Interestingly, Johannes has addressed some of our thoughts in his most prominent press quote about the dance:
‘To be able to dance with a friend I respect and adore is joyous. There's bromance galore between us, but there were no male and female roles, just free movement. It was beautiful, classy and elegant.’
Perhaps I am reading too much into this but I get the impression that he is keen to make the point that same sex dancing isn’t necessarily related to sexuality* and that same sex dancing doesn’t mean that traditional male and female dance roles no longer exist.
My dance world (Swing, so Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate and St Louis Shag, Jazz roots and Charleston) has never been standardised for competition or medals, so is a lot more free. It also has a history of same-sex dancing, in part due to world war 2.
There is a swing festival in Denmark next year that has an almost entirely female teacher line-up - funnily enough it seems like they’ve been criticised for not having an inclusive enough name 😒
www.leadingladiesswingfestival.dk/index.html
*same sex couples wanting to learn together/events organised by and for the gay community being exceptions