WEBVTT

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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Trevor Copp: When Dancing With the Stars
first hit the airwaves,

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that is not what it looked like.

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(Laughter)

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Jeff and I were full-time
ballroom dance instructors

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when the big TV ballroom revival hit,

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and this was incredible.

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I mean, one day we would say "fox-trot,"

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and people were like "Foxes trotting."

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(Laughter)

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And the next day they were telling us

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the finer points of a good feather step.

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And this blew our minds.

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I mean, all of the ballroom dance
geeking out that we had always done

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on why salsa worked differently
than the competitive rumba

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and why tango traveled unlike the waltz,

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all of that just hit
the public consciousness,

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and it changed everything.

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But running parallel to this excitement,

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the excitement that suddenly,
somehow, we were cool --

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(Laughter)

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there was also this reservation.

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Why this and why now?

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Jeff Fox: When Trevor and I
would get together for training seminars

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or just for fun,

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we'd toss each other around, mix it up,

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take a break from having
to lead all the time.

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We even came up with a system
for switching lead and follow

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while we were dancing,

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as a way of taking turns and playing fair.

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It wasn't until we used that system
as part of a performance

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in a small festival

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that we got an important tap
on the shoulder.

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Lisa O'Connell, a dramaturge
and director of a playwright center,

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pulled us aside after the show and said,

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"Do you have any idea
how political that was?"

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(Laughter)

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So that began an eight-year
collaboration to create a play

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which not only further developed
our system for switching,

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but also explored the impact
of being locked into a single role,

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and what's worse,

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being defined by that single role.

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TC: Because, of course,

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classic Latin and ballroom dancing
isn't just a system of dancing;

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it's a way of thinking, of being,

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of relating to each other

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that captured a whole period's values.

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There's one thing that stayed
consistent, though:

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the man leads

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and the woman follows.

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So street salsa, championship tango,
it's all the same --

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he leads, she follows.

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So this was gender training.

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You weren't just learning to dance --

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you were learning to "man" and to "woman."

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It's a relic.

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And in the way of relics,
you don't throw it out,

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but you need to know
that this is the past.

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This isn't the present.

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It's like Shakespeare:
respect it, revive it -- great!

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But know that this is history.

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This doesn't represent how we think today.

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So we asked ourselves:

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If you strip it all down,

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what is at the core of partner dancing?

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JF: Well, the core principle
of partner dancing

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is that one person leads,
the other one follows.

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The machine works the same,
regardless of who's playing which role.

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The physics of movement doesn't really
give a crap about your gender.

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(Laughter)

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So if we were to update the existing form,

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we would need to make it
more representative

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of how we interact here, now, in 2015.

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When you watch ballroom,
don't just watch what's there.

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Watch what's not.

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The couple is always
only a man and a woman.

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Together.

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Only.

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Ever.

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So, same-sex and gender nonconformist
couples just disappear.

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In most mainstream international
ballroom competitions,

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same-sex couples are rarely
recognized on the floor,

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and in many cases,

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the rules prohibit them completely.

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TC: Try this: Google-image,
"professional Latin dancer,"

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and then look for an actual Latino person.

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(Laughter)

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You'll be there for days.

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What you will get is page after page
of white, straight Russian couples

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spray-tanned to the point of mahogany.

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(Laughter)

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There are no black people,
there are no Asians,

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no mixed-race couples,

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so basically, non-white people
just disappeared.

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Even within the white straight
couple only paradigm --

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she can't be taller,

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he can't be shorter,

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she can't be bolder,

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he can't be gentler --

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if you were to take a ballroom dance

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and translate that into a conversation

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and drop that into a movie,

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we, as a culture,
would never stand for this.

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He dictates, she reacts.

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No relationship -- gay,
straight or anything --

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that we would regard as remotely healthy
or functional looks like that,

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and yet somehow,

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you put it on prime time,
you slap some makeup on it,

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throw the glitter on, put it out there
as movement, not as text,

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and we, as a culture,

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tune in and clap.

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We are applauding our own absence.

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Too many people have disappeared
from partner dancing.

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(Music)

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(Applause)

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JF: Now, you just saw
two man dancing together.

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(Laughter)

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And you thought it looked ...

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a little strange.

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Interesting -- appealing, even --

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but a little bit odd.

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Even avid followers of the same-sex
ballroom circuit can attest

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that while same-sex partner dancing
can be dynamic and strong and exciting,

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it just doesn't quite seem to fit.

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Aesthetically speaking,

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if Alida and I take the classic
closed ballroom hold ...

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this is considered beautiful.

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(Laughter)

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But why not this?

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(Laughter)

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See, the standard image that the leader
must be larger and masculine

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and the follower smaller and feminine --

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this is a stumbling point.

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TC: So we wanted to look at this
from a totally different angle.

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So, what if we could keep
the idea of lead and follow

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but toss the idea that this
was connected to gender?

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Further, what if a couple
could lead and follow each other

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and then switch?

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And then switch back?

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What if it could be like a conversation,

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taking turns listening and speaking,
just like we do in life?

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What if we could dance like that?

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We call it "Liquid Lead Dancing."

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JF: Let's try this with a Latin dance,

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salsa.

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In salsa, there's a key transitional step,
called the cross-body lead.

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We use it as punctuation
to break up the improvisation.

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It can be a little tricky to spot
if you're not used to looking for it,

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so here it is.

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One more time for the cheap seats.

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(Laughter)

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And here's the action one more time,

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nice and slow.

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Now, if we apply liquid-lead thinking
to this transitional step,

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the cross-body lead becomes a point

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where the lead and the follow can switch.

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The person following can elect
to take over the lead,

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or the person leading can choose
to surrender it,

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essentially making it
a counter-cross-body lead.

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Here's how that looks in slow motion.

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And here's how it looked
when we danced it in the opening dance.

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With this simple tweak,
the dance moves from being a dictation

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to a negotiation.

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Anyone can lead. Anyone can follow.

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And more importantly,
you can change your mind.

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Now, this is only one example
of how this applies,

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but once the blinkers come off,
anything can happen.

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TC: Let's look at how liquid-lead thinking
could apply to a classic waltz.

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Because, of course,

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it isn't just a system of switching leads;

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it's a way of thinking

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that can actually make
the dance itself more efficient.

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So: the waltz.

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The waltz is a turning dance.

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This means that for the lead,

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you spend half of the dance
traveling backwards,

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completely blind.

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And because of the follower's position,

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basically, no one can see
where they're going.

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(Laughter)

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So you're out here on the floor,

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and then imagine that coming right at you.

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JF: Raaaaaah!

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(Laughter)

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TC: There are actually a lot
of accidents out there

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that happen as a result
of this blind spot.

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But what if the partners
were to just allow for

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a switch of posture for a moment?

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A lot of accidents could be avoided.

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Even if one person led the whole dance
but allowed this switch to happen,

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it would be a lot safer,

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while at the same time,
offering new aesthetics into the waltz.

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Because physics doesn't give a damn
about your gender.

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(Laughter)

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JF: Now, we've danced liquid lead
in clubs, convention centers

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and as part of First Dance,
the play we created with Lisa,

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on stages in North America and in Europe.

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And it never fails to engage.

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I mean, beyond the unusual sight
of seeing two men dancing together,

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it always evokes and engages.

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But why?

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The secret lies in what made
Lisa see our initial demonstration

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as "political."

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It wasn't just that we were
switching lead and follow;

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it's that we stayed consistent
in our presence, our personality

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and our power, regardless
of which role we were playing.

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We were still us.

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And that's where the true freedom lies --

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not just the freedom to switch roles,

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but the freedom from being defined
by whichever role you're playing,

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the freedom to always remain
true to yourself.

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Forget what a lead is supposed
to look like, or a follow.

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Be a masculine follow

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or a feminine lead.

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Just be yourself.

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Obviously, this applies
off the dance floor as well,

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but on the floor, it gives us
the perfect opportunity

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to update an old paradigm,
reinvigorate an old relic

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and make it more representative
of our era and our current way of being.

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TC: Jeff and I dance partner dancing
all the time with women and men

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and we love it.

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But we dance with a consciousness
that this is a historic form

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that can produce silence
and produce invisibility

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across the spectrum of identity
that we enjoy today.

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We invented Liquid Lead

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as a way of stripping out
all the ideas that don't belong to us,

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and taking partner dancing back
to what it really always was:

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the fine art of taking care of each other.

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(Music)

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(Applause)