My last SO and I had intended to start taking dance lessons. Specifically tango.
That relationship is over but I’d still like to try to take a few dance classes.
So is it even possible for a single guy to take a dance glass without a partner?
Is it going to be percieved as weird for me to try to pursue it?
I don’t see why you’d think that is weird. Unless there is a specific clause in the class description indicating that it’s BYOP (something I’ve never seen) then I’m not sure what you’re worried about. I’d say they have no expectations about whether people will bring partners, and commonly will assign partners during the classes. From my experience, they will most likely rotate every few minutes and you’ll end up practicing with everyone in the class regardless of whether they brought their own partner or not.
When I took a dance class, women outnumbered men and I would have been thrilled to have more single guys in it. It was a ballroom dance class, and the couples who had signed up together automatically gravitated to one another when it was time to partner up.
I should also add that from my experience, you will find that your concerns about being single in a dance class to be totally unwarranted. There was actually a similar post in this thread recently on the subject, and the fact of the matter is that you’ll find just as many, if not more, single people in dance courses than you will couples. And if you are serious about learning and have some skill, you’ll find yourself getting more attention than you think because it’s usually more than one girl for every guy, as Fionn just mentioned … and most of the guys who take the course are not always serious about it, or very skilled.
In Argentinian Tango, they have what’s known as milonga, which is a social dance. Meaning: both singles and couples gather to socialize and dance. It’s very un-American, culturally speaking, because the typical American would often take this as a sign of “so, your place or mine?”. The fact is that approaching a woman in a milonga and asking her to dance carries less liability than buying her a drink. It is like an introduction. There are actually a lot of milongas in most metropolitan/urban areas if you just do some searching, and you’ll find that when you discover one venue for dance on a particular night, there will always be others in the area on other nights. I know that when I used to go out to tango, I would see the same faces in different places on different nights of the week. Tango dancers have a sickness that must be fed several times a week, and they will go where they have to in order to do so. 
I think you’ll find this is common with many other forms of dance as well.
No, in fact, you will be adored by all.
There will be other guys there without partners. You won’t be alone. But more importantly, there will most likely be far more women there without partners. I have only once been in a social dance class that had more leads than follows. Every other time, the follows outnumber the leads and even with rotating through partners, the follows have to spend time sitting out. Leads who show up without partners are great!
Oh, and I even once had a single guy show up in one of my belly dance classes. That was a bit weird - but very cool, too. Comparitively, tango classes are nothing.
It is so NOT wierd. Definitley pursue it. Being able to dance is so classy and definitley a great skill to have.
When Suburban Plankton and I were first married we took some dance classes. I was actually really frustrated by the lack of single men in the class. You see, the classes were made up of couples and single women.
I totally didn’t have a problem with other women dancing with my husband. Even if we’d been even numbers, we would have still rotated partners. It’s good to know how to lead/follow different partners. It was that because there were so many more women than men, that when we were rotating partners, there were always 2-3 women who were just standing there waiting for the next time they got to dance. I went back and forth feeling sorry for the single women and being irritated because after all, I brought a partner.
So please, for all the single (and married) women out there taking dance classes…go sign up! 
Not weird at all. AWESOME. Now, could you go slap some sense into your fellow male Americans? I don’t get it. I truly hope that dance is in a revival stage. I mean, girls love to dance, guys (striaght ones of course) love girls.
Seems logical right? But at some point when no one was looking, dancing was declared to be a sissy activity (trust me, I’m a dance instructor, easy it ain’t).
Please please PLEASE go, don’t give up, put your heart into it and then as you’re basking in all of the female attention, start spreading the word to other men.
Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!
Ooop, in my enthusiasm I forgot to answer your main question. A lot of dance instructors run their classes so that (thanks to the dearth of men taking classes) they “rotate” partners so that everyone gets a chance to dance.
Many female dance instructors and female “regulars” in dance classes know the lead steps and will be a “guy” for class if there are too few leads in class. But male leads are always very welcome, especially in my neck of the woods.
Plus, you might meet someone, dance class is where I met my beloved former boyfriend/still best friend.
Which types of dance are we most likely to find girls largely outnumbering the guys in the class?
Not weird unless you’re expecting to grind your partner.
Same vein of question, I guess, is, what kind of dances are the most fun.
I’m thinking of taking lessions (if I can find the time), and I want to know, basically, which would I have the most fun with, and by proxy, what girls like to dance the most?
Sorry for the double post, but how would I go about getting dance lessons? How do I contact people, and such?
My husband and I took both Ballroom (waltz, foxtrot and cha-cha) and Latin dancing (salsa and meringe), and I would recommend both, but for going out and dancing, Latin Dancing has the edge. Being able to whirl around the floor in a beautiful, smooth waltz is nice, but people stop and watch when you start to meringe. And damn, is that ever a fun dance. You can meringe to almost anything with a strong beat because it’s basically stepping from one foot to the other. So, my vote is go for Latin dancing if you get a chance. Very fun, and a great workout.
And I multiple-agree with the responses to the OP - single guys are like gold at dance classes.
As for finding dance lessons, start with your yellow pages, do an online search for your area, and try places like the local college or adult education facilities. If you’re interested in Latin dancing, you can simply go to a place that has Latin dancing and ask around.
The most likely is probably line…and No it isn’t your grandma’s old Achey Breaky kind any more. Followed by ballroom type.
Before my boyfriend and I decided to be just friends we were starting to take Nightclub 2step. Very cool and really neat looking as well. To me, out of all of the other types of couples classes I’ve been to, both as part of a couple and as a single girl, that one seemed to have the biggest ratio of single girls to men.
Probably the more trendy dance classes (hip hop, Argentine Tango, which yes, I realize isn’t a new dance, but is just enjoying a new popularity) are going to be more equal in girls to boys, but the older type dances, ballroom and such will have more of a ratio, depending of course where you live.
Good luck.
A lot of night clubs give free lessons (get them in one the weekdays to learn the dances, they come back on the weekends to show off their new moves, AND buy drinks).
I have taught at churches, community schools, the college, night clubs, company christmas parties etc. I also do a lot of charity events where I teach a dance or two along with other dance instructors (sort of a dance-a-thon, only for charity).
Check out your city’s activities section of the newspaper, it’s bound to have which clubs, schools and community centers have dance classes and so on.
Sorry 'bout my bunches of posts, but I’d LOVE to see a big revival of dancing in this country. It is a skill, it’s very classy, and while it can be challenging, it’s not as hard as people think, nor as sissyfied.
Another vote for not weird. I recently took a swing dance class, and there was only one couple there, everyone else was single. We rotated through partners every few minutes, so everyone got a chance to dance with everyone else.
One thing about the class I took was an interesting anomaly - there were way more leads than follows. Of course, they were all roughly twice my age, but it was still an interesting change of pace from what you normally expect to see in these types of classes. It was also fun to watch the guys squirm the week the instructor called in a guy to be an extra follow. You’d think it was the ultimate sacrifice for them to have to dance with another man :rolleyes:
As for how I found the lessons, I decided that it was something that would be fun to do, so I googled what kind of dance lessons were available in my area. Free weekly newspapers are also a good way to find out about either classes you can take or dance nights with a free lesson beforehand.
I totally agree! I took 4 semesters of ballroom dance in college and was in with a group of friends that went dancing every weekend. It was so much fun. I would love to be able to do that again.
Oh, man! I am SO gonna get [del]laid[/del] er, ahem… sign up for dance class!
I’m so encouraged by this! Years ago, I had planned on giving my husband dance lessons for the two of us as a Christmas present, because I felt we needed some couple time. Unfortunately, he left me for another woman right before Thanksgiving, so that plan went south. At least I hadn’t paid already! But I still want to learn how to dance properly (he was awful) but I’ve been reluctant because I thought you had to be coupled up! Now if I can keep the arthritis at bay…