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.