I remember the spring of '87 as vividly as if it were yesterday. It sounds unreal, but this was the school that featured coed saunas and I recalled seeing a coed nude swim featured on the school weekly calendar. A sophomore at UMass-Amherst with an interest in dance inspired by my high school girlfriend Heather, in January I was looking over courses available at the nearby colleges when this caught my eye:
Hampshire College
Dance: Partnering: Technique and Philosophy Tuesday and Friday 3:30 – 5:30
Multidisciplinary investigation of dance forms and ideas. Participants will unite their bodily forms to create a dynamic interplay of mass, movement and personality. Success will be driven by familiarity with conventional technique drawn from ballet and modern styles, along with a mind [particularly male minds] open to new approaches to dance preparation and performance. Class performance at end of semester mandatory for credit.
Curious, I signed up, hoping my limited experience – a year each in high school and college ballet classes - would see me through. I had always fantasized about both partnering with attractive females and performing in front of a crowd with limited body cover. I also hoped my 5'9", 145 lb. frame, honed to an athletic fat-free state by high school and club soccer and lacrosse, would justify the attentions of any crowd before which I might perform.
The first class was an eye – opener. It met in a small studio of about 600 sq feet, with a mirror and barre along one wall. Seven men and six women showed up, and listened to a brief introduction by Marisa, a leggy hazel-eyed brunette with several years' experience in leading ballet companies who had opted for teaching upon hitting 30. She was accompanied by Marcus, a Dane her age who would assist. She was dressed in standard but quite revealing dancewear, but Marcus had opted for a white unitard and what apparently was nothing more than a pair of nude bikini briefs underneath, forgoing the customary dance belt. For the first time in my life I felt my eyes drawn to another man's crotch, as the outline of his cock was clearly visible through this unusual attire.
After an initial stretching session that incorporated yoga, Marisa and Marcus demonstrated some of the specific techniques we'd be exploring that semester. They were amazing together, living up to the somewhat lurid course description. I couldn't help but notice that during a snippet of one pas de deux, Marcus' dick seemed to lengthen and push straight up toward his navel and then maintain that somewhat enlarged state. My own thoughts and heartbeat quickened at this flamboyant display of dance expertise and exhibitionism. My classmates appeared equally focused. After this the instructors provided a description of the underlying philosophy of the course.
Marisa put it like this: "While technique is important, in order to partner successfully dancers must also merge with their partners in an emotional and psychic sense. You each must show total vulnerability in order for your displays of strength to be meaningful, otherwise we in the audience sense merely defensiveness. We will be employing various preparation techniques to inspire this openness and acceptance of your partners. As you have probably noticed, the studio is kept warm and we are wearing less than ordinary classes would consider customary. This is to stimulate the openness I am speaking of. In fact we will encourage you to develop on your own a style that gives your classmates the trust they require to display their own openness to new dance ideas and to you as partners. As you feel your own defenses melt away, so will you see your classmates becoming more vulnerable and open to you as a dancer and partner." Whatever that meant.
After some more remarks on dance philosophy, Marcus told us of the general pattern for classes: 30 minutes of stretching, yoga and multidisciplinary studies, an hour of training in specific techniques and preparation for the final dance performance, followed by 30 minutes of warmdown and further discussion. While I was surprised at the amount of time spent doing things other than dance, the class was very intriguing and I decided to stick it out. This decision was easy to make, given how the class and its participants spoke directly to my joint obsessions with partnering and exhibitionistic performance. The women stood out immediately as interesting people I would definitely like to know better. There was Ami, a Hong Kong resident studying at Smith, a 5'1" Chinese-Thai with a perfect smile whose tight black leotard revealed a slender, flawless figure. Eliza, a tall, angular brunette from the suburbs of NYC wearing loose fitting clothes, seemed to have both an outgoing nature and a beautiful pair of breasts atop her slender dancer's body. Nicole, a 5'5" dirty blonde from Mount Holyoke with Scandinavian cheekbones and a fine figure, seemed especially attuned to the musings of the instructors.
To wind down, Marisa had us pair off to give each other massages with the lights in the studio turned down to foster relaxation. I ended up with James, an outgoing Hampster dressed in loose-fitting dancewear and warmups similar to my own who possessed the body of a well trained dancer. I jealously observed those classmates of mine paired with the females as they gently kneaded their partners' backs, calves and thighs. Two of the women were massaging each other. James seemed to know some of the other guys and I warmed to my task, figuring that a massage or two with men was an acceptable price to pay for getting closer to these fantastic women. His own massage technique was quite refined and I relaxed deeply under his capable ministrations.