benjwrdill

I agree! It's important for advanced dancers to ask newcomers to dance for all of these reasons. I also acknowledge that dancing with a beginner can be difficult and at times dangerous if they are overenthusiastic or have unsafe technique, and not all advanced dancers have the energy to meet that in a safe way.

In the lindy hop community, there has been a very strong pushback on the "don't say no to a dance" sentiment that was inherited from ballroom communities and is advocated in the featured article.

There's some tension there between making the scene inclusive and keeping people comfortable. I do think it's important to encourage people to dance with newcomers, but there's also the fact that it is -work- to dance with a newbie. I'm still forming my thoughts on the matter but currently I encourage all the leaders of my (admittedly small) scene to dance with newcomers when they have the energy to do so.