I think “brother” meant “gay”.
Yeah I don’t get it. I imagine Justin has gotten more ass than a merry-go-round pony. Probably more in six months than most of some of these fellas have seen in a lifetime. I believe we may be in the presence of sour grapes.
I was making the ha-ha. I don’t think he’s gay. I also think **Jim **was making a joke. Everyone carry on.
I like to dance. I’m quite bad at it but I enjoy it. It also helps that I’m now at a stage where I don’t care what other people think about my dancing “skills”. 
Straight, male, white. I can do club dancing but it’s mostly a function of needing something to do at parties between the drinking and the long, in-depth conversations about how we feel about life with my female friends.* However, I love ballroom, and I’m adequate at swing and waltz and I can at least get out on the floor for foxtrots, salsa, and tango. I like those a lot more; I can’t improvise that well, so club dancing is difficult, while swing and waltz give a structure and format to fall back on. Gives me a moment to prepare my next move.
*Entirely platonic. This is a major part of my social life. I’m weird that way, and I’ve been called out by one of those girls when I got a drink and began having a similar conversation with a second girl. “I thought we had something special!”
Straight women do not expect you to dance well. They know that you have two left feet. They merely hope that you’ll get out on the floor and just give it a try. There are eight-week dance classes that you can take that give you one class on waltz, swing, foxtrot, a couple flavors of salsa, tango, Lindy hop, and maybe another, too. Find a partner and take one of them. That’ll give you the barest notion of what you’re doing, and that will allow you to get out on the floor and learn more.
The majority of women have seen swing dancing, tango, and waltz in movies, and they’re trained to think that this is true romance. They’ve also rarely had the opportunity to actually try it, and the Disneyfication of our culture dictates that some of them have fantasies about Prince Charming swooping in and sweeping them off their feet on the dance floor. If you can meet a girl and spend half an hour teaching her the basics of swing, waltz, or tango, that phone number is as good as in your pocket. Works like a charm. I’ve never had the opportunity to try it at a wedding reception, but I’d peg that as an ideal place to try it.
Sweet jesus, Prince Charming? Is that how it works?
And here I just thought they’d fuck me if I looked like I knew what I was doing with my humping equipment.
Straight woman who used to love to dance, but don’t know how I’d feel about it now. It’s been probably a decade since I last got the chance. I miss it, I think.
This is a distinction without a difference, depending on how you play your cards.
Good gravy, apple, and all this time I thought I was just glad to find someone who really enjoyed something I found to be fun. Considering that a lot of men don’t like dancing, when you find one who does, you feel like a lucky duck. If you really want to get into whatever base motivations women might have for seeking good dancers, sure, rhythm and confidence are key. I don’t know what all this Disney shit is about, though.
There was a thread about this ages ago:
Here, here, for the goth club scene. You can really get your swirly on and let loose and nobody cares. It’s awesome.
I’m fortunate to be married to a man who loves to dance, both club dancing and ballroom/latin (which I’m going to learn how to do so I can do it with him). Men who dance are sexy!
I came across badly in those two posts, thinking it might be a little funny, though any humor fell flat. Let me try to be a little clearer, and without any failed attempts at humor.
I meant to note that women place a lot of significance and importance on dancing, partly because our culture labels dancing as a potentially romantic activity. Some women buy into that more than others, and so dancing can be a great way to introduce yourself to a woman who you’d otherwise have trouble approaching. Because so many men won’t dance, being able to dance makes a guy stand out, and a guy can use this to his advantage. It can work both ways; I’m still dating the girl who taught me to dance.
My apologies if the humor didn’t work; I was a little flip and on rereading, it’s not funny.
Really? Cuz I find it the opposite. If she’s dancing, I’m going to wait til she takes a break to talk to her. I can’t bring myself to just start dancing with her uninvited, because it’s 1) weird and 2) obvious. It’s obvious that I’m only doing this to try to sleep with her and it’s weird because I’m (nearly) touching her without an invitation to do so. That’ll normally get you arrested.
It’s the human equivalent of the turkey strut or peacock feathers. It’s a look-at-me thing.
I thought you were so funny I did the Watusi.
I went to dance school full-time, did contemporary and ballet, straight male.
My wife initially cut me dead when she first met me because she assumed I was gay, I have been known to tease her about it occasionally. Fortunately all that dance training made me fairly pretty too, so she hung around long enough to find out otherwise.
Overall Id say its not your dance ability, its your willingness to have fun that really matters, and being entertaining at nightclub style dancing generally matters a lot more than formal dancing training or ‘ability’ as such.
Otara
I enjoyed ballroom dancing back when I knew how to do it. I wasn’t very good at it, alas. Physical coordination is not one of my skills. Disco type dancing I dislike: I’m not much cop at being spontaneous or looking as if I’m being spontaneous. And I can’t stand the noise, let alone the music.
Male, hetero (TTBOMK)
Straight, female. I like to dance, theoretically. I am a terrible dancer though and never do it except in total solitude; I wouldn’t dance with a man (in any context, friendly or sexual) if we weren’t totally alone, to avoid embarrassment :).
Sure, in a club atmosphere. I’m talking about ballroom, though, where you typically verbally ask someone to dance and pairs are more or less required, as opposed to a club atmosphere where you can dance solo, in pairs, or in groups.
Gay man, love to dance.
Back in the '30s, my father was a champion jitterbug dancer. They used to have contests every week, and the girls would fight over who’d be his partner, because they knew they’d win. I never saw him dance; in fact I never knew about this until after he died.
Oh, and my father may or may not have been straight.
Straight white male. I like to dance, but not in public. I have no coordination or rhythm. I took one ballroom dancing class a long time ago.