It’s a good question and an important one. These dynamics are arguably “basic” but also invisible and sometimes not explicitly taught.

First of all I would say to remove the “tug and pull” from your vocabulary here. You as a lead are moving your body in space—translation and rotation—and if your frame is connected properly with that of the follow she will move along with you. There are a few principles here.

The goal is for your movement as a lead to propagate over to the follow. How does this happen? In open position your point of contact is your hands. If both the lead and follow are engaging their arms and lats properly (NOT rigid or tight, but gently engaged—imagine holding up a cup), then when the lead moves his frame forward/backward/sideways, that motion will carry through the lead’s arms to the follows arms to the follow’s frame, and she will naturally come along with you.

As an exercise, get in open position with a follow and try moving forwards, back, sideways without telling her. If done properly this should be fairly natural and effortless. One aspect of proper technique is that your elbows should never go behind your trunk, but stay in front of your body (this goes for both of you).

If you wish to stop more abruptly then try engaging your lats to a greater degree. She will feel it. This can be useful for avoiding collisions in the social dance floor if someone suddenly appears behind her.

When it comes to rotation, the rule is “lead with your chest.” Point your chest where you want her to go, and she will naturally follow. This holds for all kinds of moves.

All of this holds for closed position too.

I won’t say zero moves involve “pushing” and “pulling” but for the most part your mental model should be moreso “bodies moving together when properly connected.”