...men?
Time and time again we hear about umpteen men to one lady. Umpteen followers having to move around in classes.
But why is this the case?
Is dancing viewed by outsiders as unmanly or something and so turns men off the idea?
Is it not advertised enough at men?
Why is there nearly always to many women?
Anyone got any theories?
(not that I see any of this as a problem for me though )
I can only talk about the few places I go e.g Berko and at present appears to be more men or at least even
Things like this go in cycles anyway
Windsor good case in point ive been there with 40 women over (a freebie) and when there was 40 men over (some football match re the men i think they all thought there wouldnt be any men there so all turned up !)
Weekenders now that tends to have permanent imbalance for reasons i never fully understood
Will be interesting to see how Francos come out re gender balance
Unmanly and harder, I'd personally expect more imbalance than there already is.
My theories about the lack of men are as follows:
- It is more difficult for the men to learn to lead so more are put off in the initial weeks
- Men tend to come with one friend or on their own - women come in bigger groups initially
- More women than men enjoy dancing for the sake of it
- A lot of women leave a partner at home to go dancing - I imagine this rarely happens the other way round?
I've tried to persuade male friends/housemates to come along to the ceroc classes in NI, I even tried the "there are loads of really cute girls" line, but no success as yet. I think a lot of men have a mental block and cannot imagine themselves dancing, therefore won't try it because since they can't visualise it it can't happen...
It's a good question. Took my wife 20 years to persuade me to come along and now I look back on all that lost time. Why did I resist for so long - don't know but it could have been to do with the fact that I never felt I was any good at dancing so was probably scared to try. That and the fact that a brief flirtation with ballroom several years earlier left me feeling that all dancing would bring was a bunch of people so far up their own ars**s telling me I was doing everything wrong (pretty much the feeling at that ballroom class).
I've tried to persuade my son to come give it a try and he's not interested. My [male] friends think I wear sequinned trousers and shirts slashed to the waist (I do of course but only for special occasions when I get my medallion out) and they laugh at the idea. A lot of the females are interested but we don't want to make the imbalance worse do we.
In the meantime I will try to dance with everyone that I can. Hey, it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it..................
Dancers generally are not into football
So if Man Utd play in a big Euro game you tend to get a lot more men at venues
Bit different for if England play
Last time at Fulham more men
Last time at Chesham about even
Last time Berko more men
Last time bicester about even
Is the lack of men more of a northern problem ?
maybe a thread or pole so we can get a nationwide survey ?
It never happens at Nantwich. Well once a year at most.
At Sandbach there was one man over at the start of the intermediate but that's a rare occasion. It soon went the other way though.
Up North, when there's too many men it's generally only 1 over and when there's too many women which is almost every time, there's stack loads over.
Though I did see 6 men over at Stockport once. Though I have also seen 20 women over at Stockport too.
The Jam House last night had almost equal Leaders and Followers. The Ladies were very pleased. Was there no footy on the telly?
I've noticed this too. The very rare occasions when there has been extra men its usually been a night when there has been a big match on.
I think the men all think that no men will be there so they make a point of coming (after setting the video of course!). Sometimes gets quieter earlier as they head home to watch the match after dancing instead.
I'd thought it was the women making the assumption that big footie match = no men at dance venue and so not bothering to turn up (or staying in to watch the footie themselves!).
Anyway, mostly it works. Have seen it backfire once this year when there were many women over one night at Clapham when the footie was on, but otherwise it's always been a good night for me - particularly last year when England were playing in the rugby. Had the best night at Chiswick ever - could not get off the dancefloor
Well, I have seen that has (unexpectedly) been the case (maybe women not going cos they think all the men will be watching the game?).
Except last Tuesday at Epsom....there were shedloads* of women over. The teacher suggested it was because of the football. (And it was a big nite for footy).
So - it's probaby more complicated than we think.
* Not sure of the collective noun for an excess of female dancers.
I have tried encouraging my friends to do it for exercise which is one of the major reasons I do it. To no avail. They still prefer the gym or the drinking bar and they just seem to feel there is nothing to interest them in dance. I do not think it is an issue of 'manliness', just disinterest.
I need a new venue on a Tuesday night at the moment so it looks like Epsom is the place to go. I find football match nights are bad because the women seem to give up on the grounds that the men will all be watching the television so we end up with a shortage of women!
btw - welcome to the forum Hagen
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