Re: Dance Venue Differences (was: Off-topic trolling)

Date: 5 Jun 2003 20:00:17 EDT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.dance
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In article <bbkbqo$1osdgm$email-address-deleted>, email-address-deleted (Jon Leech) writes:
>
> Sure, in the sense that if you go someplace where people are there
> mostly to drink booze and hit on other people, dance etiquette is going
> to be poorer than if you go someplace where people are there to dance.
>
There's a lot of "Dances-good, Barroom, bad" stuff here. It isn't
that simple, IMO.
I've seen swing dancers try to take up a full 6' X 4' space for a
Lindy Hop swingout in a bar where couples on the floor usually took
up cozy 30" circles. I've had swing dancers refuse to do less
than 8" rock backs when one inch would be fine.
I've seen ballroom dancers try to move around a barroom with
the mans right ahnd and woman's left at eye level, elbows in
"prepare to ram" position, and a RiGhTeOuS how-dare-they-block-
line-of-direction look in the leader's eye.
I mean, even at a dance event, to stay rigidly to only what
you learned in class is not good dancing. In a bar room,
it's rude.
In close couple dancing in a bar, collisions are usually limited to
"bum brushes," not the upper bodies and elbows when dance community
people take to the floor.
I've gone with swing dancers to late night latin in a bar room. One
where you could watch singles become couples right in front of your
very eyes. The guy who sweeps under the tables at closing throws
out underwear, y'know?
And a swing dancer gets all indignant because someone she danced
with a few times "hit on" her and she makes a scene.
Well, maybe the person being inappropriate was not the
guy who tried to court her.
In various non-dance activities I've done- chess, play music, hike,
etc- it is very easy to make friends. In swing dance (and I think
in ballroom) a guy can dance dozens of times with a woman and then
have her respond very negatively to any friendly conversation (even
non-courtship) "we're just dance partners, not friends". It doesn't
usually happen like that in a bar.
There is a deliberate social repressedness in the dance community.
This is not the same as "good manners" although one might seen how
the two can be mistaken.
Barrooms aren't great places. Drunkenness and all that goes
with it is sometimes very ugly. But it isn't all
that black and white. The dance community has problems
too.
So yes, there are trmendous differences between social behaviors
at different dance venues.
Michael Young
Pittsburgh, PA