I am Here. Where Are All the Other (Straight White) Male Dancers?

Abstract

In the demographics of the American dance world—both professional and social—one group appears to be underrepresented: straight white men. Despite being the second largest group of Americans and over-represented in many other fields of endeavor, they are proportionally the least represented in social dance. Those men that do dance often began later in their lives than their female peers. Why are so many straight white men missing-in-action on the dance floor; and why, despite boundaries built by social pressure and a lack of enthusiasm or desire to change that fact, do some of “us” slip through and onto the floor? Through oral accounts, personal experience, and literature research, the research examines why so many men refuse to dance, and the motivations of those men that do dance—like me.