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Dirty Blues
I received a bit of flack this weekend in Montreal. I was there for Montreal Bagel and Blues. At the Saturday late night dance, they decided to hold a 'dirty blues' contest. The winner would be the couple that danced the dirtiest well, or something similar. I was in the food room when they announced the contest and I decided to stay in there. I had no interest in watching or competing in the contest.

That is where I received the flack from people. Three follows asked me to come dance in the contest with them. I refused and said I was not competing. A few other dancers asked if I was competing, I said no. A couple of them asked me why.

Blues started off with a fairly bad reputation. There were many dancers who started in blues dancing when it was the norm for lots of people to be grinding up into each other. In the last few years, this has started to change. With workshops and traveling, the focus on blues seems to have switched more to connection and actual dancing. I like this change. When I see something like the ass contest they had at Denver Blues Summit 2007 or the dirty blues contest in Montreal, I feel that there are dancers that don't get the change.

I am the first to admit I sometimes dance dirty blues. Many people do. But it is not something I do often. It is only with the right people. And it is not the focus of my dancing. By having a contest, I felt the organizers were legitimizing and promoting dirty blues dancing instead of just blues dancing.

I believe my feelings were justified on Sunday when one of my favorite follows of the weekend complained that after the contest that almost every guy tried to put creepy moves on her. It lessened her dancing enjoyment and I am sure other follows had similar experience. Why promote actions that encourage guys and girls to be creepy? We have enough of it already.