Yes, one or two of the fencing instructors would ask and then do, but were still really weird about it in a way that made me feel self conscious and hate my body, which is not really an experience that's common to me.
Obviously, with fencing there are differences -- people are holding weapons and you need to warn them before you touch so you don't startle. But in dance my body was a machine, not some terrifying sexual object that must be ignored even as it is central to the work.
The degree and manner in which people tried to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits in fencing was infinitely more shaming, uncomfortable and sexualizing than the 15 years I spent having teachers pick up my legs and put them where they needed to be. The body must be shown.
There's a lot of reasons my salle was probably an irrevocably terrible fit for me, and many of them were unique to that place, but this issue was perhaps merely me at odds with the modern world. In dance there is touching. That's how it works. Dancers touch in dance. Perhaps in fencing since you mostly never touch, the taboo is stronger.
Re: Touching when Teaching
Obviously, with fencing there are differences -- people are holding weapons and you need to warn them before you touch so you don't startle. But in dance my body was a machine, not some terrifying sexual object that must be ignored even as it is central to the work.
The degree and manner in which people tried to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits in fencing was infinitely more shaming, uncomfortable and sexualizing than the 15 years I spent having teachers pick up my legs and put them where they needed to be. The body must be shown.
There's a lot of reasons my salle was probably an irrevocably terrible fit for me, and many of them were unique to that place, but this issue was perhaps merely me at odds with the modern world. In dance there is touching. That's how it works. Dancers touch in dance. Perhaps in fencing since you mostly never touch, the taboo is stronger.