When you ask someone for a dance and they decline - only to get up and dance with someone else. That one gets my vote.

"Dancing is a contact sport; football is a hitting sport" - Vince Lombardi

Granted, I agree with everyone who believes that refusing one partner and then dancing with another is downright rude.

However, what about dance floor etiquette? A story you wouldn't believe:

I was dancing a cha-cha with my partner at a social. Another couple was very near us on the floor, practicing their cha-cha routine. This other couple kept on bumping into us, quite aggressively, I must admit. After the 4th or 5th time, my partner got so angry, he reached around me to kick the other gentleman and kicked me in the process. I immediately told him how wrong he was. He apologized to the other gentleman. It took him about an hour to apologize to me.

Talk about rude...

I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but last summer I was at a dance at a studio in the Phoenix area when one of the staff was trying to persuade me to buy a product he was selling; something he does on the side.

I myself just don't feel that the dance is the proper time or place for this. I'm there to dance; not listen to how superior or wonderful some product is and why I need to have it.

"Dancing is a contact sport; football is a hitting sport" - Vince Lombardi

that I don't have the right to refuse a dance with you? And that you would rather hear some off the cuff reason, which is more than likely a white lie?

(Yes, I'm playing Devil's advocate.)
Though if I'm saying that I'm sitting this one out and then get up and dance, that's rude. At times, I've been known to need a brief breather at the beginning of the song and then finish it up with someone who's asked (especially after a brisk V. Waltz or Swing). Would you rather wait for me to catch my breath, and miss part or all of the song, or be given the opporunity to find another partner and dance the whole song? And does that person constantly refuse you, and why would that be?

But the 3 rudest things I have seen and heard, is the person who sneezes into their hands, wipes it off on their pants, and proceeds to dance with a partner. Secondly, as a straight, tall woman, who will step in as a leader when classes are unbalanced, I once had a woman refuse to dance with me because "She wasn't that way." Well, honey, if I was, I sure in the heck wouldn't hit on you. Lastly, the partner who continues to count out the tempo after you have found it again, after briefly losing it. >

All and all, dance people tend to be pretty polite, it's only the dance snobs, and meat-marketers that you have to watch out for.

-TheDitz

Your's is an interesting idea. I have a steady dance partner, and when we go to socials at one particular place, my girlfriend always makes herself available to dance with him. However, he doesn't care to dance with her. He just politely never asks her for a dance. I'm sure that he would agree with you in that people shouldn't be "obligated" to dance with someone.

As far as being rude, if a person refuses a dance, it is my opinion that they should refuse it with anyone because they decided to "sit one out." Once I was asked 3 times for a VW. The 4th person to ask me for the dance was the owner of the studio. He jokingly said, "You simply can't refuse me." My reply was, "Even though I just turned down 3 others?" He then went to ask someone else; I told him I would have another dance with him.

Happy Dancing,
Hoofer

I'd agree with that one. That is, assuming the person you asked didn't give you a reason for wanting to dance with someone else. I don't hold it against someone if she's got a reason for looking for another partner and she tells me it when she turns me down. If she doesn't give a reason and then proceedes to dance with someone else, that's wrong.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

There was this one lady who would approach me and insist that I dance with some particular person; usually a friend of theirs they brought with them. I only dance upon request be it mine or one made of me and not on command.

"Dancing is a contact sport; football is a hitting sport" - Vince Lombardi