In my tiny group (see http://gainesville.israelidance.info) we have addressed all the issues that we know of regarding Israeli Partner Dancing and solved them to our satisfaction.
The first issue is people being left out.
People are left out because they do not have a partner. We solved that problem in these ways.
1. We rotate partners so everyone gets to dance with everyone.
2. We do a dance more than once so everyone gets to do the dance.
3. We switch gender roles as needed. If there are more women, women that want can dance the man's role. If their are more men, men that want can dance the woman's role. Yes, this does mean that sometimes women dance with women and men dance with me.
Showing posts with label gender imbalance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender imbalance. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Israeli Partner Dancing Issues
In Israeli Partner Dancing we have some major problems. These problems are the same, as far as I know, for all choreographed dance styles like Contra Dancing, International Folk Dancing and Square Dancing.
The first problem is when there is not an exact gender balance, people are left out and do not get to do any partner dances. The second problem is dancing with a partner is often a struggle and much less enjoyable than it could be.
The cause of these problems is in Israeli partner dancing we learn choreography. We do not learn how to dance with a partner.
Most Israeli Partner Dancers have little or no experience with any other kind of partner dancing, so they do not know the conventions for social partner dancing. Since there are no rules, everyone is on their own as to what they think is best based. This results in every dance being a test of wills.
To solve this problem, people find regular partners with whom they have managed to resolve, somewhat satisfactorily, their communication issues.
If your regular partner is your spouse, wonderful.
For the rest of the people, regular partners is somewhat anti-social, leaving some people unable to participate, and preventing others from dancing with one another.
See http://www.israelipartnerdancing.com/ for more information.
The first problem is when there is not an exact gender balance, people are left out and do not get to do any partner dances. The second problem is dancing with a partner is often a struggle and much less enjoyable than it could be.
The cause of these problems is in Israeli partner dancing we learn choreography. We do not learn how to dance with a partner.
Most Israeli Partner Dancers have little or no experience with any other kind of partner dancing, so they do not know the conventions for social partner dancing. Since there are no rules, everyone is on their own as to what they think is best based. This results in every dance being a test of wills.
To solve this problem, people find regular partners with whom they have managed to resolve, somewhat satisfactorily, their communication issues.
If your regular partner is your spouse, wonderful.
For the rest of the people, regular partners is somewhat anti-social, leaving some people unable to participate, and preventing others from dancing with one another.
See http://www.israelipartnerdancing.com/ for more information.
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