Last week on the
Dancing with the Stars results show, Len Goodman requested an encore of
Steve Guttenberg's and
Anna Trebunskaya's tango. However, because Anna was very sick at the time, she asked her husband and erstwhile partner of the early-ousted
Monica Seles to step in for her. And the result? A highly entertaining "Man-go" that had the audience on their feet. Unfortunately, the man-on-man dance was performed after the votes had already been cast, so the Gutte ended up being eliminated that night anyway, but the question remains: would
Dancing with the Stars ever consider having same-sex dance partners in future seasons?
Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC, has recently indicated that the network is not necessarily opposed to the idea of having same-sex couples on its most popular dancing show. He said that he could not think of a "reason not."
Your Take
equalitydance said:
In our supposedly 1st world nation that was born by those who rebelled against their home Countries, we con...
However, the executive producer of
Dancing with the Stars, Conrad Green, was a bit more careful in his response. He said that although he was "sort of open to" having same-sex couples, he also wondered what the "implications" might be for the show.
Although same-sex partner dancing has caught on internationally, especially in Europe, it is virtually nonexistent in the United States. But, the movement toward allowing same-sex partners in ballroom dance competition has slowly been building for the last several years. Enough interest for same-sex partnering in the world of dancesport has grown that a group of 33 same-sex ballroom dancers, competitors and organizers known as the North American Same-Sex Partner Dance Association (NASSPDA) was born in late 2007. NASSPDA's goals are to provide "consistent standards, guidelines, definitions for same-sex competitions and the coordination of scheduling and dissemination of information for the growing number of such competitions in North America."
Many proponents of gay ballroom argue that the rules requiring that a couple be composed of one man and one woman are archaic. They argue that a same-sex couple can be just as artistic and expressive as the traditional male-female pair.
As far as
Dancing with the Stars goes, I think that it would be great to allow same-sex couples. The cultural zeitgeist of American television has changed such that there is vastly more acceptance of gay culture today than in the past. Having two men or two women performing together would also open up opportunities for some more interesting choreography, allowing the partners to switch who leads and who follows within the same routine. Steve Guttenberg and
Jonathan Roberts' tango last week was more of a comic routine that they played for laughs, but if there were same-sex partners competing in earnest on the show, there would be potential for some great, serious dances.
What do you think? Would you watch
Dancing with the Stars if the show began to allow same-sex couples?
Would you like to see same-sex couples on 'Dancing with the Stars'?
-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: AfterElton.com, NASSPDA
(Image courtesy of ABC)