men dancing

[danceboy]

So I went to the jam today (I tell you I'm not addicted. I could stop if I wanted to...) and there were 5 men and three women. This is the highest percentage of women that I've seen in a while. The last time I was there it was 1 woman and 4 men (which was a bit high the other way to be honest). No where in the world aside from Boston have I ever even heard of men reliably outnumbering women at a dance. I've heard of both CI jams and SCA dance practices that were usually all women.

I'm not deeply upset. I admit, I prefer dancing with, talking to, and generally spending time with, women. It just keeps being weird to me. Given the number of women that I've heard claim to like dancing/men who dance, you'd think that this would even out over time. I dunno. Maybe it's some weird variant on sexual politics in MA a la "If I have to dance it's not my revolution!".

People who've gone to other dances in other places; what's the ratio like out there? What, if anything, do you think that it does to the energy of the dance?

For locals, Shamu is playing at the Improv Jam tomorrow...

Comments

[queen-of-wands.livejournal.com]

The contact classes I've been to here (there is no jam in SB) are roughly evenly gendered.

[queen-of-wands.livejournal.com]

OK, yesterday I went to an hour of Gabrielle Roth 5 rhythms followed by an hour of contact. When we started there were about 8 or 10 women dancers in the room plus two male drummers and a male dj. Very unusual. Someone suggested all the men were watching the Super Bowl, but really these men? One who had sent his regrets had claimed he was feeling antisocial and wanted to read, which sounds much more likely. I think two more men came late and danced (though one occasionally sat out to drum) as did a few more women. I'm not sure how it changed the dynamic of the room since I quickly went deeply into trance consciousness and spent most of the time there - I was surprised when the organizer apologized for many failures in the sounds system, since I hadn't noticed them.