I have been dancing for close to 10 years now, and in all that time, there has been one big constant – the fact that female dancers far outnumber the male dancers, so much so that when I was in level 5 of my dance class, some of the guys were asked to dance with two women simultaneously! In fact, the longer the class progresses, the more the number of men dropping off.

So that’s the question I really wanted to ask… are women better at dancing than men? When it comes to solo dancing, women have a greater degree of moves allowed to them that are considered “sexy” that on a guy just tend to look horrendous. But couple dancing, not Bollywood / solo dancing … errr? I have always heard women say that men can’t dance, and a recent study published online saying that women really were Queens of the dancefloor.

The researchers found that good dancing came down to three characteristics. Those who were considered better dancers had a greater swing of the hip, asymmetric movements of the thighs, and intermediate levels of their arm movement. “One is, they’re showing off their reproductive quality, perhaps their hormonal status, to males. Another is, they’re showing off how good they are to female rivals. When you look at males and females walking, the key difference is, males have this shoulder swing and females have this hip swing.”

Are women better at couple dancing than men?

They’re showing off their reproductive quality, perhaps their hormonal status, to males. Another is, they’re showing off how good they are to female rivals.

The point I’m making is that women have been primed to “look good and stuff will happen to you”, whereas men have been primed to “doing things to woo the woman”

But, let’s look at couple dancing from my egoistic perspective, shall we?

1. Girls have much more practice and get asked more for dances– In our urban Mumbai culture, there is a sense that “women dance, men play football.” It’s unfortunate, but it is a reality that keeps a great many men from exploring dance when they are young. Women will typically be involved in Ballet / Kathak / Bharatanatyam when they are young. This gives them a familiarity with moving their body in relation to music. They learn to stay balanced as they move from one foot to the other. They learn to change feet when they close them. They learn about the difference between moving forward on the heel as compared to moving forward on the toes. They learn how to turn. They learn how to use their arms. All of these things contribute to a comfort level when they learn partner dances such as Salsa, Waltz or Latin dances like Cha Cha.

At the same time, girls are conditioned about their appearance since they are teenagers (think about it when we were young adolescents, aunties or chachas coming over would inevitably say to our parents, “She looks very sweet”. However, those same aunties or uncles wouldn’t say the same to our brothers. Sexism? Its the same with the beauty industry which shows an Axe effect ad (targeted towards males) having women flocking toward him post application of the perfume; however a fragrance ad targeting females would have the femle protagonist in the ad feeling refreshed / happy or her friends / colleagues being amazed with her revived youthfulness (as opposed to having a flock of men running behind her because she applied the perfume.)

The point I’m making is that women have been primed to “look good and stuff will happen to you”, whereas men have been primed to “doing things to woo the woman” (think about all the valentine’s day ads – most of them show men purchasing chocolates or teddy bears for their lady love, but no women purchasing video games or watches for men. It’s the same in most Hollywood Romcoms too!) This carries over to the dance floor as well… good looking women get asked more for dances (and if they say they can’t dance, the standard reply from guys is “I’ll teach you”). But the converse doesn’t hold true – a good looking man doesn’t get asked for dances by women neither would she say, “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you” as a reply to his “I can’t dance”.

Conclusion – the ball is in her court.

Hey! I'm Alvito...

I love dancing and currently teach the Social Jive in Bandra (W), Mumbai. I created this website to express myself and chronicle all oddball dancing observations I’ve made over the years! Follow me on Instagram for cool, fun dance related posts.

2. She only dances in the structure of what I do –Complementary to what we said above – Men lead (usually). And hence, the other point of view to ‘Are women better at couple dancing than men’ is that the girl can only dance as much as the male knows what to dance. So, if the lady has done 5 years of dancing and the man just 6 months, the lady is confined to dancing steps that the man leads her for.

Conclusion – the ball is in his court.

3. It’s a 50-50 game – In social dancing, both the male and female have specific roles to play. There is an old rule when it comes to social dance. Girl follows boy and if it looks wrong, it’s the guy’s fault. Hence, the way to look at partner dancing is not as a zero-sum game, and that it in fact literally takes “two to tango”. Partner dancing is called just that “Partner” – so no gender has an upper hand and women are NOT better in partner dancing than men, they just have external benefits such as fashion, attractiveness and hip sways which pulls in positive appreciation for the couple dancing together.

Conclusion – Neither the guy nor the girl have any balls to play with. cool