Hello, dancer from 4 hours away wanting to visit this smaller NJ/NY event! If anyone is able to host me or share accommodations I would love you forever
(sorry for posting in general Reddit, I just don’t think there’s a housing page for this 😅)
Kind of a silly comparison, but have you all ever felt like meeting dancers in the scene feels like unlocking characters in a video game? Like, you go in and start off with a limited list of characters (the people who specifically ask noobies to dance or are super extroverted and just ask everyone) to start off with, and then after gaining some experience YOU ask someone to dance and they just kind of exist as an option from then onwards.
I've noticed in 2 different dance styles that people will go months to YEARS not even looking your direction at socials, but if you ask them a singular time then all of a sudden they're "unlocked" and will start to ask you to dance.
It doesn't even have to be an "oh wow this person is actually really good, I guess they're worthy" type of sentiment; I have fairly mediocre dance friends with whack connection and timing issues (love 'em, but just being honest lmao) get asked by higher level folks just because they've been asked before by said friend. I've also noticed that dancing in classes doesn't count towards this, it HAS to be a social dance experience.
Y'all know what I mean?
I'm a 32M social dancer, which is to say I go to dance socials (Latin, Swing, Ballroom, etc) where everyone dances with everyone. Before any assumptions are made about my intentions, I'm just gonna say now that my split of demographics I typically dance with is probably 80% older women (50+), 5% men, 10% women my age I'm not attracted to, and then 5% is women who I would actively want to pursue something if ever the possibility arose.
I saw a gal the other day on Hinge that I see every week at a social but have never danced with whether due to some level of intimidation (she's a higher level dancer in a style I just started) or because she is just so very much my type that I feel general nervousness looking to interact with her. Idk why my brain works the way it does, but seeing her on a dating app has me like "o she's just a person, could I maybe just start asking her to dance and see what happens?"
The question isn't at all "Do I assume knowing she's single means it's fair game to hit on her irl" because I know that's odd, but moreso would it be creepy start asking her to dance now that I've sent a like on a dating app? Would it APPEAR like I'm doing the former? Quite frankly I don't know if I even register as existing to her, but theoretically she should vaguely know I exist as we've been in the same space every week for like 4 months now even if we've never danced/talked/made eye contact. Who knows.