On a snobbier venue for internet discussion on dancing, there's always some twitty little nattering about how the competitive dancers are so loathe to go lower themselves and dance among the pleibian social dancers and whatnot- the arguments go on and on and ON... I have my opinions, you have yours, and that's NOT the point of this thread.
The point IS that there seems to be a misconception about what defines a social dancer, be it on my part, or these other people's. Whichever, I'm just curious to have it clarified somehow.
I always felt a competitive dancer... well... competed, and a social dancer... didn't, or maybe didn't *always* - preferred to just dance at charity events, dances, parties, socials, and anywhere Dave Hamilton wasn't sporting the absolute most DASHING pinstripe suit with his fab little see-through clipboard around the edge of the floor.
I've always called myself a social dancer. I've never competed.
I have one regular partner and dance almost exclusively with him. The exceptions would be my coach, one very pretty fellow that we're not-really-teaching-but-kinda-unofficially, and another of the same ilk.
When I see these discussions on social dancing, it seems that the "social dancers" go to these events with the purpose of "being social"- mixing, interdancing, etc. with everyone, so that got me to thinking...
Am I a social dancer if I don't "socialize" and interdance, just sticking to my "partners"? I don't compete, so I can't be considered a competitive dancer.
My partner and I don't go to dance events with the intent of dancing with other people (not that we discourage it). We're a partnership, we dance with each other, and if we get asked by others or dance with students, that's ok, if not, that's ok, too. So long as we're dancing, we're happy.
Again, we don't compete, but people always come up and say (people who know who we are and what we do) "Oh, well- we're not like you guys, we're just social dancers"... um- what *does* that make us, then? We practice technique and syllabus as religiously as competitive dancers, and even attend comps to study, we're always trying to better ourselves through private lessons, practice, etc. so the social dancers that say this to us assume that we're 'different'. It's just very odd, and I feel like an in-between or a hybrid.
Hmm, a new label could be a-social non-competer. Maybe there's a pill for that.