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Those Who Survive
The majority of people who survive all this heartache are those that don't take dance that seriously. Couples who survive have a mutual understanding. For example, I know many dancers who go out, have fun, and come home to the person they love. I also know several dancers who love to go out just once or twice a week, and date outside of the dance scene on different nights. They spend those nights in completely different venues pursuing other interests and hobbies they enjoy. They'll date anywhere else but the nightclubs.
I've known women who accept their "Player" husbands as "Just the way they are" - they just don't want to know about any details. They don't want to find out about anything. They turn the other way, and are happy with that. They're in denial and have accepted it, because they love him, and can't imagine life without him.
Professional Dancers
For those that take dance to a different level, dance couples that have successful and pure relationships are few and far between. Working professional dance couple/partners are also a rarity. At times, it is extremely difficult to separate the professional from the personal. When practicing, keeping it professional can be monumental. Feelings get in the way, and practice sessions can turn into all out wars. You find each other criticizing instead of critiquing. Without constant coaching, counseling, and consistent mutual respect for each other's talents, abilities, traits, love, and faults, the relationship/partnership is skating on very thin ice.
Some of the most successful working dance partnerships are just that - platonic partners only, with absolutely no feelings involved. Practice is like going to work every day. There's nothing to discuss outside of the partnership. If feelings enter in, run for your lives, or quit dancing together. It's an extreme rarity that the dance partnership will last at this point. Some couples have told me that the only thing that saved their marriage was to stop competing professionally. Practice sessions got to be too much to bear. Now they simply teach together, and do shows on occasion.
Too Much of a Good Thing
Spending too much time together practicing, rehearsing, competing, teaching, traveling, eating, sleeping, and shopping, can also destroy a beautiful partnership or relationship. Too much of a good thing can be just that. Too much. Spending time away from each other is paramount to a long-lasting romance.
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