Regards, Ivan
Stop that, stop that, it's silly!
Posted on 07/16/2004 4:37:56 PM PDT by MadIvan
RUSSELL HALLEY takes pride in being able to do the splits as well as any woman on the dance floor. His partner, Jorge Guzman, can spin faster than the female competition.
So when the two men don their matching see-through chiffon shirts to dance together, they alternate the lead.
“I can send Jorge into a triple spin and catch him, and vice versa — even in the course of one move,” Mr Halley boasts. “We can change place instantly. From an audience point of view it can be very exciting.”
The duo are at the forefront of an upheaval in America’s tradition-bound ballroom dancing scene, which comes as the sport seeks Olympic recognition for the 2008 Beijing Games.
Mr Halley, 40, who runs a talent agency, and Mr Guzman, 41, a stock trader, recently became the first all-male pair to compete against mixed couples at a championshiplevel event.
But they have run into opposition from ballroom dancing’s governing bodies, which bar same-sex partners from competing at the top level in a sport that they say is all about the interaction of a man and a woman.
“The question of same-sex dancing does not come up any more than the question of dancing with some other species,” said Jim Fraser, chairman of the legal commission of the International DanceSport Federation, the worldwide governing body. “Dancesport, like ballroom dancing, is derived from the relationship between a man and a woman. They want to do their kind of dancing and they want to make us accept their kind of dancing as our kind of dancing. Those guys are just on the wrong track.”
Same-sex couples have danced together for many years on college campuses in America because of the surfeit of women, who outnumber men by up to 3:1. Many women learn to lead in all-female pairs to be able to dance at all.
The US Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association, which oversees the sport in America, does not enforce the man-woman rule on college campuses for fear of provoking a revolt by women who are unable to find male partners.
But some dance officials argue that allowing gay men to dance together could drive heterosexual men away.
Archie Hazelwood, the association’s director, insists that he is bound by the international rules for national competition. “I have tried carefully not to get involved,” he says. “I have supported the right of college competitions to have relaxed rules. I am trying to stay out of open conflict on the issue.”
Mr Halley, who used to sing and dance on Broadway, and Mr Guzman, who had a female partner for eight years, began dancing together three years ago so that they could compete at the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney, Australia. They took gold in the second division. Though not romantically involved, the two became the best of friends and continued to compete at gay ballroom events, twice winning second place at contests at the Rivoli Ballroom in London.
In April they signed up to dance against mixed couples at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Open Ballroom Competition near Boston.
Eric Nielsen, director of that contest, said: “There have been several cases over the past few years of femalefemale couples at higher levels, in addition to the lower levels. So from one point of view there was nothing unusual about Halley and Guzman dancing at our event.
“Of course it was one of the first cases of male-male I’m aware of in the regular competitive events, and thus is gathering some attention.”
After dazzling the crowd with their rumba, the pair came second in the Latin ballroom division in a field of 22 male-female couples.
“I liked the statement of being myself and dancing with the person I choose to dance with without qualification or apology,” Mr Halley said.
“We got an extremely positive response from the audience. The judges were mixed. Some gave us great scores. Some gave us very low scores. Jorge, on the other hand, felt self-conscious.
“He is not one for controversy.”
Mr Halley says that comparing same-sex partners with mixed couples is like comparing “apples and oranges”.
He says that he would prefer the governing bodies for ballroom dancing to establish a same-sex division, just as they are now starting to allow contestants who use wheelchairs.
“I think that more and more people in the field are seeing this as an issue of opening up opportunities and an issue of discrimination,” he said.
Regards, Ivan
Stop that, stop that, it's silly!
Ping!
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Okay, that's enough for me. |
George Costanza (to former girlfriend turned lesbian): Listen. Let me ask you something. If you and Mona were ever to... dance, how do you decide who leads? I mean... do you take turns? Do you discuss it beforehand? How does that work?
Susan: You're an idiot.
George: Why? That's a *legitimate* sociological question.
Is there a bullwhip involved?
Not being familiar with the symbolism of that smoking cigar, it appears to me that you enjoyed that so much, you just had to have a smoke afterward. I know in my heart that's not even close to what you meant, so would you please set me straight? No, wait, I already am straight. Just tell me what the cigar is all about.
It can, will, and does drive nomal men away.
On the cusp of becoming a respectable olympic sport, ballroom dancing will be drestroyed by homosexuals and have it reduced to the homos and the faghags.
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Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. |
Okay. I've seen it a few times, and thought maybe it had something to do with bill & monica.
I've heard that it's not uncommon for German men to dance together, and it doesn't mean a thing.
Single men, and married ones, who don't dance don't know what they are missing. Become a decent dancer and women will vie for your attention; and many of them are very attractive.
I don't dance. Tried it and never liked it. Reading blows away dancing hands down in my book. (Don't like TV much either. LOL)
<.article says >>>So when the two men don their matching see-through chiffon shirts to dance together, they alternate the lead.
<.fintan says >>>Okay, that's enough for me.
More than enough for me.
BALLROOM dancing not polka.
This is about american homosexual finding another venue to display their private sex act.
If this progresses, it will kill ballroom in the olympics.
Ever hear of mens figure skating?
agreed
If that's not the case, I'm reading wrong.
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