I love dancing. He never did. He was the 'typical' guy who hung out at the bar and watched. Until he got so bombed that he would stagger over and try to pick up someone. Unsuccessfully of course!
I'm not dancing to 'parade' but because I like to. I dance at home alone. He never did.
What are the experiences of men and women here about that. Have the guys become more 'reluctant' to dance than before and have woman become more willing to?
Just thoughts as usual.
I never "got" just free dancing at a club or school dance. I sort of understand it now.
But before, yeah... I liked dance - and I was pretty good. I did ballroom in college. Men just get so many fewer opportunities for dance in modern American society. I'd never have asked to sign up for it - and even ballroom I was dragged along and ended up enjoying it immensely.
(Funny... In college I got dragged along to a lot of places - including a very conservative christian group that I enjoyed for a while just because of the singing... then it started getting weird and I quit :D).
I thought guys were always less willing to dance, but that might be a cultural Aussie bloke thing...
I'm so lacking in grace, I'm afraid my movement on the dance floor would out me.
I love to dance, I always have. I think I am quite good myself.
I'm also the sort that has no problem being the only 'guy' dancing with all the girls dancing without guys because the guys don't want to dance.
I'm told I dance like a girl as well.
And now, I am no longer the only 'guy' dancing with all the girls, I am just one of the girls and unconcerned if none of the guys wants to dance.
And I am sooooo used to guys sucking at dancing.
Can't stand dancing. I have no ability, hence it's an embarrassment.
Can't really say much about any real "before" because I was only five years old when my journey started.
When I was at school I did do ballet and ballroom, although probably only because it allowed me to avoid hockey netball and rounders, which I disliked even more... but in teens I think I lost the exhibitionism of childhood, and then instead of enjoying clumping about started to fret about the fact that I wasn't ever going to match Ginger Rodgers, or Margot Fonteyn! At that point dance became dead to me.
I was a rubbish dancer as a guy and am even worse now!
I love to dance but some of my friends hate it because my dancing style tend to be abit.. hm.. not so cool XD
I'm not dancing yet, but I'm getting the urge and moving to the beat in fascinating new ways. "He" was always afraid of being graceless and laughable... I just feel so much more at home in my body. Not that I dance. Much... yet. :)
Last month at a wedding reception, I danced my tail off. I find that women will get out there on the floor and go. My spouse always loves to dance.
:)
He was quite good at dancing, but he needed to be pushed or dragged into it - then things just clicked and he would dance all the night long. Never alone, though.
Now, I discovered that sometimes at home I feel how my body responds to music, willing to start dancing on its own :). Also my movements have become much more graceful. But I also noted that I have to re-train my ballroom dancing skills - how to position my arms, first steps and other small but important details, which depend on dancer's gender.
She has always hated to dance, since she always has to dance in a feminine way. But, he can get himself enjoy dancing when he is dancing with a girl, since she can be a he in that moment... Does that make sense?
I have actually always loved to dance, used to do freestyle dancing when I was a kid. I loved it, I was allowed to dress what ever I liked to wear to those classes and the teacher even recommended more boyish clothes.
I danced a little in my undergraduate studies, mostly at parties and most often motivated for the purpose of picking up girls. I didn't need alcohol and I enjoyed the dancing but did not dance alone. Then, a few years later in graduate school, I met a real dancer who later became my wife. Quite by accident.
I had broken up with a girl and really wanted to be with her. One thing she loved to do but we never did, was dance together. So, I went to a club that was having dance lessons so I could win her back. I walked in, figuring I could find a partner to learn with and looked around. Only one woman was available; she was shorter than I, a couple years older and was watching with intensity. She was cute! I walked over and asked her if she would take the class with me. She looked around, looked at me and with a roll of her eyes like "Why me?", said yes. We started learning to waltz. I was trim and fit and in my best male mode. Also, I really like music and I had a good sense of rhythm. I learned the basics fast and soon we were doing things way beyond what the class was doing. We danced for five hours before she told me she was a ballroom dance instructor who had gone there to support her sister. I later learned she was also a world-class swing dancer. We agreed to meet again the next Tuesday at a local bar so that I could learn more. I gave up on the other girl.
We danced together as partners and members of a small group for three years. We also competed in swing dance and in ballroom, traveling all over to do so. I finally finished grad school and had to leave. But she could not leave as her daughters who were finishing high school. Now, I wanted to do the marriage thing. So I left. We saw each other a couple times the next year and then she literally disappeared. Over the next three years, I kept dancing at local places a couple times a week, went through one bad relationship and a really bad engagement and was alone when she called out of the blue, in town, wanting to dance. We went out, danced and I found out she was now moving back home because her father was ill. I asked her to call again when she was in town as she really was making an adjustment in her life. Six weeks later, she was back in town and we went dancing. Then, in a parking lot after a very rare midnight breakfast, she agreed to be my wife. We were married six months later, after the last of the girls graduated college and her father was back on his feet.
We have danced at least once a week for the past ten years and have entered a couple regional competitions. Everywhere we go, we dance. Last spring, we would dance in the lobby of a huge hotel in Nassau. We would stop traffic and get applauses. Then, I came out to her and all hell broke loose. She even left me twice. But we still sat everything aside and went out and danced.
In the really short version of a post to come later: two weeks ago, after some of the worse days of my life and after a lot of crying by both of us, she admitted/decided I was a woman. She also said "I love you, no matter what you are or how you look". And she meant it. We will go out together as to women and I will live as a woman. She is helping me dress as a woman and dance as a woman (which is very different). In boy mode, I loved to dance with a partner but would never dance alone. In boy mode, I was there to make her look great and to look great making her look great. As a woman, I still love to dance with a partner but also love to dance alone. Alone is more free and that is how I feel.
Thanks to the magic of HRT, I've recently noticed I can wiggle my hips and ass better since I have more padding there, if that makes any sense. I can move alot looser and freer now, or maybe I hadn't noticed before when I danced.
Quote from: Christine Eryn on October 25, 2013, 08:59:49 PM
Thanks to the magic of HRT, I've recently noticed I can wiggle my hips and ass better since I have more padding there, if that makes any sense. I can move alot looser and freer now, or maybe I hadn't noticed before when I danced.
I think it is so because the HRT relaxes us, making that constant muscle tension/toning to go away. I used to be quite tense and constantly alert before. Now, I am catching myself how my shoulders and hips are so free that with each step my hand just waves off :). Also, with some of my bulk gone, I noticed an overal increase in dexterity and flexibility. I still cannot do a full split, but I am closer to it then I was, I can make bridge with little or no warming up, and with less weight and toned up leg muscles my jumps are just crazy now.