Out of circulation - group dance rotation problems

[RickRS]

Well, it was bound to happen! The wife is staking her claim on me for permanent partner in our group class. The other ladies can find their own, we're out of the rotation.

Background - my wife and I started a beginners group dance class 4 1/2 months ago. Its done as a series of dance, changing every 2 months. Started with NC2, then WCS, and now 2-Step. As in any beginner group dance, there are more women than men. To balance it out, the instructor does the class rotation, and sometimes the dancers from the intermidiate class show early and dance lead for the unattached ladies. On some nights the ladies have an open slot every third dance.

The wife has been grumbling about setup. There is the usual; some ladies jumping the open slot and pushing ahead to grab a partner away from another lady, and some ladies skipping a male because they don't want to dance with him, again taking a dance away from another lady. I have not noticed this going on next to me, but did have ladies coming around the rotation mysteriously moving up their position in the group.

About 2 1/2 months into the class, one of the ladies that came as a couple, and had just join 2 weeks ago at the start of the second dance, announced she wasn't going to rotate and danced the next two classes with her partner only. That, of course, cut into the available leads and forced the ladies to wait more. Apparently they weren't a real couple (the guy had told my wife he just came because she asked him to, not that he was her boyfriend as assumed), so later they started rotating again. But a second couple, actual husband and wife, decided they were not going to rotate anymore and have been dancing together for over a month and intend to do so forever.

Last week, the class start with a perfect balance, but then late-comers jumped in and my wife got the open slot again. And with 2-step, an orderly rotation is messy, as couples have moved in relationship to other because of difference in travel speed around the floor. So I think the wife got stuck with the open slot more than she believe she should of. Long story short: the wife was upset I didn't abandon my spot and whatever lady that wound up with me on that rotation and cross over the floor to her rescue. So, no more rotation.

I'm ok with that, as dancing with the wife was the whole point, but it serves as a warning: If instructors don't pay attention to the situation, group classes can start to breakdown with something like this. I intend to talk to the instructor about this, but how do you resolve something like this? I do recognize the fairness that rotation was intended to serve, so I was fine with rotating partners, but when it breaks down what do you do?

 

[fascination]

I have no problem with couples not rotating as long as they are postioned far enough away from the group at the very outset so that it is clear....but it is unfortunate given that part of the group experience is to experience different partners...I do have a problem with people who rotate selectively...if there is someone that people find so offensive that they would single them out to bypass, IMO, they should take that issue to the owner, but to bypass, IMO is just rude.....

 

[waltzgirl]

All of the teachers I take group lessons from are very strict about rotation. They explain the system and monitor it. They will stop the class and re-organize if things get messy. If it's a traveling dance, they make the man responsible for knowing who to send his lady to, so it doesn't matter if the rotation gets out of order. The lady just goes to her next partner wherever he is on the floor. One teacher even made numbers for the men to wear once when a class kept getting disorganized.

I've never seen anyone refuse to dance with anyone and only once saw a woman try to skip her turn out of the rotation.

 

[RickRS]

I agree, it is rude to dismiss and skip someone in the group rotation.

My wife has not refused to dance with those guys that some of the women are avoiding, and apparently the ladies that are agressive about both skipping over the open slots and avoiding certain leads are avoiding them because those men aren't dancing that well. For my part, there are certain women that aren't dancing that well, either, but I dance with whomever is up next in the rotation.

 

[RickRS]

I've never seen anyone refuse to dance with anyone and only once saw a woman try to skip her turn out of the rotation.

It seen to be as simple as the lady preventing she didn't notice the next male and skipping over. We are in a big circle, so timing it right, one can pull it out without much fuss. A simple mistake if anyone protested. Of course when the same lady skips the same guy every class .

The only guy my wife THOUGHT of skipping was one of the "better" dancers from the next class who got very uptight and was starting to boss her around because she wasn't doing something in the steps the way he expected. Seems smart to avoid someone who's starting to get abusive. He hasn't been back, so the problem has solved itself.

I thought of tagging the dancers with numbers, as you mentioned, waltzgirl. We could joke that we're training for competition. Maybe some of us are!

 

[jwlinson]

I must be missing something. Every rotation I've ever been a part of has went rather smoothly. There's the occasional few who don't want to rotate, but that's fine by me as long as they tell the person standing there waiting to change partners they aren't rotating.

 

[samina]

so rude to skip rotation. i don't even like the idea of some not participating in the class rotation if the overall class is rotating... i took a standard group class where partners did NOT rotate, but that was the way the class was set up.

for classes using rotation as part of the teaching technique, if it were me, i'd step in and inform the lady repeatedly holding her partner hostage it's time to move on... my turn. that's just me. one can be nice about it... but, things are what they are.

 

[danceronice]

What waltzgirl said, though they've never resorted to numbers. I think at a party class or two I've maybe seen a couple who came late or were a little unsure who stayed back out of the way, but skipping isn't tolerated. Sometimes we all screw up the rotation, but that's just because we're confused.