Why research straight men who dance with men?
Dr Matthew Hall
10/6/20243 min read
If you tuned into Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, you might have caught a landmark moment; the show's first all-male partnership. For many viewers, this felt like a breakthrough – partner dancing finally embracing male same-sex couples. For all the attention it received, one would be forgiven for thinking that same-sex dancing was an entirely new thing in the UK and just about LGBTQ inclusivity. However, men dancing with men has been happening long before the 2020s. Until recently, it just hadn't been happening in television studios or competition floors, but rather unfolding in hired church halls, community centres, and crowded social dance events across the UK, largely invisible to researchers, institutions, and the wider public.
Beyond the ballroom: where the real shift is happening
When talking about partner dance, most people picture the polished performances of Strictly or the competitive world of DanceSport. But there's a whole ecosystem of social dancing that operates entirely outside of these frameworks. Swing-derived dances, such as Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing and Modern Jive, place emphasis on improvised "lead/follow" dynamics rather than choreographed routines. Traditionally, this has meant that a man learns to lead, and a woman learns to follow, with little exception.
This has become less and less so. Since swing dancing's popular revival in the 1980s, communities have grown to networks of tens of thousands of individuals, all passionate about dancing together for the joy of the music, social connection and the technical challenge. Some Modern Jive franchises, such as Ceroc, routinely draw 1,200–2,000 people to their events. Both West Coast Swing and Modern Jive thrive precisely because you can dance them to contemporary chart music, not just specific genres or specialist compositions. And as these communities have expanded over time and adapted to new trends in music, something else fascinating has emerged; they're becoming less strictly gendered. Male followers now compete and win in open categories and straight men are actively learning to follow as a secondary skill, regularly leading other men in classes and social events.
This is no longer just a fringe activity. It’s a genuine cultural shift that’s been hiding in plain sight away from the gaze of popular media, research and social commentary.
The research gap we can't ignore
Due to this absence from the popular gaze, heterosexual men dancing with men (MDM) has been largely ignored by academics. Existing studies on gender and partner dance – whether examining Ballroom, Salsa, or Lindy Hop – have overwhelmingly focused on dynamics between men and women. Research on same-sex representation has concentrated on televised Ballroom and Latin or explicitly queer dance communities, like the Buenos Aires Tango scene. All the time overlooking the increasing participation of straight men.
This matters because these men aren't performing queerness or participating in LGBTQ-specific spaces. They're renegotiating masculinity within predominantly heterosexual social environments, often without institutional support or even the vocabulary to frame what they're doing. West Coast Swing and Modern Jive have made recent strides toward "de-gendering" their disciplines at organisational levels, with Lindy Hop having a longer history of this work. Yet a number of local franchises remain hesitant. The result is patchy, inconsistent progress that has left dancers navigating these shifts largely on their own.
Why this research matters now
Understanding heterosexual MDM isn't a niche academic curiosity, but central to building genuinely inclusive dance communities. When straight men become comfortable leading and following with other men, several things happen. The pool of available dance partners expands for everyone. The rigid gendering of dance roles softens. LGBTQ dancers encounter fewer assumptions and barriers. And perhaps most significantly, these men model alternative masculinities simply by participating – no divisive agenda required, no vocal claims to allyship, just the act of dancing.
However, without research into their experiences, practices, and the barriers they face, dance organisations are left guessing at how to support this evolution. Are straight MDM encountering resistance from peers? Do they need different pedagogical approaches when learning opposite-gendered roles? What institutional structures help or hinder their participation?
What comes next
The visibility of same-sex dancing on television is certainly welcome, but it risks framing the phenomenon as purely performative, newly minted and reserved for openly queer dancers and celebs. The reality is messier, more grassroots, and definitely more interesting. Straight men dancing with men in social dance scenes represents a quiet revolution in how masculinity is practised and performed in everyday life. They're not waiting for prime-time validation - they're already on the dance floor. As such, researchers need to meet them there.
Dr Matthew Hall is a Teaching Fellow at Bath Spa University and Visting Researcher at the University of Surrey, currently investigating masculinity, gender norms, and partner dance cultures in the UK.