Accepting or Refusing a Dance

There are two lines of thought regarding the matter whether one has to accept a dance invitation. According to one, you should nearly always accept it, and yet another states that you have every right to refuse.

We personally believe that one should try to respond, “Yes, thank you, I’d love to” as much as they can, unless you have an arrangement with your romantic partner. There is again a discrepancy as to whether you may/should dance only with your partner (or your escort to the venue) or it is a breach of etiquette of social dance event. Use your common sense and agree with your partner or your date beforehand: this will prevent any potential misunderstanding. A common agreement for romantic partners is to dance with people they both know and trust.

Ladies, I leave it up to your consciousness to decide to refuse on the basis of whether the asker does not dance well or smells bad. Just please know that there is not much that can be more demoralizing to a man, especially a novice dancer, than being rejected; your three minutes of fun are not worth ruining someone else’s entire evening.

Please note that even if you have a steady dance partner it will improve your skills greatly to dance half of the night with other people.

Refusing a Dance

• If you refuse someone a dance you should refrain from dancing with someone else for that one song. This is very important.
• You have a right to refuse to dance with someone for whatever reasons you have. Politely but clearly you should state that you do not want to dance with them. Let them know that “No really means no” without insulting them.