[7/30/2008 SteppersUSA News]
Woman to Man Ratio
By Markie Bee
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The following series of articles are reprinted with the permission of Lana Reid, a promoter and dancer from Los Angeles CA. The articles are about what is perceived as a lack of participation by men in the Chicago style steppers community. I don't necessarily completely agree with it as, in my travels and observations of all dance forms I have witnessed the same kind of woman to man ratio in dance in general. None the less, here's what Lana had to say;
Ok, so every city has the same complaint. Not enough men on the dance floor. It’s not just on the dance floor either since statistically there are actually more male births than female births in the United States but female infants just have a higher survival rate. Anywhooo I digress: what are we supposed to do about this "lack of men" problem in our Steppin world?
The Marines, Army, Air Force and Navy all have recruiters that go and "encourage" men to sign up for the military. I suppose we could not do that in Steppin though, huh? Realistically we do need to find some sort of way to entice men to start coming to classes and then keep them motivated to stick with it since their role requires a much longer learning curve than the females. Maybe we need to dialogue with the men who already Step to understand what their attraction is to the dance so we can hone into those selling points when we try to bring new men into this dance.
Although I made light of the military recruiter concept, the reality is we are going to have to go out and bring men to this dance. They seem to have other things to do like watch the game on TV, hang out with the fellas at the basketball court, coach the kid’s football team and so on which makes taking a dance class sort of a low priority on their list. Females flock to dance classes of all dance forms, it’s just something that generally captures the ladies’ attention more so than the men. Somehow or another, we need to find some enticing tools that show the menfolk that the dance floor is "what’s poppin."
Do we offer free classes, do we bring in the Laker cheerleaders, do we promise a home cooked meal for each workshop they attend? What exactly do we do? I have a few concept ideas that I need to test out in my local market, but even still it will by no means even the tables in regards to the amount of women on the floor versus men but maybe it will ease the pressure a bit. I just know I’m tired of all this "talk talk talk" about not enough men on the floor. If it’s a problem, let’s figure out how to fix it. Notice I said "let’s" that implies "let US!" Bring the issue to the floor and devise some solutions.
On the flip side ladies, I have my quiet moments when I think the men we have in the current Steppin game like the present "hen to rooster" ratio and that’s why they move so slow when it comes to bringing their buddies into this dance (smile). Just my own personal "Lana suspicious" thoughts.
If you have thoughts about what was said in this article, please send us an email and share. Tomorrow Part 2

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Woman to Man Ratio

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