Heritage Classic 2014: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Dancers – Ladies VS Gentlemen

In the Professional – Amateur (Pro-Am) dance competition world, the amateur is either a woman or a man, euphemistically called a lady or a gentleman.  It is commonly believed that it’s easier to be a lady dancing with a strong professional gentleman whose lead can disguise the weaknesses of the lady.  Moreover, they do not have to bother worrying about navigating the dance floor.  To be sure, some ladies look like they are hanging on for dear life to their ballroom partner as if they were descending to earth from the sky in one parachute.  However, this is the minority.

Men have to learn steps and navigate the scary ballroom dance floor filled with masses of obstacles and competitors. They must at least feign at leading their female dance professional, and pretty much fend for themselves in maintaining balance and frame.  No wonder that when men and women compete in OPEN unisex dance heats, or in unisex multi dance scholarships and championships, it is seldom that an amateur gentleman finds their way into the upper echelon of placement and scoring.  Indeed, it is common for the gentlemen led couple to end up in last place.

Having believed in this commonly held view that women have an easier time of it for the last several years, I have now altered my belief.  My current view is that they are just better dancers. They are more dedicated, they exhibit more skills, perhaps they have more innate talent – musicality, and more physical capacity – flexibility, but the bottom line is that they win because they are simply better dancers then their male counterpart. This is indeed an epiphany for me.  If I want to become increasingly competitive in the world of unisex pro-am dancing, I will need to ramp up my skills with the same persistence, dedication and focus as the ladies so commonly display.  

All of this discussion serves as an introduction.  Taking first place in a field of 8 (or maybe 7) - two gentlemen (including myself and the rest ladies in the silver closed senior smooth 3 dance championship event was so gratifying.  What’s more, it seemed like many other competitors and judges were as excited with my performance as I was.  Maybe it occurs so infrequently that it deserved recognition.  I felt like a local hero, and loads of dancers and spectators came up to me to congratulate me, plus there was an added bonus in being asked to dance at dinner by a lovely blond competitor who noticed my dancing and wanted her own sampling.

I mean this was only one 3-dance event in a weeklong schedule that probably included 50 or more.  Still, I was probably the only male dancer this year at the Heritage that broke into the scoring column in anything other than coming up last or next to last.  In the multi dance senior events competed, I scored 1^st in Silver Smooth, 2^nd in Bronze Latin, and 4^th in Bronze Standard and Bronze Rhythm.  Most of the heats included 8 contenders.   And my best placement came in the more advanced silver category, which really heartened my fortune all the more.  I have to confess that I was so struck by this unexpected triumph that it brought tears to my eyes.  It took me all of two hours to regain my composure to prepare myself for the next set of heats later that afternoon….the open silver single dance events…more about those heats later.