Can I Get A Dance…Please? Back

Jun 16, 2010

By Imasteppa

Every year, there have been numerous major steppers sets all over the country. People make hotel reservations, pay for airline tickets,

rent cars, etc. Bottom line…people spend money! It’s no secret that out of town steppers love to travel to be with other steppers. Most notably they love Chicago steppers. They love the ambience, they love to watch them and they love to dance with them. However, for all the people that like to travel, I received quite a bit of feedback from individuals who were not going to out of town sets for one specific reason. I call myself writing this commentary in an effort to get the wheels of thought to spinning.

Here’s the number one reason that out of town steppers have given me over the years as to why they don’t attend out of town sets. "Every time I go out of town and Chicago heavy hitters are there…they only want to dance with each other the whole time. I’m not paying that amount of money to just sit around and watch them perform with each other when they can dance with each other in Chicago.”

I tried to explain away that assertion by interjecting this thought. People are always most comfortable with people they know or people that are in their peer group when it comes to steppin. Personally, I am going to make a concerted effort to dance with men from all over, but as a city, I think we should always try to take care of "home” first. Why should we expect Chicago steppers to be any different?

My comment was promptly met with this response from several individuals, "Tracey, you are not a traveling instructor that makes your workshop money off of people like me. There is a certain expectation I have that I will get to dance with one of the women or men from Chicago because I ask them to. I’m not trying to watch them dance with each other all night long showing off! Out of towners need the floor time with them. They act like they never get to dance with each other at home!”

Valid argument or invalid whining? Are we suggesting that Chicago heavy hitters become dance puppets for the out of towners who spend their money to bring them there in the first place? Is this the price of doing business with the invited workshop instructors?

What do you think?