Linda Herrick: One small step for man

Ex-All Black hard man Norm Hewitt is a twinkle-toes at heart.

What a confused society we live in. Last week, a group of blokes met in Waitakere City to discuss the tribulations of being male in New Zealand, lamenting they don't know how to define their roles in life and don't receive the respect they think they deserve. Maybe they should learn to dance.

Then last Saturday's Artsville featured a short piece on the difficulties of wanting to be a male dancer in New Zealand.

Boys who want to do ballet suffer serious taunting from their schoolmates and have to resort to subterfuges, such as pretending they are going to tennis lessons instead of dance class.

Yet these boys, and many before them, were determined to dance and fought on, regardless of their peers' rigid ideas about what you have to do to be a male in New Zealand.

And so the boys who dance as a career find themselves working with a bevy of gorgeous girls, they develop fabulously athletic physiques and they acquire a grace which will stay with them all their lives.

Meanwhile, many of our sporting stars present themselves as lumbering fools, vomiting and peeing in public, getting caught on sex tapes, fighting in bars. Maybe they should learn to dance.

Like Norm Hewitt. Who would have thought that former All Black Norm would transform himself into a veritable twinkle-toes in Dancing with the Stars?

Norm, who looks unusually elegant in his penguin suit, twirled his partner with ease and grace in his debut dance, culminating in a jawdropping whirl of said partner around his glistening head. What a standout performance.

Dancing with the Stars proves what hard, athletic work dance is. Nerves are clearly evident, with shaking bodies and fixed, unnatural smiles. With costumes like that, who wouldn't be fearful? Wardrobe malfunction seems a constant risk.

DWTS offers an interesting insight into strength under fire; Nicky Watson, who got the outski on Sunday night, occasionally let the mask slip and revealed absolute terror. She had guts but she never mastered the art of relaxing into her body.

In contrast, Theresa Healey is a natural. She delivers the whole package. She moves like a pro, looks as though she really feels deep passion for her partner, and finishes off with a perfect flourish.

It's fabulous how the dancers - or some cases, non-dancers - have already developed styles which reflect their personalities.

On opening night, MP Georgina Beyer more or less did her own thing, ending up spinning off into a corner far, far away from her partner. Sort of like her own life.

Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt grins like a loon, makes a plucky effort but is struggling to get beyond the old one-two, one-two. You can practically see him counting.

Comedian-turned-polly, Waitakere City's Ewen Gilmour, is, not surprisingly, a flashy operator on the floor, studly in his black and white duds and not too bad a mover either. They should have brought him out to talk to the guys at the men's conference.

Former Shorty St bad boy Shane Cortese is a lissome little groover, while netball legend Bernice Mene's arm gestures suggest an imaginary ball being lobbed at the hoop.

Will any of them fall over and win a sympathy vote? Because let's not forget this is a commercial venture - the six-week series is predicated on a phone-in poll to raise money, with some of that income going to charity. But if Dancing with the Stars breaks down the prejudice and gets more Kiwis actively involved in dance, that can only be a good thing. As one young man repeatedly said in the Artsville show, dance is pretty cool.