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A FOLLOW-UP TO THIS ARTICLE IS NOW PUBLISHED WITH REVISED INFORMATION BASED ON THE SITUATION AS OF MARCH 12, 2020 Note from The Dancing Grapevine: The Author, Dr. Hsu, is a physician actively practicing in both community and acute care…
You have probably heard (or said) some variation of the phrase “I love beginners! All I care about is that my partner has good, clean basics.” We think that it takes the pressure off of novice dancers who are still…
Today, I saw a video shared on Facebook. It was a girl dancing to a Bachata song with a guy. She and her partner were clearly having fun. She was also using a fair amount of twerking within the context…
I turn 30 today. I started dancing when I was almost 20 (except for the ballet class I got kicked out of at age 5). That means that I’ve been dancing just over 10 years. From my infancy in Salsa…
It is very easy for teachers to fall into the leader trap. Very often, it makes the most sense for many movements to teach the leads the structure, and then have the followers just “follow along”. But, this has unintended…
Almost everyone has been to at least one event that could be accurately described as not very organized. On the surface, that lack of organization seems like a minor inconvenience. Maybe the shows start an hour late each night, which…
I was in a car accident last night. We were hit on the drivers’ side by a person who ran a red light. By the time I noticed the all-black car at night, it was too late to swerve or…
Almost every scene has had a bad actor, ranging from lower-level he-said-she-said harassment to full, witnessed assault. Often, organizers and scene leaders are at a loss for an effective way to handle these issues. The default often goes one of…
There’s a lot of conversations surrounding whether specific staff and artists at events are paid enough. Very often, these stories are either told from the perspective of an individual who (rightly) recognizes that an event isn’t paying the fair market…
There’s been a trend about celebrating people who dance outside of the traditional roles. Whether it’s male follows, female leads, or ambidextrous dancers, it’s a great thing to see so many people stepping outside of the traditional. I started leading…
A while ago, I wrote an article about the many reasons that professionals don’t always social dance. However, beyond that, there seems to be a fundamental disconnect both in how advanced dancers treat newer dancers, and the way that new…
Over time, dance communities are moving towards a greater focus on follower empowerment. We are becoming more aware of the value followers bring to a dance, and the need to teach to both followers and leaders. But, some people are still…
In social dance, we often exist in a bliss bubble. We are used to physical touch and trusting those around us. But, these conditions also make it easy for people who are predators to manipulate or prey on us, our…
For many, a fair dance world would be one in which hard work + time = a better dancer. The person who has taken two classes a week religiously for four years would necessarily be stronger than a dancer who has taken…
Once upon a time, I was a broke student who wanted to dance. I jumped at opportunities that allowed me to learn for low or no cost whenever I could. Eventually, one of those opportunities turned into a full dance…
