Dave's post about booking ahead and people's "responsibilities" to dance one role or the other made me think: DO people (read: experienced dancers who are capable of switching) have a responsibility to dance a particular role if there's a gender disparity? There's something to be said for reminding people, "not all couples need to be male/female!" But the idea that anyone is obligated to dance lead or follow, or to dance with same or opposite sex, makes me uncomfortable. My home dance regularly has more men than women (crazy!) but my preferred role is lead; does this mean I'm obligated to dance follow/dance with men (it happens that many of the men don't follow, and anyway, the height difference makes it tricky), rather than dancing with women? Is there a difference in obligating someone to dance their gender-typical role and their gender-atypical role? How much responsibility do experience dancers have for evening out a gender imbalance? (And to what extent is it an okay thing to assume that a gender imbalance *needs* evening out?)
Cheers, Maia
