Does Street Dance Appeal To Men More Than Women?

It's hard to find concrete numbers on the demographics of people involved in street dance culture. But a casual observer would notice that it's male-dominated. Men outnumber women in the bboy, poppin', and lockin' scenes here in Los Angeles. Why is that? Since the culture's beginnings in the late '70's to early '80s, this trend has been maintained up to the current generation. We see strong female dancers and crews in LA, but only scenes like the rising new school waacking community are dominated by women. Is this gender imbalance a reason for why our street dance community has stayed underground?

Let's look at the collegiate choreography scene in southern California. Check out the VIBE showcase in late January at UC Irvine or the World of Dance competition in Pomona in the spring. This collegiate scene is populated by teams that feature female choreographers and often have more coed team members. Men and women dance together in stage routines, encouraging partner work and choreography with large numbers. There's a greater sense of community and teamwork in this collegiate scene than in LA's street scene. With a more coed population, the collegiate choreography scene is continuing to grow in size and enter into mainstream media. Several dancers from these teams have been part of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew and Fox's So You Think You Can Dance.

The promotional and media production from the collegiate scene has also attracted a larger fanbase than its street counterpart. Ratings numbers for tv reality shows like America's Best Dance Crew and So You Think You Can Dance show a predominantly female audience. Many of these fans are also participating in supporting the collegiate choreography scene. So there's a crossover between these communities. But we're not seeing that happen with the street scene. From the viewership culled from Youtube videos on street dance culture, the mostly male fanbase is insular and female viewership hasn't grown. Is it the combative attitude and drama that comes from the battle aspect of our street dance culture that is driving away larger audiences? It's been debated within the poppin' community of Los Angeles that recent years of conflict between different factions have driven away newcomers, both male and female.

The end result is that our community takes on the air of being unsupportive and non-encouraging. That's unattractive to anyone regardless of gender. While battling is a key part of our scene, we certainly can develop our accessibility to teach and educate others about our dance styles. We don't need to take on the drama that has plagued our scene for years. It's no wonder that a newbie dancer would be attracted to the collegiate choreography scene where there's more available support and nurturing in large teams. As a whole, in Los Angeles, the street dance scene hasn't presented itself as accessible, encouraging, or supportive. We have some work to do.