importantly—recalibrate neurological awareness and mental habits. But among them, one exercise stands alone.
It’s the first thing every Follower student does in their private lessons with me. Without exception.
It is the single most important exercise a Follower will ever do. Why? Eleven reasons, actually (which you’ll see below—assuming you’re a subscriber. If you’re not, you can still fix that for the cost of a monthly subscription).
At first glance, the exercise looks absurd. Exaggerated steps you’d never actually use on the dance floor. And you’re right—you won’t. But that’s not the point. This is an isolation drill. It’s a neurological reset. A training ground for control, precision, and deep awareness. It sets up everything a Follower will ever do in Tango. And it lays the foundation for one of the most misunderstood, misused, and misnamed techniques in tango: disassociation (a.k.a. “pivot,” a term we don’t use here).
Let’s be clear: this exercise is deceptively simple. It is anything but easy. It demands obsessive detail, surgical control, and mental clarity. Which is why it drives nearly every Follower a little crazy at first—for two reasons:
1. Details Matter Here
Precision matters. A lot.
Where is your foot landing? Are you crossing over the body meridian ?
How is your foot landing (in supination or pronation)?
What’s your level of extension? Are you popping the knee ?
Are you actually in opposition or faking it? And is the opposition in the extreme as it should be ?
Where are your arms? Your hands? Your head?
2.) No Partner Required.
This is one of those times when you can NOT use a partner to stabilize you. You will feel every instance of your own instability everywhere in every piece of this motion. Further you can not RELY on what you see in the mirror. You will only see bits and pieces of the motion. It’s for this reason you must video everything you’re doing for playback and feedback. You must also be INSANELY RELIGIOUS about doing this work. You can not falter, you can not waver. Ever.
“But No One Dances Like That!”
Correct. No one should dance like that. And you won’t—on a social dance floor.
But here’s what you need to understand:
a.) The exercise is setting up other things.
b.) It’s training you in the extreme so that the minimal becomes second nature.
c.) It’s building control you probably don’t have (yet).
d.) It’s a full-body isolation drill for balance, control, and proprioception.
Who Should Do This?
Short answer: Everyone. Especially experienced dancers.
But they usually don’t. Why?
1. They think they’re above this kind of thing.
2. They see a barefoot man demonstrating a Follower exercise and immediately check out.
3. They assume I couldn’t possibly have anything useful to say about Follower technique.
They’re wrong. But that’s their loss. If you’re reading this and doing the work, your gain.
Why This Exercise Works (If You’re Honest)
This drill will only help you if you’re brutally honest about what’s happening in your body. If you’re not? It’s a waste of time.
What you’ll start to notice (and this is where the frustration sets in):
You don’t actually extend cleanly.
You bend your knees too much.
Your extension is inconsistent and visually messy.
You wobble. A lot.
You can’t walk in a straight line backward without support.
And here’s the kicker—if you’re wobbling alone, just imagine what you’re doing in the embrace. If you’re relying on the Lead to keep you upright, that’s a problem. No one wants to be a crutch. If the roles were reversed, you wouldn’t like it either. So let’s stop pretending otherwise.
This exercise rebuilds your stability from the ground up. No partner required. No excuses allowed.
Barefoot? Really?
Yes. And yes, I know: for some people, the moment they see I’m barefoot in the video, they stop listening.
Here’s why I’m barefoot:
Shoes compensate. They cover up flaws. They stabilize things for you. That’s not what we want. We want you to feel the floor. Really feel it. Direct contact. Raw data. No buffers. Only then can you train the real systems that keep you balanced and grounded.
Eventually, we’ll do this work in heels. But only after you’ve built the tendon strength, control, and precision to manage them. Then the heels don’t control you—you control them!
Heels Are Sexy, But…
Let’s be honest: heels are gorgeous. They’re sexy. But they’re also unstable torture devices. You’re balancing on the head of a pin. They wreck your joints, cartilage, circulation, and nerves (yes, that nerve behind the ball of your foot that goes numb after 90 minutes—that’s your plantar nerve, and it’s not happy with you).
And let’s not even talk about the Leads who drill their partners into the floor like jackhammers. It’s not helping. You’re absorbing all of it. In bad shoes. With no training. No strength. Just endurance. And endurance is not the same as training. It’s just pain management.
That’s why we start in socks or bare feet. You’ll thank me later.
Final Note
The “heel work” phase of this training was never posted on this site. It’s something I only ever taught in person during intensives. And maybe one day I’ll share it. But for now, if you want to get there—you start here.
Do the work. Barefoot. With precision. With brutal honesty.
The rest will come.
The Follower’s Exercise: One Exercise to Rule Them All.
1.) The Turn Out Factor!
2.) Leg Extensions (Part 1)
3.) The Straight Line on the Floor!
4.) The Pigeon Toed Feeling.
5.) The Weight Transfer.
6.) Opposition Explained.
7.) Extreme Opposition Used.
8.) Homo-Lateral Movement.
9.) The Long Extension (Part 2)
10.) The Knee Bend (Compression).
11.) The Little Lean We Don’t Want.
12.) Your Body Wavers.
13.) The Isolation Technique/Ballet Rises
14.) The Eleven Reminders.
15.) The Actual Exercise (seen above).
16.) The Leg/Foot Reminders.
17.) The Checklist.
These are the 17 topics that are covered in this extensive article that goes over every aspect of this very important exercise and then some. It’s a full treatise on how to extend one’s leg…as a Follower. Everywhere!
