If you're a (straight) guy without a partner, it would be better to have a female instructor, period. Dancing with men is just...different. Men are just bigger and feel different to dance with. If you're gay, then by all means, if that's what you're interested in, go ahead.

If you're a guy with a partner, then I would suggest a female instructor initially, while you're learning. When you get to be better, it won't really matter, although you should probably get coaching from both male and female coaches at some point.

Learn more? Don't know.
Learn different things? Probably.

I find I get a different bias on leading and the reasons behind minor body actions to give subtle leads. A man is also (generally) more practiced at dancing as man so should be able to teach the man's part better.

Bear in mind though that you will need to dance with your teacher. He will have be used to it but it may feel strange or embarassing to you. Also his dancing as a lady may not be as good as a female teacher.

Best bet would be to have teachers of both gender at some stage. Regardless of gender, different teachers will teach you different things.

Gender should not be an issue. However you should obtain a variety of opinions and inputs from many and varied sources as you progress through various stages of learning the art.

When you become a really accomplished dancer you may find that you and your partner as a couple are able to execute the actions better than you or your partner can dance them with the coach. At this stage he/ she will obtain most of his/ her information by observing and conversing with you. There is no point in actually dancing with the student, especially if your coach is physically frail but nonetheless very wise.Because one is looking at the "bigger picture" and things that are more artistic and harder to quantity. At this point in your dancing, gender really does not matter.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself learning the most from some frail, old man or lady that can barely walk without a walking stick
.

Regards,
Len.

When you choose a private instructor the differences are subtle from perswon to person gender to gender. You want what is best for you. Which is a tricky question without asking thousands of questions first like is your focus competitive or social, are you taking one lessons ten or fifty with the instructor. And how lonmg odes your body need to accept ideas.

yes a male instructor can lead stronger however he is used to explaing the ladies development a little nore often And a lady can follow better but has often been focused on creating great leaders. Th s best solution is to spend some hours with bith to find out which communicates with you better. Especially check their communication traingin and teaching background over their dancing ability.

Above all have fun even if you're competing. j. ;-p ?

jo

A good female instructor knows what she should be feeling and knows how to tell the man what he should be trying to do. The woman had a male instructor. It will be quite some time before a male instructor would be of any benefit. I've done it once or twice and I can imagine at the advanced levels it can be useful. It can actually get similar to receiving coaching. However, I recommend a woman for the majority of your instruction. She will dance the woman's part better than the man will dance the woman's part

My instructor is female (charmingly so... ;-p ), but she's really good in explaining how I'm supposed to be leading in the steps, which is really useful. Last friday I went to a practice party they held at the studio, and got to dance with a whole bunch of new students, and I knew exactly where and how to lead them, and I got a huge number of compliments on how good I was!

Ahh, ego gratification......

Personally I think you will benefit from both but are more likely to end up with a female.Seeing as you shall have to learn to lead and the female instructors know the men's steps just as well as the men do. Yet the male instructor may teach out of experience. But I would think that if you are a guy go for a female instructor.I myself am dancing with a male instructor ( seeing as I am female)and thus I think --go for the opposite gender!!!
And Enjoy Every Second!!
good luck