Is this just a natural part of a lead's journey? How do I take it to the next level?
So I've been dancing consistently for 6 months. In my dances so far I feel comfortable maintaining a good posture with hip movement, trying a decent variety of simple patterns and some more complex salsa-style moves, a few sensual movements, and some footwork variations; I often get complimented on the quality of my leading and get asked for dances a decent amount. Suffice it to say it's been quite enjoyable and I've felt super confident for a while.
In places I frequent regularly though, there are at least a couple of follows who are amazing dancers, definitely further along their bachata journey than I am and who used to enjoy dancing with me. But of late, I can sense they're avoiding me to the point that this weekend they won't even look my way to say hi. Obviously nobody owes me anything, but it does make me really question myself. And from what I observe among the best dancers at my place, I think my sense of musicality and range of sensual/closed-position movements could use improvement; I'm guessing my lack of anticipation of shifts in the music and my bachata-moderna-heavy style may make the dance feel homogeneous? I've been listening to lots of music, recognizing the 4 or 8 sets of 8 counts to anticipate changes, etc. but jeez looking at how effortlessly some dancers do it makes me feel a million miles away from where I'd like to be.
In any case, I start residency soon and my current free time is about to dry up real quick. For a structured/methodical person like me, is there a sustainable and systematic process I can follow to get better at musicality and sensual in the coming months? Any tips on stuff I can practice for this for say like 10 mins a day or a couple of socials per month. Really don't wanna be stuck here forever 😞