Why Men Won't Dance (SALSA)

There are always more women than men dancing, period! Well, with the exception of India. When I was teaching in India GOA Salsa Festival last year, there were way too many men than women. It sounds interesting, isn’t it! I will cover the state of India Salsa in a different article.

In our dance classes, we make extra effort to ”drag” enough male students, so that the female students won’t feel frustrated waiting for her rotation. Many female students tell me they want to give up learning or dancing because she “can’t find a male partner”.

“Where have all the male dancer gone?”, I can almost hear Peter, Paul, & Mary singing. The next verse is not “long time passing”, rather, “no time dancing” might be more appropriate.

Although there are many more reasons (or excuses) why men don’t want to learn dancing, here are some of mine observation.

1. No Time. The most common reason I hear; Have meeting to go (even on Sunday evening), need to work, need to go swimming, clean up the yard, etc.. Of course these are legit reason, it is also a reflection of the importance of dancing is on the bottom of their priority list.

2. Not Interested.  Dancing has never been the popular sport for male. Most parents send their boys to soccer, basketball, Kung Fu, swimming, Boy Scout; not many boys are in the dance classes. In stead, dance studios are often filled with little girls wearing tutu. Even if boys take dance class when they are little, they might give it up when turning teenager due to peer-pressure.

3. Non-Productive. Men are brought up with goal-oriented mind set, they need to be a provider, everything they do have to associate with value, an ROI. Cave man hunt and bring food to the table, all those fighting with wild pigs and tigers make them exhausted. When they go home, all they want to do is rest and lick their wound so they can go again the next day. Dancing provide no value toward achieving their mission in life.

4. Embarrassment. Dancing is elegant, women is elegant. Men are not, men are clumsy! Men has bigger ego,  no need to sustain unnecessary injuries.

5. Less Is More. Men not only have to know their steps, they also need to lead the lady, know the next move, have enough variation so it is not boring. The learning curve for men is much higher than women at the beginning, thus many men chose to take the easy way out by not starting.

Again, these are not applicable to all man, just some of the observation based on my interaction with male students and dancers. Male dancers who are already dancing, myself included, should not fall into one or any of these category. Although I must confess, before taking up dancing 15 years ago, all of the above are applicable to me…

About the author

Don Hsi was born & raised in Taiwan, ran high-tech start-up company in Silicon Valley, USA for many years. Have been dancing ballroom Latin, Salsa for 15 years.  Now based in Shanghai China, teaching & performing with partner Cindy. http://www.magicsalsa.com