Nice article, though mostly aimed at partner dancing.
For solo dancing (e.g. in some clubs where a dance-targeted event is happening) there is at times a frustrating lack of awareness as the boozers wander round aimlessly, "dancing" ironically and obliviously spilling drinks and banging into people who are there to actually, you know, dance.
I'm not talking about nights where its a bog-standard drunken meat-market and obviously its up to the event organisers to set the parameters for the night, but part of the reason for the decline of dance culture in some parts of the world (e.g. the UK) is a contempt for dancers, and priority given to packing them in.
Those non-partner-dance events where dance culture and etiquette is still respected are incredibly rare.
In the lindy hop community, there has been a very strong pushback on the "don't say no to a dance" sentiment that was inherited from ballroom communities and is advocated in the featured article.
There's some tension there between making the scene inclusive and keeping people comfortable. I do think it's important to encourage people to dance with newcomers, but there's also the fact that it is -work- to dance with a newbie. I'm still forming my thoughts on the matter but currently I encourage all the leaders of my (admittedly small) scene to dance with newcomers when they have the energy to do so.
The best dancer I have laid eyes on in my entire life was at a goth club. This guy was so good he actually made his partners look like they knew what they were doing, flawlessly adapting to their little mistakes. It was astonishing. You would see them with someone else and they were a mess, but this guy just ... blended everything without a seam. It took effort not to gawp at this guy because you rarely get to see someone who is a complete master at something in the wild. I've been to ballet and he made most of the performers I have seen on stage look like palsied bears by comparison. How much work and energy does it take to get to that level?
It's a bit like how impressive the dance scene is in Ex Machina (from a Watsonian, not Doylist, perspective): you realize that this gynoid is capable of watching this guy out of the corner of its eye and matching his every doubtlessly unplanned mildly inebriated move, as Nathan is probably a guy who leads when he dances, not follows.
> I do think it's important to encourage people to dance with newcomers, but there's also the fact that it is -work- to dance with a newbie.
It's WAY more work for the newcomer. Even at an intermediate level, you are already running on a lot of habitual programming while the newcomer is processing the universe.
However, this also splits based upon lead vs follow.
Expert leaders have a fairly easy time with amateur followers. The lead can dial things down until the follower can cope. The follower can't force something on a leader.
Expert followers have a much more difficult time. The leader may very well need the follower to help but the ability to help well is a very rare skill. In addition, too many intermediate followers think they are better than they are. There is also the issue that dancing with an expert follower is like driving a super responsive sports car, you, as a leader, will find out just how sloppy and crappy your control really is.
To top it off, followers can get injured by amateur leaders. The swing community is especially bad for this. Even if we exclude idiotic people doing acobatic-type maneuvers that they shouldn't be doing, the pace of the dancing combines with adrenaline so that you can put far too much force in your lead as an amateur. A simple behind the back exchange can injure someone's shoulder when executed incorrectly.
As for the social dimension, if your group is well-balanced between leaders and followers, amateur leaders tend to get ignored. This isn't a problem if you have an excess of followers, but, if you have an excess of followers, your community is probably going to collapse shortly.
Years ago I read a blog post that I found good: it recommended that advanced dancers ask new dancers (especially one who are there for the first time) within the first hour of the dance.
After that they can focus on partners on their own level.
(Obviously you can't make that mandatory – it's a voluntary thing you decide for yourself)
The newbies are less hesitant when they don't know yet that their dance partner is very good. They have a good time. And when they see their dance partner from earlier do really cool and advanced moves they feel that the scene is welcoming ("such a good dancer actually asked me to dance").
I agree! It's important for advanced dancers to ask newcomers to dance for all of these reasons. I also acknowledge that dancing with a beginner can be difficult and at times dangerous if they are overenthusiastic or have unsafe technique, and not all advanced dancers have the energy to meet that in a safe way.
I went to a Cajun dance with my wife once. We were both new to it. She was asked to dance for most dances. I was never asked. I guess women simply didn't ask men in this venue. I certainly wasn't going to ask anyone to dance and subject them to my two left feet. My wife felt bad about it so we never went back.
Yup! The West Coast Swing community went though the same thing fairly recently. E.g. "No is a complete sentence". The social dance scene has traditionally been a place where unsavory behavior can go undetected/unchallenged, due to the social pressure of not being rude.
Even if you don't have unsavory characters, many people unintentionally tie their self-validation to getting accepted for dances on the dance floor, which can create a lot of angst. Managing expectations is a huge part of introducing people to social dance, since it's so different to the outside world.
> Milongas: (Argentine Tango) For both ladies and gentlemen, black or dark themes are preferred.
As someone who has been dancing tango for a decade, around the globe, including lots in Argentina, I can only say that this pure and utter BS.
EDIT: After reading the rest of this: it seems to be written from the perspective of a ballroom dancer.
Just for example, in tango you never walk up to a person and verbally ask for a dance. It's an absolute no-no. Contract is negotiated by eye contact/face only. Only exceptions are people that you know to like dancing with you already and who stand right next to you.
Same with declining. A no is a no. No weird requirement to offer a different dance later; to 'compensate'.
> Gentlemen: if you have no place to leave your keys and loose change, carry them in the left pocket of your trousers. This makes it less likely to bruise your partner.
For those with less context into social dancing, this is because the typical default "stance" is offset to avoid stepping on each other's feet - each partner's right foot is roughly aligned with their partner's midline.
> For those with less context into social dancing, this is because the typical default "stance" is offset to avoid stepping on each other's feet - each partner's right foot is roughly aligned with their partner's midline.
I presume that is in ballroom.
For Latin, Tango and Swing which are all mentioned: Simply not true. Your hips are so far apart that it doesn't matter.
That being said: you ideally have a key/change pocket in your pants. Or even better, a beltline interior pocket. The latter is where I keep my keys when dancing tango. On the right side btw. You can't tell from the outside.
These pockets are sadly not available in off-the-shelf clothing any more since maybe around the 1940's.
The reason is twofold: you won't feel your keys/change as much and from the outside you wont have anything ruining your leg's silhouette. Left or right. :-P
I'm not sure which Latin dances you're thinking of but I can think of a bunch of instances in salsa where objects in my right pocket would get in the way. Definitely in bachata, and kizomba if one considers that a Latin dance.
Also depends on what "Swing" you're referring to, but even in Lindy Hop I would say I my right hip is close to my partner frequently enough that this would be an issue, in partnered Charleston and various Shags there is regular side-by-side connection (connected on the right side for the lead), and Balboa is danced in an offset close embrace position where your hips, while not necessarily in direct contact, will often brush against each other simply due to proximity.
> For Latin, Tango and Swing which are all mentioned: Simply not true. Your hips are so far apart that it doesn't matter.
Many Swing dances (and including the most popular one, Lindy Hop) have a closed position.
In Balboa you're generally so close that there is contact at least from the side of the hips to the side of the chest, in more advanced levels often extended up to the cheeks.
Yeah the offset is used for "closed position" in ballroom, though my personal exposure is through vernacular social dances that borrow dance vocabulary from proper ballroom dances.
> Exercising common sense and social skills is always a good idea. If someone is sitting closely with their significant other, whispering sweet nothings to each other, then it is probably not a good time to ask either of them for a dance. Now a different scenario: your intended partner is cornered by a bore and being lectured on weather patterns in lower Namibia. You can advance and stand close. Once your intended partner makes eye contact with you, smile and say: ``Dance?'' Usually, that is enough to do the job. If not, it is better to leave him/her to learn about weather patterns in lower Namibia.
I love this :)
(And by "this", I also mean the whole article. It is great ...)
For solo dancing (e.g. in some clubs where a dance-targeted event is happening) there is at times a frustrating lack of awareness as the boozers wander round aimlessly, "dancing" ironically and obliviously spilling drinks and banging into people who are there to actually, you know, dance.
I'm not talking about nights where its a bog-standard drunken meat-market and obviously its up to the event organisers to set the parameters for the night, but part of the reason for the decline of dance culture in some parts of the world (e.g. the UK) is a contempt for dancers, and priority given to packing them in.
Those non-partner-dance events where dance culture and etiquette is still respected are incredibly rare.