• Dance Discussions

    Appropriation, Shaming, and Online Discourse

    November 14, 2019 - By 

    Today, I saw a video shared on Facebook. It was a girl dancing to a Bachata song with a guy. She and her partner were clearly having fun. She was also using a fair amount of twerking within the context of the dance. The person who had shared the video did so with the intent to illustrate how “inappropriate” the girl’s dancing was. The insinuation was that how she was dancing was disrespectful to what Bachata really is, and that people shouldn’t be allowed to dance like that. This particular video brings up more than one very difficult issue that we…

  • Community Building

    The Hidden Middle Ground: Why are we so polarized in important discussions?

    August 15, 2016 - By 

    The dance community has been having some very important discussions lately. We’ve been having discussions around consent and assault. Taking about sexism and sexual aggression. Having conversations on homophobia and racism. Debating about cultural appropriation and honoring the roots of dances. Invariably, there are a couple types of overreactions.

  • Leading - Social Dancing

    Your Follower is not Fragile

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    Every time I write an article on taking care of your partner on the dancefloor, I get a response that goes something like this: “When I dance with a lady, I take care of her. It is a man’s job to take care of a lady, because she is the fairer sex. On a dance floor, I must therefore make her safe and comfortable, because I am responsible for protecting this fragile gender.”