Dance Thoughts
I tried to Google partner dance a bit, and it was super confusing, because there were many different types and then they were broken down into many subtypes, and then some of those subtypes seemed to be very similar or overlap with each other. So I asked GPT-4 to build me an ontology diagram, breaking the field down into ballroom (standard, Latin, and American style), Latin social dancing (salsa, bachata, merengue, zouk, kizomba), swing (Lindy hop, Balboa, shag, west/east coast), Argentine tango, folk (contra, square, polka), country and western, blues, and zydeco.
Thoughts on these, after doing a bit more research:
- Ballroom dancing sounds Fancy and Elegant, which is good, but also relatively high-pressure because it is Formal and Exacting and Strenuous and in some cases an outright competition. That sounds stressful, maybe leave this one for later?
- Latin salsa and tango dancing got a strong recommendation from Alexandra, which I put a fair amount of weight on:
- "Latin dance classes will basically teach you to move in a prototypically feminine way. It's challenging when you aren't used to it, but very rewarding when you start to get the movements right. I might try Latin Connection Dance or Salsa with Juan? If the group classes are too confusing though you can also always ask the studio for a private session, I did a bit of that in high school and it was great!
- Swing might as well be the Official Rationalist/Tech Dance, which forms something of a common community, and has a reputation for being easy to learn. Alexandra didn't think it would be as feminine/sensual, though.
- Note that "Latin Ballroom Dancing"/"Latin Social Dancing" are different, and "Ballroom Tango"/"Argentine Tango" are different. This was confusing.
- There are also "club dances"/solo dance styles that are typically done by yourself, not with a partner. I didn't include those because I want to take this opportunity to do something cool with my boy :)
- There are also many (many…) different types of hip-hop, but I didn't include those because those are primarily solo dances and also not really my cultural scene.
- Ballet dancing is a whole different category, typically done either solo or in a large group, and also done as a public performance on a stage, so I didn't include it.
- There is also "ecstatic dance", but it's totally freeform and so not really something one can take classes in. Here's a Reddit quote:
- "I advise finding ecstatic dance. I was bout 33 when I found it and I wanted to be comfortable dancing anywhere, but lessons didn't work with my brain to body connection. Ecstatic dance gave me a space to figure out how to move and groove. Gave me a chance to witness movement in other people's body and how I could mimic that. Eventually I just figured it out and now I can dance whenever, however. Mix and match styles as I see fit."
- Some people recommended belly dancing, but unfortunately this may not work well for my body type :(
- When Googling I found this thread on the PUA subreddit, which isn't super useful to you but I thought was funny and kinda inspiring: <https://www.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/h6tzm/gentlemen_and_ladies_learn_a_social_dance/>