My opinion, only very few do. I have danced Salsa for three years now. The culture in the salsa community of Some of the men in the other dance class that I am taking make me wonder about why they are there. You heard the saying, white man can't dance? By the way, white men do dance; they just do too many dances at the same time. Well, some of our men can't even do one dance properly at one time, not if it is ballroom stuff! So, this guy in my class is totally lost, no rhythm in his body! It's alright, so far as he picks up the steps and manages to do it. It does not have to be perfect. But he has to be able to lead the lady at least comfortably enough, so that she will be able to do her part. However, what happened is that even his previously aerobics looking like steps are messed up this time. He does not regularly attend class, he does not pay attention when the teacher shows the step again, he does not ask the teacher to repeat the step till he gets it, he does not count, and he does not try to visualize the step so he can figure it out with a lady partner, or he does not allow her to break it down for him, but he is paying good money to be there. He is also investing his time. Now why is this guy there? Why do I ask this question? That will be because many are similar to him and I suffer the inevitable consequence of dancing with them. And why does this bother me? Because I know exactly why I am there and he is contributing to making my experience less enjoyable. I am very passionate about dance, especially the Latin dances. One of the times when I am completely happy is when I am dancing. And I want to be a better dancer; I also want to know more dances. But if their perspective is stained with thoughts like dance is feminine, or if they feel they are doing something undignified, / it is told the last Emperor of Ethiopia did his routine physical exercise in secret because it was considered undignified for a man to jump up and down and stretch his limbs in funny ways/, if they think they are considered as guys who are there only for the chicks /i can't guarantee they are not/, why do they bother to come? If it is not going to help their confidence; if they are not going to ask the girls to dance, if they are going to feel so confused and almost look behind their back when the girls ask them to dance, if they don't even ask questions when they don't understand a step, why are they there? If they are not going to bother working on their physique, if thy are going to leave me feeling tiered even when my hands are on their shoulders, if they are not going to work on framing me and help me shine :), why do they bother to come? Why? |
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Do Ethiopian men really know why they come to dance places?
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Why do ethiopian men come to dance places? ... .. they come to dance ofcourse! Is it for the chicks?...... may be, for some atleast..... but this fact also applies for the chicks as well...i know a handful of chicks who have the share the same purpose. But many come to dance. Sometimes you don't blame the guy because he cant dance well... like any other excercise, dance takes passion, patience and practice. Usually guys may have passion for dance but only a few will have the patience to endure hours upon hours of grueling practice. To add to the mens' agony, the best moving chicks wouldnt consider dancing with a guy out of the water. So how can he learn if the chicks are not ready to teach him? ... and u talk about rythm... Rythm is a fruit of the man and woman body moving together with the music. To create rythm you have to trust your man, he should be comfortable touching u, moving you, dropping you.....how many girls would feel comfortable getting in a real dance web with a guy? ... Let's face it.. the guys are scared touching and caressing the girls.... most of the time, the dance is just a sequence of 1-2-3... 5-6-7. If the two bodies and souls dont rise up, then there is no rythm. Like i said before, the guys come to dance but the lady's have to meet them half way. You cant clap with one hand.
ReplyDeleteHmm. You ask why men come to latin dance classes in addis. As far as my experience when I was there whether guys are learning dance because everybody is doing it nowadays, or there are a lot of ladies around not only around but also any guy can touch, hold, squeeze... a lady because the teacher say so,and of-course to land a date... Saying this there are other reasons guys don't want to dance that much like they are too proud because of our culture and guys are only there to act cute. I seen a comment from anonymous that ladies say no to dance. I won't say that from my experience I never never seen a lady saying no to any guy weather she is beautiful, sexy, hot or whatever. If you are a starter they may be a little flamboyant but if you catch some steps that would not be a problem. But I agree with the second point very much. They want to dance but they will take time until they trust guys and get into the rhythm so why do I bother to dance with with a new lady where there is no short of lady dancers. And the other reason for me is because of the shortage of guys the guys who say yes would be tiered and deserve to rest. Let me add my experience. (By the way apparently I am terribly shorter than you and we didn't got a chance to dance together. So we couldn't criticize each other). I love salsa and I can't wait till i start to dance here in new york. I started learning because I love dance. This doesn't mean that I didn't contemplate to quit, but I am glad I push myself to finish the course.
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