[Tango-L] yale tango, male followers

[Yale Tango Club]

Hi Martin
  Our more experienced guys also occasionally dance with each other and we don't think anything of it. The beginners usually don't, it takes some getting to know the rest of the crowd. Also nobody gets put on the spot, meaning people wouldn't ask unless they knew it was OK.
  Those guys also sometimes ask me, when an accomplished male dancer wanders into our community, if I think the visitor would be weirded out if they asked him to lead them. They are interested in experiencing an advanced lead, and picking up some good ideas. These guys are our best dancers and they are very popular with the girls judging from the fact that they often end up dating them.
Not everybody does it and it doesn't happen every week. The reason is for skill and fun and novelty, or to show a move, not because of gender imbalance or a sexual agenda. We don't have a gender imbalance overall. And from what I can tell, in general  tango attracts guys who want to dance with girls and girls who want to dance with guys. It's no different here and we spend the vast majority of our time doing just that. I'm not worried things will become a gender-neutral free-for-all.
  Tine


"Nussbaum, Martin" <mnussbau at law.nyc.gov> wrote:  Tine, I decided to post only a part of my correspondance, hope you dont
mind. :). 

The posts about the Yale Tango Club reflect an inequality in this culture.
The women in your club feel comfortable dancing with each other, and the men
expressed a willingness to be led by the women, rather than sit out and
watch. Big Deal. How would the women at your club feel if there were no
"gay" stigma attached to two men dancing together, and the men were secure
enough in their sexual orientation not to fear dancing with other men, and
they found it fun, and started to do it more often, and the women are now
sitting on the sideline or forced to dance with each other more than they
like? 
In other cultures, (straight) men will hug their male friends, kiss on the
cheek in greeting. You dont see that too often in the USA. You also infer
how the men in your club even enjoyed watching two women dancing, before
they got bored sitting out. It is more rare to see two men dancing
together in NYC milonga than two women, but when it happens, the women use
negative stereotypical slurs, I never hear them say, "wow, thats hot, two
guys dancing together", even if they know the men are hetero. Incidentally,
one of the most amazingly precise musicality nuevo performances I ever saw
was Alex Krebs in DC dancing with a man, I forgot his name. What will you
women do if more men realize that nuevo can become an athletic sport, like a
martial art, that men will prefer to do with other men for the physical
challenge ? 

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