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Traditional ballroom dancing is "a caricature of socially prescribed gender roles", writes Britt Peterson. Same-sex partnering challenges norms in dance - and the dancers themselves.

'On a recent evening, I watched two surgeons waltz across the basement of a Dupont Circle church as a schmaltzy cover of the Buffy Sainte-Marie song "Until It's Time for You to Go" played over speakers. Alessandro Ghidini, an obstetrician with very sharply cut hair, led the dance, guiding his partner, Craig Louisy, a lanky and graceful general surgeon, through a series of light, sweeping turns.
Louisy was still wearing his clothes from work (he operates at Shady Grove Medical Center): khakis and a button-down with the sleeves pushed up. Ghidini, who works at Inova Alexandria, had gone home first and changed into black pants and a turtleneck. Both men had on nearly identical black lace-up dancing shoes with leather soles, their toes worn white and the heels cracked from use.' ... Keep reading on The Washington Post