is it true that there are fewer male dancers than female ones

I'm

  • Total voters
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opendoor said:
oh, that would mean that tango is more kind of an elderly and wcs is more kind of a young dance, as well?
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I wouldn't want to say "elderly". On average, though, I'd say that tango gets an older crowd, though I see a few younger dancers here and there. WCS gets a very wide range of ages - everywhere from teenage to over 65.
 
Warren J. Dew said:
Either that, or west coast swing is for elderly singles.
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;)
I assume you're joking here, but anyway, I wouldn't say there's huge singles contingent among older WCS dancers. Probably about half come as couples.

The difference is that most WCS couples mingle much more than tango or ballroom couples, on average. So a WCS class or dance is more likely to have some men available to dance with the single ladies. It's really rare to see a WCS couple dancing exclusively or mostly with each other, whereas that seems to happen often in ballroom or AT.
 
jennyisdancing said:
;)
I assume you're joking here, but anyway, I wouldn't say there's huge singles contingent among older WCS dancers. Probably about half come as couples.
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Mostly I was pointing out that mingling or being single wasn't the same as being young. 50% singles among the older folks is still pretty substantial.

It is true, though, that around here, the west coast swing folks, while not necessarily "elderly", tend to be older than the tangueros by a decade or so. Both are substantially older than most of the ballroom crowd or the salsa crowd, though ballroom has a pretty big age range.

Your assessment of how much mixing each community has is consistent with what I've observed.
 
Warren J. Dew said:
Mostly I was pointing out that mingling or being single wasn't the same as being young. 50% singles among the older folks is still pretty substantial.

It is true, though, that around here, the west coast swing folks, while not necessarily "elderly", tend to be older than the tangueros by a decade or so. Both are substantially older than most of the ballroom crowd or the salsa crowd, though ballroom has a pretty big age range.

Your assessment of how much mixing each community has is consistent with what I've observed.
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Interesting...in my area, average ages break down this way (ranked oldest to youngest)

Ballroom
Argentine Tango
West Coast Swing
Salsa
Lindy

So, with ballroom and AT, you have a combination of older average age, plus demographically fewer men in that age group to begin with, plus the perception that ballroom and AT are more "couples" type of dances, thus the perfect storm for a big surplus of followers.

On the other end, salsa and Lindy get a lot of young people, and more men, but sometimes the younger and older dancers don't mix very much. WCS overall seems to get a good balance of age range, demographics and social interaction. Yet it is probably the least known and least popular of the dance forms I listed. :(
 
I note that the poll results show slightly more male dancers. I wonder how to reconcile that with the general perception that there are more women dancing.
 
Warren J. Dew said:
I note that the poll results show slightly more male dancers. I wonder how to reconcile that with the general perception that there are more women dancing.
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The poll reflects those who are dancers, have a computer, have an internet connection and found the forum ;)
 
Re: Interesting

jennyisdancing said:
...in my area, average ages break down this way (ranked oldest to youngest)

Ballroom
Argentine Tango
West Coast Swing
Salsa
Lindy
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Apart from the fact that there is no namable WCS scene in Hamburg, I come to this age ranking (oldest to youngest):

DiscoFox (=kind of Hustle)
TA
BR
Salsa
Lindy

But, the tango scene is splitted: within the independent milonga scene (with the surplus of men) singles prevail. The class and studio-bound scene is much younger, and couples prevail. DiscoFox is the most "elderly" dance because besides the Hustle-orientated wing there is a fluent passage to a more country and folk like dancing on the other hand, comparable to what I believe your american 2step serves for.
 
Hamburg sounds great :-) It also helps that I grew up there, some <ahem> years ago. How would I best track AT events there, is there an event calendar?
 
Here in the Phoenix area I have never been to ballroom dance lessons where there were more women than men. My observation covers different days of the week and different studios. Once the dances begin there are plenty of men but the women tend to only dance with the men who are good leads.

At certain night clubs there are definitely women waiting around looking to dance but not the ballrooms.

It's important to note that I have only been taking lessons for a couple of months so things may have been different in the past.

So, I think the more accurate statement is that there is a shortage of men that women want to dance with because there most men don't meet their expectations of being good leads.
 
fascination said:
I don't see that...I generally accept from anyone who asks as i think is the case for most women
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Agreed....and for what it's worth, sure, there are few (not most) women who will only dance with excellent partners...but I have equally seen this with some of the men. I know of a couple venues where there is a decent number of men, but some of those men choose to sit around most of the time waiting to dance with the top two or three ladies, and they won't ask beginner or intermediate ladies to dance. Not surprisingly, those places have an unfriendly atmosphere and I tend to avoid them.

By contrast, one of my local venues is very friendly. There were a few beginners and they were warmly welcomed by the hosts, and some of the experienced folks asked them to dance. That was so nice. :D
 
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