Confusion (Part 3)

As discussed in the previous post on this subject, it is a shame that even in modern times it is so uncommon for men to dance as followers or women to dance as leaders that most people will never attempt to learn a non-traditional role. Even though there must be plenty of men who would actually prefer following and plenty of women who would prefer leading they are simply denied the chance to do so by most dance schools not even acknowledging this option. The few isolated courageous people who give this a go despite hardly anyone else doing this usually have to ask their dance teachers whether “it is allowed” to switch roles and I have seen many schools deny this categorically. In fact, some of my own students who have moved to different cities have sometimes stopped dancing salsa altogether as the schools they joined subsequently made them stick to their traditionally assigned roles rather than letting them learn the role they wanted.

At least in some of the Western countries I have danced in, there seems to be an increasing acceptance of women leading other women and especially in the salsa community this is something I come across much more frequently than when I started dancing. However, rather than this being a major improvement in dance attitude it is often simply a factor of there being a lot more women in dance classes than men. So rather than two women dancing together being a symbol for greater openness it is often a symbol of a “men don’t dance” type of attitude that is unfortunately still a mentality issue in various regions. I.e. Often women simply get fed up with having to wait forever until they receive a partner so they bite the bullet and start leading rather than making this decisions consciously to learn how to lead. It is therefore not completely uncommon for a class with say 13 women and 4 men to see one or two women leading. However, it is nearly impossible to find this in a dance class where the gender ratio is fairly balanced. Moreover, while women may lead other women it is very rare to see women leading men or men leading other men as the social stigma around masculinity seems to be even more prohibitive for men to try out following.

In summary, this type of attitude leads to most dancers never experiencing the other role even if they might enjoy it more and despite the fact that learning both roles would almost certainly improve every aspect of their dance.
The move confusion changes this attitude significantly and makes both men and women want to learn how to lead and follow irrespective of the gender of the partner they are dancing with.

Confusion (Part 2)

One of the aspects of dancing that sometimes seems surprising to new beginners is the fact that at least in the beginning stages most people find leading more difficult than following. This has nothing to do with gender and is maybe an unfair statement when analysing very advanced forms of any dance where the styling and musicality elements of following can be just as hard if not harder than leading. Nonetheless, most people would agree that in the beginning stages there are simply more factors happening at the same time for leaders which usually makes it more difficult to be picked up irrespective of whether this role is being learned by a man or a woman.

This would not be an issue per se if everyone accepted this from the beginning and both men and women were happy to go into a new dance class and learn both roles. However, what makes the role division problematic is the fact that internationally most women want to learn how to follow and most men want to learn how to lead. This is not because they have made a conscious choice that leading or following looks or feels better to them or that they want to learn a certain role for a specific reason. Rather, it is usually an unconscious decision based on the culture that surrounds them. I.e. if you never see a man following and a woman leading when you watch people dance on TV or at any social gatherings then you may not even realise that you have this choice when you want to pick up a new dance. Taking this one step further, there should be absolutely no reason why two men or two women cannot dance together but it is rare to find examples of either.

In my opinion this is a fundamentally flawed approach to partner dancing in general and makes aspects of dancing sexist and homophobic which is deeply shameful considering how much almost everyone who tries out both roles enjoys them as completely separate forms of dancing something that is virtually inaccessible to most dancers due to social stigmas dictating the way they are supposed to enjoy their hobby.

On the other hand, the move confusion changes this attitude entirely and suddenly makes it socially acceptable for men to dance as followers and women to dance as leaders as it makes everyone switch roles at the same time. Particularly, within a Rueda it immediately removes anyone’s worry that they will be looked at in a funny way or judged by the other dancers in the room as everyone within the Rueda is in the same position. This to me is one of the nicest side effects of this move. It is not only an incredibly fun way of spicing up your dance and a difficult and rare skill for dancers to switch from one role to another but it allows people to try out another role that they would usually not feel comfortable with.