I was helping a former student on an outside shoot today and around us were four other groups on their own shoots. This girl was one of two ballet dancers striking poses for the class awaiting her next session.
If there's no wood there, then there is nothing for her to lean against, therefore there is no sense of relaxation, and thus no shot...there has to be a counterbalance to the other wood and a way to confine her so she's not just a floating body. For me, it doesn't kill the shot, it makes the shot work.