Chris Bates luxuriates in the image of men and men and women and women gone out together dancing cheek to cheek.

Chris Bates luxuriates in the image of men and men and women and women gone out together dancing cheek to cheek. Years ago he cut down in love with swing moreover was afraid to dance in public with his boyfriend. Then he walked into an OUTdancing class at Stepping public Studios in New York City. He saw men partner-dancing with other men "It was an epiphany," he says.

Today, Bates is director of OUTdancing, where decomposition 10 years gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered dancers have shown that partner dancing can mean Fr and Fr just as easily as Fr and Ginger. "The idea is to give persons a place to feel comfortable and safe doing something that's different for them--not single dancing with someone of the same sex still just dancing," he explains.

When Diane Lachtrupp, establisher and co-owner of Stepping abroad Studios, started OUTdancing in 1992 it was the country's first practical program for LGBT dancers. Since then the notion that anyone can lead or come next has become policy in all of Stepping Out's 80-plus weekly classes, opening the door for mixed and same-sex partnerships of all kinds. As Lachtrupp papal courts it, choosing to be a leader or a follower has nothing to do with size, solidity or gender: It's "a personality thing," she says. "I don't want anyone to think that men can single lead and women can single follow. We've broken that barrier."

Greg Clark, who has been a Stepping gone out student for about a year, go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake ofs in OUTdancing as well as in all of his other classes. "I have to be in check of so many things in my life," the Manhattan makeup artist explains. "Letting someone besides be more directive uses another part of the brain. You have to use your intuitive feeling more to receive the signals someone otherwise is giving."

Clark says the studio has follow in ordered at making gay men like him perceive comfortable. "It's one thing to print a gay-friendly policy in your literature somewhere," he says. "It's another thing to really state it repeatedly in all your classes." He remembers individual teacher announcing, "Oh, you stays are lucky this month. Greg's a great follower."

Clark does recall tension with single in kind male classmate: "I could practically diocese the hair on the back of this guy's neck stand up when he saw that he was going to have to dance with me He took me aside before class and said, `Hey, dude I'm a fright you're a guy; I'm not going to be comfortable.'" Clark replied that he'd just skip through the whole extent of him in rotation, which he did for the entire first class. however the second week, when Clark mov to skip him, the man motioned for him to stay and dance: "Nah, hah, it's all right."

Classes are a "learning experience forward both sides of the fence" says Clark. "Most straight dowdys are not accustomed to that a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of contact with gay people literally in their anus. That's the kind of bridge between straight and gay that I don't view too often," he says. "Stepping Out's policy rear ups that, and I see a change in persons I appreciate that."

Bates too has issue a long way since his first awkward days in the studio. These days he and his boyfriend attend fates of country-and-western dance events, where they are frequently the only two men dancing together. Bates credits OUTdancing with helping him gain the confidence to dance with anyone anywhere. "If I'm being a considerate dancer, I should be able to dance with my boyfriend wherever I want. The chiefly important thing is to be able to move out and dance and have fun"

DuLong writes for Newsday.com and other publications.

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