Ballroom dance that breaks gender roles | Trevor Copp and Jeff Fox 

+Maximus People like you prove that we still need it.

People like him prove we don't need any more of it. How exactly does this sort of dancing help the lgbtq community? It doesn't help anyone. It is useless.

Thomas Cameron It's in the way we think. Traditions often dictates our thoughts and hence, our actions. However, by breaking the stereotypical gender roles away bit by bit through revolutionizing matters in our daily lives, like dance, family structures or laws, it would be changing the way we think by constantly reminding us the fact that no matter you are men or women, gay or straight, (I'm going to regret saying this) Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, we all have equal opportunities to lead a dance, marry the person we love or run for president as long as people involved are in consent. I think this is how the world has overcome inequality and progressed to equality.

Yan Tse So why are we still hearing about it then? I actually agree but yet these propaganda videos are still being produced. Same goes with media and everywhere else. Besides, tradition isn't fundamentally bad. Tradition did create the society we live in. Is that something we really want to screw with to much? Is it possible that by breaking our traditions we can accidentally break our society?

No, we can't break our society by breaking traditions. You are right in that tradition gave us the society we have. A stale society that resists improvement. Luckily, we are changing that.

Zing!

Ignore the idiots. You're awesome

***** And I said exactly so, nothing is stopping her.

Awww, is a woman on the internet hurting your honey boo boo masculinity?

as a man i was told all kind of crap too, so what

yes keep feeding the trolls

No.

see, we wish they gave us artistic and educational content still

Sean Lumly meh it's just the social justice, the rest is also meh

Murderless Crow yes yes yes

That's due to the inevitable backlash against the current wave of authoritarian feminist who keep trying to push their agenda and ideology on everybody else, to the point of controlling what others say. This is only the beginning. Go listen to Professor Peterson from U of T (well, up until now anyway, he's about to lose his job for refusing to mouth the PC words the administration and the law is trying to force him to.)

Let them be. Glad you got the message.

What's stopping you learning the men's steps? I've never been to a class where a teacher will stop students learning the opposite role's steps. In fact, as a teacher I'd encourage it. Also, in high level competative dancing the lady dancer is incredibly active.

Then ask, you'll get taught, I've been taught both upon request.

I feel like the problem does begins with saying "man's step" instead of "lead's step".

Yeah. The only people I've ever duo danced with are my sisters or female friends.

Sadly- true.

theslimeylimey​ It's not about dance routines. It's about broadening or understanding of the restrictive nature of gender roles, through dance.

theslimeylimey You didn't even watch the video. They address the points of rules in dance styles.

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Whit H I admittedly skipped through the video in little jumps because I didn't hear anything other than dance so I guess ill have to watch the whole thing now and see if my impression was accurate.

You'd have to "get it" to get it here. Anyone leaving a negative comment doesnt get it.

Whit H +

It's very high-energy in here.

I can almost taste the palpable sexual tension in the air.

Quick, get some popcorn! Sit back and enjoy the show

Nikitoz9595 I'm just here to spread the love, man

Nikitoz9595 OH YES LOL LETS GET THINGS STARTED.. MARRIAGE IS A SACRED THING BETWEEN 1 MAN AND 1 WOMAN VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP GOD BLESS AMERICA

Your dancing should already be a conversation. If the man is dictatorial his backline will break and he will become army. ballroom is led through the lower body, and the lady has the choice of how to continue. This talk makes the premise that ballroom hasn't changed in hundreds of years. I'd like to see him tell Karen Hilton that lady dancers can't be strong and powerful. At the end of the day it can be summed up when he says "this looks beautiful", and puts himself into an ugly twisted posture. His level seems too low to really know what he is talking about.

​@@mavsworld1733so you're saying ball room doesn't make the masculine lead for the whole dance?

@@Catthepunk Yes, because lead and follow in ballroom isn't about physically imposing your wishes on your partner, that's domestic violence dancing. The lead chooses directions and exerts more influence on figure choices, but ballroom is a continual conversation from initiating action, if a lady doesn't do what is expected you have to go with what she is doing. As an example, if I go to lead a reverse turn in foxtrot, but the lady predicts a Telemark telespin then that's what I'm going to end up doing, because there's no way I'm going to counter the force a good lady would be able to put into that while looking good and not making her very angry with me.

@@mavsworld1733 you skirted my question. Nvm

@@Catthepunk Your question is attempting to simplify a complex question. I don't know your level of dancing, but I am a professional dancer. The answer I think you want me to give is that the lead chooses figures, but real lead and follow doesn't work at that level, because high level dancing is much more about playing with the music and shapes, which is far more collaborative. Heck, low level social dancing should also be much more about shape and musicality. You could even go so far as to argue that a lot of people social dancing have no lead or follow, because both the lead and follow are going through routines and steps that they have learned before the dance. If they want to deviate from this then you will require both members to contribute. As mentioned, I am a professional ballroom dancer and I take part in social dancing with dancers who are much lower level than I am. I am taking on the role of leader, but often due to the lady predicting, she will be leading a significant portion of the dance (nearly everything after the initiating step). This is not good lead follow, but an example of how even with the lead strictly leading they will actually be following a percentage of the time.

Perhaps in recent ballroom and latin dance culture, but it's a very old concept for some other dance styles. It's frustrating for me to see these men taking credit for such an old idea, repeating the idea over and over again instead of exploring it in depth, then wasting time showing off their dancing skills. How much of this was just to stroke their egos? This talk was needlessly drawn out for how little information it provided. I don't see how it got accepted by the event organizers in this format. Good idea. Terrible format :(

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Beatriz Mioliu One thing we can agree with: This looks a lot more difficult than it looks XD +

+Skian Sukeru yes haha

Thank you Beatriz; I'm so glad.

Propaganda often has many downvotes.

Go Milo! :D

Graeme Evans good satire with truth. This whole video is stupid.

I used to take ballroom dancing. I quit after the 3rd time a partner told me to 'stop leading' when we were practicing a choreographed piece we had just learnt. They would rather miss a beat and stop than have the girl lead the dance back on track.

Thats because you are dancing a dance someone has already danced. I would have to do the same playing guitar.

I'm just going to second the other woman and say that I have also been, er, chastised for leading dances (usually 'by accident' because it just seemed to be what the flow of the dance called for). The whole point of salsa is male-female traditional power dynamics, so shaking it up a bit is actually new and, yes, fun.

I agree. And btw there is nothing wrong going with biological natural roles. People dont understand human nature these days. One cannot change how humans are.

Love you too Jordan!

So glad you're impressed Bella :) It took awhile to get here. The dialogue between life on stage and off is indeed the whole point.

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Thank you. We wanted simple.

Remember when girls could like "boy" things and considered herself a tomboy? Now little Samantha says she can be a girl one day and a boy the next.

gender identity and gender are different :)

Because it's on TED, which is supposed to be a platform about technology, not dancing or gender ideology. Had this video been uploaded to a dance channel, most people would have had no issue with it. As it is, it is viewed as yet another attempt at social engineering by the current crop of gender-sensitive social justice engineers.

Bob Lake "Technology, Entertainment, Design". Does dancing not fall under Entertainment?

parkertin You do have a point there, broadly speaking. But the perception is generally that the "Entertainment" portion is linked to the "Technology and Design" parts of "TED". Fresh, ground breaking technical innovations to dazzle us in our lives and on the screen. This particular video isn't quite in that category. Besides, I already explained the "why" of the reaction it's getting. Debating me while refusing to accept my explanation is pointless. I told you what MY reason was. I dont care if you accept it or not. Just ask anyone else here why they are voting this video down.

Bob Lake Lets be real, most of the downvotes are because of the title and the two men, not because of the speech and the topic of dancing. With just the speech alone and another title, no one would bat an eye at it being the wrong category or it not fitting TED that well, but title and the dance seem to be triggering downvotes for a group of people.

Saskia H. Yeah, its because of the title and the two men dancing, but not on a first level, like you think. Look at my other answers. I downvoted, and its not because I,m homophope or transphobe, etc. Its because every social platform is pushing this stuff down everyone,s throats all the time and we are sick of it.

Thanks Yuuki.

+Trevor Copp You're very welcome! So nice to see you here. :)

You're welcome Spirit :)

Same lmao

lots of rightwing conservatists exist in the world.

+Schmonsy no its because this is a pointless video and most TED subscribers come here for science and tech videos and not "dance is racist because patriarchy"

(almost) all the "men" commenting are the ones who are enraged . "Men have to act a certain way" "We have to break gender roles" Pick one.

not just ladies,also men , congratulations

We felt the same. It's been happening of course since couples started dancing - but somehow isn't often organized beyond something at the edges of the dance floor. Glad it spoke to you.

Glad it connected for you.

Thanks Larissa. It has meant the world to us to do this.

I love how this translates - yes, let's do just that.

Dude, you haven't even had time to watch half the video. You shouldn't be making assumptions this quick.

I watched most of it. I don't mind the message stripped down, "that ideas need to evolve with the times." but this message is buried by social angst. I watch TED for scientific advances not social commentary. So my original statement is correct.

I know :/

as a form of public protest, why else? duh...

Exactly no science here

Have you ever considered that maybe different genders play different and COMPLIMENTARY roles in a relationship and everything else? I'm not saying that women should only be restricted to housework or that men should be the breadmakers. There should be a healthy compromise between any male-female cooperation, and that will look differently based on experience, culture, and personality. One gender cannot thrive without the help of the other. Genders will never be equal, whether it's physically, mentally, or emotionally. Human life is equal. Human dignity should be preserved. However, men and women are physiologically and neurologically wired differently (almost opposites). This isn't to say that one gender is superior or inferior to the other, which is what a lot of feminists and SJWs would say; in fact, it actually says that both genders are IRREPLACEABLE.

@ Paul- Sorry- Nice little black and white view of human nature, but if that were true, every male and female would gladly be equal contributors in a perfect world of equal give and take. It is precisely because people do not allow the vast continuum of human traits to be expressed on an individual basis that you have so much confusion in relationships. We are (taught) from birth what it is to be male and female. the truth is, its a mixed bag of masculine and feminine traits for both sexes based on how your particular brain is wired.

Whit H Yes, I mentioned that contact between genders would look different based on experience, culture, and PERSONALITY. Of course, personality traits exist (you even dare go to categorize them as male/female traits, apparently). There are less "masculine" males; there are also "dominant" females. There are plenty of couples whose personality falls more into the opposite genders court yet are able to make their relationships work. I agree on that point, but if you aren't willing to admit the fact that males and females are biologically and neurologically wired differently from each other, I'm afraid I can offer no case.

+Paul Kim My point was that you made sure not to offend anyone's freedom of choice, but declaring that men and women were wired differently, almost as opposites, if I remember correctly. Considering how clearly the roles for male and female are defined in society from birth, why wouldnt males and females act accordingly?

Whit H I'm not what you're getting at. I believe men and women are fundamentally different (with some variance due to other genetic and external factors). I'm merely explaining that this difference doesn't negate one gender's importance over another, but that the differences should be appreciated for their complimentary nature. But to answer your question, not acting according to gender roles can be contributed to a lot of different factors. I think in today's society, a lot of it comes down to not realizing that genders are complimentary and thus trying to compete with one another: to prove that one gender is somehow superior to the other.

Sweetie Senpai SJWs are looking to propagandize the rest of us are sick of it

@logicalempiricist that actually sounds appealing to me

Make gender roles great again or something? Since we have stopped to live in caves and hunt mammoths I not sure this has any use anymore.

logicalempiricist Believe or not, Tango was originally danced between men, as a sort of joke, and it was considered a degraded practice in the lowest ghettoest bars, then somehow evolved into what currently is, which is beautiful. Let's not go back to that and pretend it is attractive.

Psykosapien Military, Police, Firemen, Tradies, Bodyguards, Fighters, ect. Litrally anything that need physical strength men will be better at.

*+Felipe Gonzalez* Maybe it is not attractive to you. Why does everyone else need to agree with that?