Nowadays, if anyone were to claim that this is solely women's dance, most of you would disagree. I have never found a dancer who wasn't interested in watching men perform. Khaled's shows and workshops are always sold out. The interest in Horacio Cifuentes coming over to the UK in May is quite feverish. Mahmoud Redha is viewed with reverence. In fact I could happily name another 10 or so names who would excite great interest in the UK ME community, and could probably drag up another hundred or so who would deserve equal fame. But one thing unites these male dancers more than anything. Not one of them is British. How could Billy Elliot have aspired to the Royal Ballet if his first teacher had, instead of welcoming him in, told him to sod off cos he might upset the girls ? This would be true of ME dance here in the UK (but emphatically not in the rest of the world where male dancers are now quite common). Here shamingly few of you who would consider for even one moment the idea of accepting a male into one of your classes. I have written before on this lack of male access to classes but sadly nothing changed. However, subsequent discussions since have shown me that I missed where your real issues lie last time. So, this time I hope to address the three major problems that are raised time and time again. The first time male with no track record You're worried that any man in a class is probably there for the wrong reasons and you don't want to have to have a confrontation if it turns out that you're right. This is the biggie, the one that towers over all the others, so we'll deal with that first. The ideas I'm putting down here are a mix of what worked for me and other suggestions put up on websites by several US dancers who have a pretty good track record with encouraging male dancers. First off, a man telephones you and asks to join your class. You don't know who he is and you've no real idea what he's about. You've heard all the stories about weirdoes and perverts in other classes and your first thought is "No thank you". But is that fair ? You could at least talk to him, after all, if you like watching male dancers you at least owe him a chance to hang himself. So ask him some questions about his dance background, if any, and why he wants to learn this dance in particular. I think you're perfectly within your rights to point out that in western culture this is a dance that has become strongly associated with women and that it seems a bit unusual for him to want to try it. Take as long as you like, it's his phone bill after all. I don't think there are any right or wrong answers here because what you're listening for is sincerity. If he mumbles and goes "er well errr, dunno" I think you have reasonable grounds for doubt, but if he's willing to discuss his motivations, and I confess mine were a little off the wall, then you know that on one level he's being honest with you.

So he's passed the first test that he might have a genuine desire to learn, but that's still no guarantee of anything. So invite him down to one of your classes on a one-off trial basis only. Explain that you're concerned for your current group and that it's important that you get a feel for how he fits in with them. Then when he arrives I'd like to think that you will quickly get an idea of what he's about. In the US I'm told that almost all of the guys who get this far are genuine, but if you have any doubts move him to front and centre, which takes the rest of the class from his eyeline. It also means that you can see quickly whether he's paying attention to what he's being taught or trying to steal a glance elsewhere. Which isn't to say that an entire class should be devoted to man control. Frankly if it's quickly apparent that he can't keep his eyes under control, call a break and tell him you're sorry but he should go. But most of the time what you're gonna see is somebody throwing a sweat to do the most basic moves. Again from the US the feel is that 80% of the time you don't see the guy again after two classes. 10% will last for several, but it's only the final 10% who stay on. So the upshot is that most of the time the guy won't come for long anyway and you get to have the "at-least-I-tried-gold-star-halo" of clear conscience. So give him a go, it probably won't hurt that much Female beginner's feel self-conscious All beginners do, both male and female. In fact men are feeling like that on several levels. They're in a class full of women (a new experience in itself) doing something that society at large and their friends in particular think is not an appropriate activity for them. He'll probably struggle with that for a couple of weeks, let alone learning how to do the moves. Also I've noticed that beginner females tend to come into classes with a certain amount of Hollywood / Orientalist harem fantasies that this dance is about expressing women's sexuality.

No wonder they don't want men around when they're learning it !! Or at least not straight men. It's only with time as they go deeper in that they realise that this is in fact about human sensuality where male expression is just as appropriate as women's. In fact once they have seen men such as Khaled dance they often develop a more enthusiastic attitude towards sharing a class with men. Conveniently forgetting that it is their own intital attitude that snuffs out the hopes of males who wish to learn. We all know that this dance is not just about women, but to make that go from theory to practice implies that men have got to be beginners somewhere and that it'll be in a class with beginner women. My class have size / physical / emotional problems and don't want to deal with them around men Difficult. But this sounds more like therapy and it's worth asking whether you're qualified to offer that ? I would be happier if you described the class as Dance Therapy for women. This would differentiate you from those who run dance classes. I am frequently told that for many women ME dance classes are an hour or twos refuge from the world of men. I have no issue with that so long as it is advertised as such. But I am told this too often about too many classes. Are most of you really incapable of sharing this dance with men ? And if so, don't you feel just a tiny bit hypocritical when you watch men dance and go to their w/s ?

Nobody can make you accept men into classes, but the problem is that so few women seem willing to take the chance that the male dancer has been all but rendered extinct in the UK. Yet most of you enjoy watching men dance, so if you want to increase the chances of having a male dancer to appreciate (let's get self-interest into it shall we ?) then you at least owe it to yourself that when the next guy rings, you know where he can go to find a class.

Helen Waldie