jj,
It depends on the dancer :~} When I take group lessons I find that really most of the men about your height are the better dancers. Many of the very tall men tend to dance small and hunch over and try and compensate for the fact that a lot of women are somewhere in the lower 5' range. When they do that it puts a lot of weight on me and it makes it more like slogging through mud then dancing.
To be honest though I am always happy to dance with anyone who is actually trying to dance. The only exception are the jerks who have been dancing two or three months and think they should be in advanced classes and then blame the woman for any and every mistake that gets made. I know some women who do that as well so it isn't a gender specific problem.
If the girls are coming to dance with you it means you aren't only a good technician but a nice person to dance with. It says alot about you at least from my perspective.
For wingspan (extension) it is nice to dance with someone who can match mine and be able to really fly, but that doesn't mean he has to be a lot taller, it just means he has to have a good frame and mean to have it.
I do have a minor addiction to Italian dance shoes so my latins are 4" and my smooths are 3" heels but if I were practical at all I would be in 1" heels as well.
