Spot on, bendymixer! Cost has nothing to do with colour and I'll give you an example.

My 7yr old is doing Ballroom once a week as an after school club at school. It's partly funded by the school so it costs less than a weekly class would normally cost outside school.

Karen and Kevin are running a Sunday dance school for kids. I would absolutely love for my son to learn from them, but there's no way I could afford the cost without having to remove him from 3 other after school clubs that he also enjoys very much. You might as well argue that I can remove him from the other clubs, however, not only he enjoys doing them but he is also learning a lot of other skills that help him with his development. Going even further, when he stays longer at school attending these clubs, I have more time to work. Any working parent knows very well what I'm talking about, an extra hour can be precious. So, it's actually a huge number of factors to be considered. Saying, "the government should fund ballroom classes for black kids" is a really simplistic and limiting thought.

Not all dancers can teach, please let it be on merit, with ability to teach and to sell themselves otherwise it could become ridicule

Keo was due to sign for sCD couple of years ago (Oti's ex dance partner) but ended up in the states

British dance schools certainly do not exclude anyone of colour from the Ballroom and Latin world, any more than they exclude anyone from overseas - whatever their colour. Nor would I begin to suggest that it is a dearth of talent among people of colour which leads to a lack of coloured pro dancers. It's simply a case of bb & Lat not being something that appeals to any great extent..

Strangely, a friend of mine who is a pro tennis player was saying exactly the same thing. He plays and coaches in a large club, but finds it quite odd that among their hundreds of club members there isn't a single non-white person - adult or child.

Who exactly do you mean as "someone" in the Brit BB scene?

Your idea may sound good, until you realise that there a hundreds of very talented kids all over the country, of all colours, including white, who can never hope to reach their potential because of lack of money.

Like all sports, dancesport is very expensive if you want to aim for the top, and large numbers of kids are lost to the Brit dance world because of lack of money makes it impossible for them to continue; unlike some other sports, there is no outside funding to help. `

Agree great post.

Make ballroom and latin dancing into prime time weekend entertainment? This forum tends to always see Strictly as a problem rather than the solution.

To be fair strictly has been running for years now and it does bring in some new kids into the dance school whilst they want to learn the dances not many wish to progress to competition level.

Strictly brings in far more Adults than anything else of all ages my brother ran a new ballroom/latin class to coincide with the beginning of the show and it was full in first few hours of advertisement and he has had to run another class to cover overspill - I think we get more male pupils since the show has been on tvas well, whilst in the kids class it has brought in maybe 20/30 kids since this series started.

If you categorise professional dancing as a "sport/pastime", you will notice that coloured people are not overly represented in quite a few, like golf, tennis, cricket, swimming and all winter sports/pastimes.
However they are the majority in basketball, boxing, running, american football, etc.

I am sure there is a deep philosophical reason for the this, but I just can't think of it at the moment.

Totally agree.

Not all professional dancing is sport; some pro dancers have never entered a comp in their lives, but have simply trained to teach. It's the actual competition that is sport. Think of kids kicking a football about in the park - that's an activity/play. When others go on to a proper pitch to take part in a real match, then it becomes sport.

As for your list, I agree with you. Apart from "different things appealing to different people", maybe it's also a case of different types of bodies being more suitable for different activities - you only have to watch the olympics to see who are the majority of fast runners, etc.

Do you mean black people? Asian people? Mixed race people?

The term 'coloured' was outlawed about 40 years ago, and minority groups find it a very offensive term.

Any colour other then pinky /white honky like me

What colour? Green?

I agree it is really offensive to minority groups. I am lucky to have a diverse friend circle and one of my best friends really went to town when the term 'coloured' was mentioned by a bloke at work. This guy didn't mean any offence and thought that the term 'black' was offensive. It did take us a long time to convince him otherwise.

Coloured?

Someone other then a white honky like me

You're not making it any better. The term 'coloured' is offensive and not appropriate.

Yes, it really is and you're right it's not.

whatever term you wish to use do it Look at the subject matter and it becomes obvious, to be anyone other then white

Then say non-caucasian rather than 'coloured'. That would have been less offensive.

It does sound old-fashioned but jumping down someone's throat because they use a word with no bad intent is not going to magically solve racism.

The word 'coloured' used to be considered less offensive than other words, hence the 'National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People'. Maybe the OP hasn't caught up with the latest terms, but as these are always arbitrarily changing so that people can find new ways to be outraged, it's not unforgivable.

It doesn't arbitrarily change so people can find new ways to be offended. This particular term was prevalent in South Africa during apartheid, used by the government of the day to classify people. It is also a term that lumps people into one homogenous group.
As for the OP, well given their response about white honky then I guess we should be grateful they didn't use the 'N' word.

I think the least you can do is keep abreast of current terminology. It's really worth having a little google to avoid offence.

I concur that "coloured" is an outdated and offensive term. Please listen to what people are saying to you, OP, and don't use it again. (See: Benedict Cumberbatch).

The thing is, black Britons and British Asians *are* dancing. They are dancing everywhere if you care to look. As others have said, ballroom just isn't that popular with kids compared to other dance forms, despite the popularity of Strictly. For every child - of any ethnicity - learning ballroom, there are dozens upon dozens learning the various forms of street. Bhangra is incredibly popular. Contemporary and ballet are probably learned by more kids than ballroom.

Instead of asking why aren't kids learning ballroom so I can see some British POC professionals on Strictly, why don't you ask what dance styles are popular with British POC so that I can look them up and find and watch the best?