Socially, it does not matter for any dance type.

Competitively, YES IT DOES for the International Standard style.

My partner and I have grappled with this for years. In fact, teachers in our area cannot teach us because they don't know what the technique is for an odd-sized couple.

I am taller than my partner in heels. Out of heels, we are the same height. The point of contact is differet for us, and very, very hard to maintain. Not only am I taller, but we have different body types. I have long legs, shorter torso, he has short legs, long torso. If there ever was a more difficult, harder partnership, we've got it. Our look is different than that of a couple with a taller man and shorter lady. We look more like the Gleaves or like Massimo Giorgianni and Alicia Manfredini. Those couples manages work around their mismatched body types and were very successful. But both have been together for years and have trained with high quality coaches to make their partnerships work (I know, Gleaves are now divorced).

From competitive experience, I will say that judges do not like the look of a same-sized partnership or a look where the lady is obviously taller.

Now "The Look" is a tall, very thin man with sloping shoulders and a long neck, coupled with a tiny lady several inches shorter, very, very thin with no hips.

I've known and competed against couples with lesser dance abilities than us, but because they had such ideal body types, they were judged ahead of us. Judges automatically look at couples with the right "Look" over those who do not have that look. At a competition recently, I saw a same-sized couple, who had great connection and danced as one, get second place to a couple who consisted of a tall, thin, long-neck man with a little skinny partner who did NOT dance as one and had about a 6-inch gap between their bodies. NO contact point whatsoever, but they beat out the same-sized couple who did have contact and danced as one. Why? Because they had "The Look." and desired body types. At a recent competition, almost all the finalists in the standard events had "The Look".

To drive home the point how important height and body size relationship is in Standard, I know a couple where the wife is slightly shorter than the man in heels. They rarely made finals, especially in a deep field. But then the man dumped his wife and started dancing with a woman who is only 4'11" IN HEELS. He is about 5'10", and can literally pick this woman off the ground while they're dancing. (I've seen him do it.) Since he started partnering with this midget, he consistently makes finals. When you see them dance, all you see is him, because he towers over his partner and is wider than her. With this small lady, this man looks very dominate and effective on the dance floor. But when you see this man dance with women closer to his size or taller, he does not look that good. That tells me this man is not that good of a dancer, but because he now partners with such a small lady that he easily dominates, he can get away with poorer technique. And so can she. I've seen her cross his center line with her head and body, yet she gets away with it because the man is wider and so much taller than her.

If you are a same-sized couple and you cross over your partner's center, it is very, very noticeable. Same-sized partners have to be much better dancers to achieve a look that the judges want. It takes a lot more time and effort and good coaching than that of a couple with a tall man with a tiny lady. Mistakes or bad technique shows up much more with a same-sized couple than a couple with "The Look".

So if you don't have an ideal body match for Standard, you are in for one hell of a battle. You have to figure out what will work for you, because many coaches don't know how. You have to work so much harder. And you will see couples with ideal body matches be marked ahead of your time and time again, even those couples who may not dance as well as you do. It is very discouraging, but I am not about to divorce my partner just because he and I have mismatched bodies for ballroom dancing. Not worth it in my book.

The frame will be distorted if the lady is taller than her partner in heels, but if you don't believe that an effectively same sized couple can win, you obviously slept through Chris & Hazel's recent reign as champions.

Well Anonymous, I can see why you keep your name that way so you can post such sarcastic, condescending posts.

Hazel Newberry and Christopher Hawkins ARE NOT same sized. He is still slightly taller than she is, even when she is wearing heels. I have video tapes of these two people, dancing in street clothes and in their dance attire. I've also seen them standing side by side.

They also are both very thin and their body types match up well.

You obviously do not have a very sharp eye and you obviously have never partnered with somebody who is not an ideal match.

If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all. And if you had any guts, you would at least use your NAME in your posts instead of Anonymous.

Actually, I've had both taller and shorter partners. I didn't say Chris and Hazel where the same size, I said they were effectively the same size. Someone was arguing there is a trend towards taller men and shorter women, but they clearly are not an example of such. If Hazel were just a little taller, they probably would start to have some problems, though their method of connection accomodates height differences better than some others.

I feel that height shouldn't matter. If the leader is a foot taller than the follower then the leader would bend his knees but not mush so he is still still taller...like me my partner is 6 feet something and I'm 5'1'' all my leader does is bend but we are in swing so it looks nice.

Don't bend your knees more or less than usual as that would change the way dance actions work. Simply adjust the height of your arms to meet your partner.

that does sometimes work but we dance for social fun and east coast swing and they way my partner bends his knees is actully fine.....it makes us look like we are doing liny hop or something

If in Modern Ballroom the guy is much taller than their partner. Beware, be sure to keep your head to your left unless in promanade. With myself if I turn my head to my right I am looking in my partners ear. I would very quickly make the adjustment. But a tall guy taller than their partner can , but should not turn there head to a position that is looking over their partners head unless say, they are doing a lunge to the right.

We have the problem that Laura mentioned. My wifes legs are longer than mine ,her hips are higher and she is an inch taller in shoes and weights 135lbs to my 130 lbs . It's to hard on her knees to stay down,my teacher would say that they can't see me dance on the comp floor,but that has changed ,by developing a more powerfull swing and using my head better than any other competitor we hold our own,but it's still hard competing against couples who the perfect mach. If you dan't have the right size partner forget about standard competition dancing and put all your energy into dancing latin.

one time my dance partner was 2 feet shorter than me i felt like i was dancing with a dog!!!!!!!!!!!