Social dances have probably declined because now a guy and a girl can go out anytime and people don't have to come together as a community for entertainment.


I 'm very glad I'm part of a community of dancers who do come together for entertainment, over quite long distances. Travelling 2-6 hours to get to a dance, and another the next week, and the next is quite normal for us. And for quite a number of couples, they're probably further apart when dancing than the rest of the time

Dancing was VERY important. Until recently it was quite often the only real way to flirt and even touch someone of the opposite sex.
In some cultures it still is. Our group regularly teach ceilidh dancing to foreign students, and had alot of trouble with a group of Egyptian men. They viewed dancing as the only way they were allowed to touch a woman, and were making far too much use of this.


And as for ladies leading unintentionally...


The Two-sex Scottish Dancer
by Patricia Batt
I'm a two-sex Scottish Dancer and may seem rather dim,
But I never spend one evening as a full time her or him,
I change my sex from dance to dance, my corners always alter,
It's really not surprising I occasionally falter.
The old and simple dances I can manage very nicely
And I can learn a new dance and do it most precisely,
But when it comes to next week I don't know if I can
For I learnt it as a woman and dance it as a man.
And so you men who have the luck to always stay the same
When female gentlemen go wrong be sparing with your blame.
I'll add a postscript to this tale–one comfort I have got
When both the women change their sex it doesn't show a lot!