Dancers who smoke

[DanceMentor]

I've met some very talented dancers who smoke. I smoked for over 10 years, but I've not smoked going on 4 years now. It seems like professional dancers smoke more than the general populaton. What's up with that?

[Vince A]

Most of the Pros that I see smoking can always be found in a bar . . . a correlation you think???

[Danish Guy]

Maybe there is a point.

Anyway, I’m les likely to ask a lady for a dance, if she has a lighted cigarette in her hand.

[SwinginBoo]

Smoking is really hard for all people involved..the smoker and the partner of the smoker. My boyfriend used to smoke and he didn't understand why I didn't want to be near him after he just had a cigarette. But it's really disgusting to get in close to someone who smells like an ashtray (no offense to those member who smoke). Luckily he has quit. I can't even imagine dancing with him like that.

I haven't noticed that many dancers here who smoke though...it's probably just a local thing.

[Phil Owl]

SwinginBoo wrote: Smoking is really hard for all people involved..the smoker and the partner of the smoker. My boyfriend used to smoke and he didn't understand why I didn't want to be near him after he just had a cigarette. But it's really disgusting to get in close to someone who smells like an ashtray (no offense to those member who smoke). Luckily he has quit. I can't even imagine dancing with him like that.

I haven't noticed that many dancers here who smoke though...it's probably just a local thing.

I'm with you on this one totally SwinginBoo! I get repelled by that "Ashtray Aura" too, YIKES! :shock: I actually remember having this conversation with a lady I had just did some WCS and Hustle with, then all of a sudden she excuses herself to grab a smoke. Boy was I surprised!

It mystifies me how or why anyone, much less a dancer would do that to themselves, especially knowing now that cigarettes contain close to 400 different kinds of toxic chemicals in them in trace amounts, (but it sure adds up!) and knowing what it does to your heart and lungs as well.

Turning rant switch off now.

[SDsalsaguy]

One comment....
YUCK!

[Spitfire]

Here there are very few smokers among fellow dancers.

[will35]

I don't really mind smokers. One of the stupidest things I ever saw, though, was a still from a Doug Fairbanks movie called The Gaucho. He was in complete gaucho dress with spurs, dancing what looked like a Tango with (I think) Mary Pickford. That was not so silly, but the worst is that he had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, taconeando. What a silly, Hollywood, tilingo show. Of course, maybe they danced that way a long time ago. I don't know.

[Spitfire]

I don't really mind smokers. One of the stupidest things I ever saw, though, was a still from a Doug Fairbanks movie called The Gaucho. He was in complete gaucho dress with spurs, dancing what looked like a Tango with (I think) Mary Pickford. That was not so silly, but the worst is that he had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, taconeando. What a silly, Hollywood, tilingo show. Of course, maybe they danced that way a long time ago. I don't know.

And even in a bar I've never seen anyone dance with a cigarette in their mouth.

[Swing Kitten]

that's just dangerous... and gross

[Sagitta]

Rarely went to clubs because of the smoking. NY state passed laws forbidding any smoking in clubs that went into effect this year, and so social dancing at clubs is in.

I wouldn't dance with a person with overpowering breath problems. The smell of smokers breath turns me off the same -- no offense intended to all you smokers out there. Enjoy your smokes, but don't come to close to me...

[pygmalion]

I know very few people who smoke, period. Dancers included. The one guy I know who does smoke totally surprises me -- not only is he a darn good dancer, but he's also a physician, and a heavy smoker. Man oh man. You should see him after a Viennese waltz. It's awful. Huffing and puffing. You'd think he, of all people, wouldn't do that.


Here's my thing. If you need or want to smoke, go do it. I'm strictly a live and let live person. Just please make sure that you don't smell like smoke when you come back inside from your smoke break. That's all I ask. :?

[will35]

It is nearly impossible to get the smell of smoke out of clothes. A smoker cannot just make it disappear after a break outside. It does not really bother me much. I have gotten used to it. I used to smoke myself, but I never really got addicted to it. I smoked a pack a day for about a year, because all around me everybody else smoked. Then, I moved and quit. I don't even mind smoke in the dance area, but I've never seen anybody actually smoke and dance at once.

[NeoDevin]

My dad has smoked like a chimney my whole life, so while I was living with him, I never could even notice the smell, barely noticed it even if smoke was blown at me. Since I've moved out, I can smell it for around half an hour after someone has a smoke. I won't ask someone to dance who smells like smoke. A lady was sitting alone at a dance, I was walking up to her to ask her to dance, then I smelled it, so I just turned around, and went to find someone else. She was shocked and probably offended, but that's her problem not mine. As for dancers who smoke, I've noticed it a lot more in the older population (40+) whom I imagine started smoking long before they started dancing. I only know one dancer around my age who smokes, so I make it a point to avoid her whenever she comes in from a smoke break.

[pygmalion]

I actually feel bad for the dancers who smoke. At least in the US, they've been banished from most public buildings, and they look so forlorn huddled outside in groups for smoke breaks.

I still don't enjoy dancing with them,though, especially after a smoke break.

[SDsalsaguy]

I actually feel bad for the dancers who smoke. At least in the US, they've been banished from most public buildings, and they look so forlorn huddled outside in groups for smoke breaks.

Poor little smokers who aren't allowed to poison innocent bystanders anymore??? :shock: :lol:

[HothouseSalsero]

In backward Philadelphia you can still smoke in clubs to your heart's content. I already have more or less chronic sinus problems. I pay a price when I go out to clubs.

Professional dancers do seem to smoke heavily. My teachers, who both performed with respected dance troupes in the past (jazz and ballet), both smoke. There is a dance troupe located in an area of Center City that I frequently pass through. Those dancers frequently are outside smoking (including the head of the troupe).

Given the emphasis that professional dance places on being slender (or anorexic looking, in the case of ballet), dancers may be smoking cigarette as a form of weight control, or as something else to do while they are hungry. I think it's a fairly high-stress occupation, as well.

[pygmalion]

I actually feel bad for the dancers who smoke. At least in the US, they've been banished from most public buildings, and they look so forlorn huddled outside in groups for smoke breaks.

Poor little smokers who aren't allowed to poison innocent bystanders anymore??? :shock: :lol:

LOL! I didn't say that, ad didn't mean to imply it. I like my cleanair, thank you very much. But most of the smokers I know are thirty or forty-somethings with a ten or twenty year addiction. That's not easy to overcome.

And I would prefer to dance with non-smokers, if at all possible.

[Danish Guy]

Smokers are human beings too, just for a shorter period of time.

Treat them nice. (At least as long they show consideration). :wink:

[Swing Kitten]

:lol:

[pygmalion]

Europe and the US are completely different when it comes to smoking. In the US, there are designated smoking areas. The last time I was in Europe (Spain), there were desgnated non-smoking areas, and only in fairly advanced businesses. I went to lunch in a cafeteria that had a plexiglassed-in non-smoking area, sort of like a fish bowl. The smoking area was everywhere else.

In the US, it seems to be the opposite, and smokers have a pretty hard way to go.

[Swing Kitten]

I'd rather eat in a fishbowl! ... it's good that it's an option

[DanceMentor]

I especially tend to smoke if I really dance up a sweat and then go outside on a cool night! :P

Or do you call that evaporation?

I used to smoke for a long time, but now I have no desire whatsoever. It's been almost four years since I quit. I can even go outside and hangout with people who are smoking, and it doesn't bother me.

[MadamSamba]

Eeeek, I'd take a really, really, really bad dancer over a smoking dancer any day...no offence to you smoking dancers out there, but the smell makes me physically ill.

I've danced with several smokers, but recall dancing with one particularl smoker a few months agao. It was gross. His hands reeked of tobacco and his breath...oooooooooooooohhh, it was so horridly smoky that I actually held my breath during the dance.

I nearly passed out and probably would have if it didn't mean I'd have to cling to his smoky body and hands even more tightly...hell, he might even have given me mouth-to-mouth...

:)

[SDsalsaguy]

OK MadamSamba, but now tell us how you really feel . . . :lol:

[brujo]

I've met some very talented dancers who smoke. I smoked for over 10 years, but I've not smoked going on 4 years now. It seems like professional dancers smoke more than the general populaton. What's up with that?

I think it's the same reason they become really talented dancers -> an addictive personality. 'Cause dancing is like shooting heroin, once you start, you can't stop.

[pygmalion]

Amen, brujo. It's really funny you should say that, because those are the thoughts I'm having today. I just left a dance teacher/coach, and am currently looking for a couple more.

So, for a fleeting moment, the idea crossed my mind that it would be easier to just quit. :shock: Eeek! I started with those withdrawal symptom shakes (what are they called? DT's?) like the addicts get. I definitely have to continue dancing. Either that, or take up using some controlled substance! LOL. :oops: :lol:

[pygmalion]

Warning: off topic.

And, btw, brujo, um :tongue: this is for those avatar cracks of yours. And we're FRATERNAL twins, so her scanning her own picture wouldn't help. Plus, I'm much cuter. LOL.


Anyway -- addictive personality. I think that's where we left off! :lol:

[MadamSamba]

Hey, SD!! Ok, I think I was quite restrained and suitably diplomatic... :wink: Besides, I was writing that at 4am so I was a tad, erm...emphatic in my response...

[SDsalsaguy]

No worries MadamSamba…and, truth be told, I agree whole-heartedly!

[dancersdreamland]

To me, smoking is just a turn off...stinky smell that sticks to you, your clothes, and the people around you. I couldn't imagine dancing with that smell.

No offense meant to the smokers of the Forum Family.

Way off comment...Brint it On is on the WB...I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!!! :D